Debunking myths of the slave trade

In 1444 a Portugese raid on the Guinea coast was described by Gomes Eannes de Zurara: “Most of the captives… had been taken in a village where… (the Portuguese), shouting out ‘St James, St George, and Portugal,’ at once attacked them, killing and taking all they could... Some drowned themselves in the water, others thought to escape by hiding under their huts, others stowed their children among the seaweed, where our men found them afterwards…”

In 1482, the Portuguese began construction of Elmina “Castle”, the first of several that would be built by European nations (French, Dutch, English, Swedish and Danish-Norwegian), from which, to quote Dr Tony Martin in Caribbean History, they would “sally forth to do business with or wage war upon neighbouring Africans.” CLR James further informed us in Black Jacobins that “The slavers scoured the coast of Guinea.

“As they devastated an area they moved westward and then south, decade after decade, past the Niger, down the Congo coast, past Loango and Angola, round the Cape of Good Hope... From the coast, they organised expeditions far into the interior.”

John Hawkins’ first expedition of 1562 to Africa heralded Britain’s formal entry into the trade in African captives. The Hakluyt Society publication of 1878, the Hawkins Voyages, reported thus, “Hawkins sailed with three ships from England in 1562… (At) the River Sierra Leone, he captured at least 300 blacks, partly as he said, ‘by the sword, and partly by other means.’ In 1564… Hawkins set out on a second voyage… The new expedition again made for the River Sierra Leone… and every day, went on shore to take the inhabitants … burning and spoiling their towns.”

As the trade advanced it incorporated African collaborators. At first by terror. Coastal peoples who had suffered continuous raids, unable to defend themselves against European guns, had the choice of capturing others or being completely decimated. CLR James described the results, “...Violence and ferocity became the necessities of survival and violence and ferocity survived.” In cases where Europeans became aware of ethnic conflicts within major states or empires which they could not conquer, they would form alliances with discontented groups and provide guns for them to shift the balance of power. The price of the guns was the sale of those defeated.

African collaborators were never equal partners. Many in fact, sooner or later, fell prey to their one-time European “partners”. European demand determined the scale of the trade. Europeans, at government and private levels, organised and managed all the critical elements of the trafficking, the finance, the forts and dungeons in Africa where captives were held, the guns, the gunpowder, the ships, all the accouterments of slave raiding such as iron collars, leg irons, iron chains. European countries were the profit centres of the criminal enterprise while African industries and societies collapsed.

Most of West, Central and parts of Southern Africa were destabilised. Great cities on the East Coast were destroyed, beginning with direct Portugese assaults on Kilwa at the beginning of the 16th century. Nations which had lived in peace and prosperity for centuries became bitter enemies as fear and belligerence replaced trust and trading.

Entire communities were forced to relocate to some of the most inhospitable places for reasons of safety. Civility and rules for civilised living gave way to war, hunger, pestilence and desperation for survival. Thus slave raiding brought on the physical destruction of many African civilisations and the massive depopulation of the continent.

Indeed, the European slave trade was no trade. It was a criminal enterprise in which many European nations engaged, committing acts of genocide and stealing large numbers of artefacts and cultural items, many of which are still on display in their museums up to today.

Dispelling another myth, Joseph Harris in his book, Africans and their History, tells us that the early traditions of servant or servitude in Africa were not slavery as practised by Europeans in the so-called New World. Prisoners of war, for example, were human beings and as “slaves” had the right to marry, own property, freely practice their religion and the like.

They were not chattel and thus had the opportunity to use their talents to rise within these societies in which they were captives. Thus there are accounts of prisoners of war becoming military commanders and even rulers of societies in which they were held initially as captives and “slaves”.

Now that the thrust for justice through reparations is on, Africans must ensure that they know their history so that we are not misled by untruths. We must also be aware that throughout history, for various reasons, invaders and conquerors have been able to recruit collaborators among the oppressed.

Collaborators were active in all the groups that have received reparations, including the Jews. But no one dares question the justice of their successful demand on the basis of those who collaborated with the Nazis for reasons of self-preservation or profit.

As victims of the worst crime against humanity in recorded history, no one can question the justice of our demand.

Tracy Wilson is the Education Officer of the Emancipation Support Committee