In chapter 4 in our text Africana Studies (M. Azevedo, 2005), and as the chapter is named, there are controversial scholarly discussions around the practices of trade, diplomacy and the actual practice of human trafficking of Africans. Additionally, the interesting view of Harvard Professor Henry Gates video: The Slave Kingdom and the Holy Land provide a layer of complexity into the role of African nations to the advent and continuation of providing slave traders with indigenous people for the purpose of trade. Both commentaries provide an opportunity to see the slave trade for what it was, the compilation of both African and outsiders working in conjunction to keep slave trading a common practice for centuries.
On page 77 in the Africana text, the word “sinister” is used to describe the 1969 figure by Philip Curtain of actual slaves forced to leave Africa. The figure of only 11.5 million is used (of which only 9.5 reached the Americas), whereas other scholars (such as W.E.B Dubois, J. Fage, amongst others) describe the figure to be as high as 50 million. At first glance, one might think that the barbarism of the trade on the slave themselves is much more important that the actual figure. However editor Azvedo points out that the depopulation of Africa affected the continent’s ability to prosper in terms of “economic and social damage” Gates documentary tends not to focus on this particular issue, but more on the cooperation of Africans in the slave trade. Not addressing the depopulation issue, does not give the viewer the opportunity to see how this was not only a problem of individual and cultural barbarism, but a long-standing method that kept Africa as a continent vulnerable to colonialism, and stunted the ability to keep up with the advances of the industrial “new world”. The texts provides specific examples on specific damage caused through the depopulation (pgs. 85-87) and includes the increase in internal warfare through guns for slaves trading, loss of able-bodied men, leaving women, children and seniors.
In chapter four and in the Gates video, the area of Dahomey is mentioned as an important landmark in the coastal slave market, however the difference between the text and Gates is that Azvedo tends to minimize (or fail to mention) the large role that the Kings and Queens of the Asante of Ghana and the Dahomey areas played in the procurement of slaves for the Atlantic slave trade. The lack of the predominance in the text may leave the idea that excludes Africans and demonizes the slave traders as those who invaded all parts of African to kidnap slaves. As shown in the Gates video, slave traders were not, in many cases allowed to leave the coastal areas and relied on the captured slaves of internal warfare, or lower caste Africans to be traded for commodities that fueled the wealth of the Kings and leaders.
Understanding the political, social and history of the transatlantic slave trade through chapter 4 and the Gates video, helps to broaden the perceptions (or misconceptions) of slavery. No one would deny the atrocities that occurred to Africans brought to the new world. However, the idea that African-Americans sometimes look to in the uplifting of their history is through knowing that they may be descendants of Kings and Queens of African nations. The truth, as Gates would find in his journey, is that the very leaders were often instrumental in the perpetuation of the slave trade itself. Gates wondered in the video, did Africans ever feel a sense of guilt to African-Americans. The descendants of Brazilian slave trader Don Francisco DeSusa both deny and acknowledge the guilt felt by the major role DeSusa played as Dahomey’s major representative in the slave trade.
As history is taught in American schools, little is taught about the role of Africans themselves in providing the labor for the transatlantic slave trade. Visions of white captors, is embedded in both current day Blacks and Caucasians alike. It is somewhat ironic that an African-American Harvard professor would be the one to enlighten many on the African influence on the slave trade!
No comments:
Post a Comment