Africa and the Slave Trade
Give a brief description of Africans' way of life prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade, meaning their Political, economic, cultural and societal organizations. Please take into consideration the Documentary films: " Caravans of Gold" and " King and City."
As is demonstrated in the documentaries 'Caravans of Gold' an 'King and City,' the embattled and economically delayed Africa with which we are familiar today is a far cry from the progressive and innovative African society that existed prior to slave trade. As we learn form these documentaries and from our research, the continent contained an enormous spectrum of cultural stripes represented in the thousands of languages, dialects, religious belief systems and expressive rites then in practice. Political authority varied depending upon the local economy of any given region. In larger economic contexts such as Egypt and Ethiopia, kingdoms ruled everyday life however the vast rural spaces that dominated the continent gave way to local tribal elders and distinct leaderships forming around villages. For most, agriculture and production of localized goods were central to the way of life in Africa. These conditions are all underscored by Alkalimat's (2008) assertion that the most dramatic difference between pre and post-slave trade Africa would be the population. According to Alkalimat, the emphasis on transporting young and able-bodied Africans to the United States would deprive the African continent of a population essential to labor, production and procreation. Thus, we can see that in the years before the slave trade, the economic and developmental prospects for the African continent were far brighter than they would be just thereafter. Even as the European subjugation of Africans for the slave trade would begin to dismantle the leadership structures and culture on the continent, it would also preemptively erode the country's ability to evolve economically, technologically or socially by removing it most productive citizens from the developmental equation.
2) Do...
Heywood and John K. Thornton's theory on European and African Culture Differences.
Ultimately, it was clearly some combination of the forces of economic and racialist imperatives that would lead to the slave trade. Certainly, Williams' theory carries a great deal of water here and is consistent with observations in our research regarding the gradual transition from general trade between Europe and Africa to the slave trade. As the text by Alkalimat indicates, "he 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." As the text indicates, trade between the two sides had always been exploitive but initially centered on the European capacity to out-produce Africa using its more modern manufacturing practices. This would cause an imbalance in trade where Europe could literally flood the African market with cheaper reproductions of its own domestic goods. Eventually, Africa would be deprived of its production economy and would, in turn, begin selling its own citizens en masse through this already imbalanced trade relationship. As Williams argues, this would appear to be a purely economic course of events owing to Europe's more advanced development at this stage. However, we would be remiss to discount Heywood & Thornton's contribution to this discussion. Here, they note that in spite of the decidedly advanced culture in Africa, they were met with a European sense of racial superiority, Christian manifest destiny and divine right. These would…
