Home > Blogs > Post Content

AFRICA THE EUROPEAN PENETRATION ,,,SLAVERY !! (7262 hits)

Considering such well-developed African societies, one must wonder how European slave traders and colonizers were able to penetrate the continent of Africa. The key to understanding this is that Africa and Europe were at different stages of socioeconomic development. Despite the fact that Africa was. more advanced than Europe at an earlier period, Europe by the beginning of the slave trade had surpassed Africa, especially in the capacity of its economy to produce goods like ships and guns. When a stronger socioeconomic system comes into contact with a system at an earlier and weaker stage of development, the weaker one will suffer. This is what happened when Europe penetrated into Africa.

Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:29AM
You can also click here to view all posts by this author...

Report obscenity | post comment

Share |

Initially, Africa interacted with Europe on the basis of trade, not of slaves but of other goods. This was the first step in "how Europe underdeveloped Africa." Briefly, because Europe was a capitalist society using manufacturing and large-scale machine production, its capacity to produce was greater. The manufacture of cloth is a good example. During the 18th century new inventions, like the power-loom and the use of water power, revolutionized cloth production in Europe. This enabled Europe to produce enough cloth to supply its own needs and to export large quantities, to Africa and elsewhere.

European manufacturers even copied and produced colorful African cloth patterns and flooded Africa with this cloth. African cloth producers were unable to compete with this cheaper, machine-produced cloth since they were still producing by hand. Africans thus turned to mining gold, securing slaves, and producing other goods that could be traded for cloth produced in Europe. As a result African manufacturing was neglected and the process of technological advancement was slowed in cloth production and in many other sectors of the economy (like iron manufacture) Continued trade with Europe only pushed Africa further behind Europe.
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:30AM
DAVID JOHNSON

When we discuss the stunting of technological development in Africa, this is not to suggest that there were no significant achievements. The pyramids of Egypt and the granite stone buildings of Zimbabwe are outstanding examples of skill and technological capacity. There are, many other examples of early African superiority in culture and technology. The key point is that only the continued development of Europe's system of production into its capitalist stage - and not race or genetic inferiority - led to Africa's being dominated by Europe. In other words, Europeans' use of the gun eventually overcame, the fierce resistance of Africans using the spear.

The most destructive trade, however, was the slave trade. Millions of the continent's most productive men and women were carried off to produce goods and services that would benefit neither themselves nor Africa. The social disruption caused by the many years of the slave raids and slave trade left long-lasting damage to African societies.

There is considerable controversy about the impact of the slave trade on Africa, especially regarding the number of slaves exported from Africa. Estimates of the number exported to the New World range from one hundred million to a few million. Recent estimates of ten million tend to underestimate the extent of the slave trade. Just as the number of slaves exported from Africa is underestimated, so too are the mortality rates - the numbers of Africans who died on the voyage from Africa to the Americas. While some recent studies suggest that only 9 out of every 100 died, earlier studies of the slave trade show that the number of slaves who died was as high as 33 out of every 100 If, we take into account the number of Africans who died in slave raids and of foreign diseases imported to Africa by slave traders, any estimate of the number of slaves imported into the Americas must be multiplied several times to be accurate about the depopulation of Africa.
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:32AM
DAVID JOHNSON

Most of the slaves exported came from coastal West Africa - from the areas now called Senegal, Gambta, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. One study indicates that 81 % of the slaves exported by the British between 1690 and 1807 came from this area. There were some important variations, however. For example, 40% of the slaves imported into South Carolina between 1733 and 1807 came from Angola in southern Africa. Though the slave trade was concentrated in the coastal areas, it had a negative impact on the continent as a whole. As Walter Rodney has pointed out, "European trade goods percolated into the deepest interior, and (more significantly) the orientation of large areas of the continent towards human exports meant that other positive interactions were thereby ruled out:�
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:32AM
DAVID JOHNSON

How were the slaves secured? Outright kidnapping of slaves by Europeans and African traders occurred at the beginning of the slave trade and lasted throughout its 450 year history. But very early after the first raids, the slave enterprise became more of a trade than a raid. That is, Africans, especially chiefs, cooperated with Europeans in securing other Africans to be taken away as slaves. The key to understanding this is as Walter Rodney states: the Africans who sold other Africans were a privileged class who "joined hands with the Europeans in exploiting the African masses." Thus, the slave trade furthered the development of classes in Africa by enabling a small elite group of Africans to accumulate wealth, luxury, and power (including firearms) at the expense of, the masses of African peoples. European countries even established trading forts on the West Coast of Africa where slaves could be brought from the interior and stored until slave ships arrived to make their purchases.

The prices paid for slaves reflected the different modes of production in Africa and in Europe. This is important to keep in mind when we read that slaves were often purchased for a few bars of iron or a few yards of brightly colored cloth. In 1695, for example, a healthy African could be purchased for eight guns or 600 pounds of iron. This may seem cheap but not when we consider that in Africa such large quantities of iron could not be produced without considerable time and expense and the guns could not be manufactured at all. Thus, the price that was obtained for slaves was really a reflection of how long it took Africans to produce the goods that were traded for slaves and not how much it cost to manufacture them in Europe.
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:33AM
DAVID JOHNSON

We must also note the impact of firearms on Africa. If one state obtained firearms in exchange for slaves, it was stronger than its neighbor. A neighboring state was often forced into slave trading in order to secure guns to protect itself. Thus, it is correct to assess the full impact of the European penetration into Africa by including these patterns of violence and disruption introduced by the slave trade. Economic development usually demands peaceful conditions. The slave trade stimulated social violence and increased fear and distrust among people, all of which had a negative impact on economic development in Africa.

42

Who were the major slave trading countries? England carried 44.6% of all slaves as compared to 29% carried by Portugal and 16% carried by France. The United States carried 5% of the total while Holland carried 3.4% and Denmark carried 1.7%. Thus the capitalist countries of Europe were the principal slave traders. This is an important fact that will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. In East Africa, Arab traders carried out a slave trade secondary in importance to the European trade.

Where were Africans taken as slaves? Phillip Curtin in The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census calculated that between 1701 and 1807, 42% of all the slaves exported from Africa went to the Caribbean Islands and 49% went to South America. The most significant finding is that less than 5% of the total exports came to the United States. The bulk of these 430,000 slaves came between 1730 and 1770 - before most settlers from Europe.
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 5:33AM
DAVID JOHNSON

I see that you have gathered a lot of information about the slave trade. I always thoughts that the African Chiefs gave away their mentally ill because they were the most mis-understood. The mentally ill who recovers from their illness and find themselves casted out, would help the slavers capture others just to get even.
Sunday, January 9th 2011 at 6:33PM
Helen Lofton