History of East Africa - Essay Example

of History of East African Slave Trade 01 Aug 2006 Slavery is defined as a condition whereby a person, known asa slave is under the control of another. Slavery almost always occurs for the purpose of securing labor. A specific form, known as chattel slavery, is defined as the absolute legal ownership of a person or persons, including the legal right to buy and sell them just as one would a lamp or an article of clothing. History dictates that those who become slaves had different ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex or race than the dominant group, typically taken prisoner as a result of war. Capture meant death or slavery if one paid no ransom. Social entities characterized with poverty, overpopulation, and cultural and technological lag are frequently exported as slaves to more developed nations. The nature of the slavery differed greatly across the continent. There were large plantations toiled by slaves in Egypt, Sudan and Zanzibar, but this was not a typical use of slaves in Africa as a whole. Slaves were protected and incorporated into the slave-owning family while in others, slaves were brutally abused, and even used for human sacrifices. The practice of slavery and slave trade existed in Africa long before the Europeans arrived (Beck. 2004). Slaves were regarded as investment of local chiefs, kings, merchants and dependent royal subjects for personal gains and revenue as well as performing administrative or military duties. Prior to the European conquest, slavery was a tool in building and strengthening states. They were acquired through wars and trade, and were kept to work on the land or used in warfare. In the period of the European colonization, slave trade changed dramatically causing internal divisions among African societies (Amber. 2004). The Oyo-Dahomey Wars, local/regional conflicts among the Asante, and internal division within the Congo kingdoms helped the Europeans acquire slaves in exchange for textiles, guns and ammunitions to expand their territories. The Europeans benefited from this by shipping off the slaves to the plantations of the Americas. As a result the African societies experienced a drastic change depopulating skilled craftsmen and increased wars among tribes (Cooper. 1980). Families were torn apart and children that were left behind became vulnerable to being captured by rival tribesman (Amber. 2004). The slave trade as a result expanded because of the participation of African rulers and merchants (Beachey. 1976) in the international exchange economy, involving the exports of humans. Africans were manipulated and used by Europeans through the domination of Africa's natural resources (Cooper. 1980). In the beginning of European involvement in Africa, they were initially interested in trading with Africans for their gold, slaves, ivory, and other resources. Europeans began trading in Africa in the 15th century, mainly getting gold and slaves. When they reached the eastern coast of Africa, their prime interest shifted to controlling and securing trade routes to India. For a few centuries, European involvement in Africa was mostly contained to the coastal regions. In the East, the Omanis gained nominal control of the islands, but until the reign of Sayyid (1804-56) they took little interest in them (Nwulia. p13-14. 1975). Sayyid recognized the commercial value of East Africa and increasingly turned his attention to Zanzibar and Pemba, where he permanently relocated his court into (Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 2006). He brought many Arabs with him, and they gained control of Zanzibar's fertile soil, forcing most of the Hadimu to migrate to the eastern part of the island. The Hadimu were obliged to work on the clove plantations. Sayyid controlled much of the East where Zanzibar became the main center of ivory and slave trade (Cooper.1980). Some of them were used on the clove plantations while others were exported to other parts overseas. With Zanzibar's trade being administered by Omanis' who organized caravans into the interior of East Africa; the trading became largely financed by Indian residents many of whom were agents of Bombay firms. Upon Sayyid's death in 1856 his African and Omani holdings were separated, with his son Majid becoming sultan of Zanzibar (BBC Online. 2006). Throughout the 19th century, explorations into Africa intensified. Colonial powers took interest in finding new resources to trade or exploit. The more they knowledge they acquire about Africa, the more they saw the economic potential and benefits of completely controlling it. Europeans realized that they could increase their profits dramatically if they would not simply trade with Africans, but completely control the areas that were of interest to traders (Cooper. 1980). Due to their superior technological power, particularly in the form of guns and ships, it was generally an easy task to uproot local power structures, dominate, and subjugate the African people. In the cases where indigenous African leaders were left with some power, their roles were either diminished or drastically changed. While Europeans justify their actions by saying that Africans needed a larger power to educate them on the best way to rule people, the real motive lies in their own vested interests. Africans became victim to the European superiority during the period of colonial power. Many people, believe that missionary work in Africa should be held responsible for the negative view Europeans had of Africans, believing that the former hold the standard for what is correct and upright in the world, felt the need to spread their "correct" and "proper" religion to Africans (Nwulia. P28.1975). Their missionary work may have been well-intentioned, but instead they spread colonial influence by bringing European ideology and cultural values to Africa, while providing the colonial powers (and their armies) with information about the areas in which they were working. Europeans felt that they were more advanced than Africans in every way, and used that belief to justify taking over African governments and African trade. Slavery was certainly the most brutal and horrific example of these European beliefs East Africa had a far more important place in the history than other African countries, so wrote Marsh, Z.A & Kingsnorth G.W in their book 'An introduction to the History of East Africa published by Cambridge university press, they added that "The riches of East Africa were incomparably greater than those of the other African states" (1965). In the early 16th century the Portuguese trader Duarte Barboosa said of the east African city 'Kilwa had many fair houses made of stone and mortar, well arranged in streets. Around it were streams and orchards with many channels of sweet water', of the inhabitants of Kilwa he reported, 'they were finely clad in many rich garments of gold and silk, and cotton, and the women as well; also with much gold and silver in chains and bracelets, which they wore on their legs and arms, and many jeweled earrings in their ears (Neville. 1963). The African system operated in a way where there is no landed private property, or the corporate ownership of land, consequential to the reason why their law recognized slaves as the only form of private, revenue-producing property. The issue of wealth production was the same in both systems, but diverged in the emphasis on where wealth was achieved. Both were imperative are productive property that could be inherited by the next generation thus sustaining wealth. In Africa, people were taxed and as a result slavery and slave trading were widespread and pivotal in producing secure wealth for the African political and economic elites (Klein. 1978). This opened doors to complex, indigenous institution of slavery in place even before the Europeans arrived. In the early fifteenth century, The Indian Ocean trade network spans from east coast of Africa through Middle East to western and eastern India and then on through Burma to the different islands of Southeast Asian region. It is a vast trade network that has witnessed thriving trade since the ancient times. This trade in the earlier times took place in the form of coastal trade between different centers of trade. For example, the Indus valley people had good trade relations with the Sumerian and Mesopotamian civilizations. This trade network was equally important to Europe even before the Suez Canal came into existence. Usually the goods from the East would be carried via the Arab merchants either through the Red Sea route overland to Nile or through Persian Gulf via Syria and Black Sea. The direct European ships that came to this region came round the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa. The East African slave trade increased dramatically in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At this time, as many as 3,000 African slaves per year were brought to South Asia to meet a growing demand for workers to work on the docks, as domestic servants, and as soldiers. More slaves were needed to work on clove plantations on the costal islands of Zanzibar and Pemba and coffee and sugar plantations on the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Also, the British navy in its efforts to end the slave trade was stopping traders on the coast of West Africa. So, these traders began taking slaves from East Africa. As the slave trade increased, the wealth and status of Sidis declined (Gray. 1962). Slaves rarely achieved high status. Instead, they performed menial tasks in the homes, farms and businesses of their owners. East African trade relation with other countries led to desperate and brutal competition between major trading power to control the shipping routes that brought spices to their markets. Dutch, Portuguese, English and Spanish government dispatched intrepid merchant companies to Far East in search of the elusive sources of spice for which their citizens were clamoring. Culturally, the birth of trade relations to east African countries contributed to the rise in the prevalence of slavery and slave trading, because the European influences changed the beliefs, principles, religions, and other ritual routines that they had been practicing for centuries. One thing different was that they enslaved the Africans and won more converts than they did from Asia because the Asians kept themselves more secluded. Economically, the colonization in East Africa, somehow brought economic improvement at the expense of its people, exploiting the maximum use of labor and natural resources. Usually that demands peaceful conditions, but there have been times in history when social groups have grown stronger by raiding their neighbors for women, cattle and goods, because they then used the 'booty' from the raids for the benefit of their own community. Slaving in East Africa did not even have that redeeming value. Captives were shipped outside instead of being utilized within any given African community for creating wealth from nature. It was only as an accidental by-product that in some areas Africans who recruited captives for Europeans realized that they were better off keeping some captives for themselves. In any case, slaving prevented the remaining population from effectively engaging in agriculture and industry, and it employed professional slave hunters and warriors to destroy rather than build. Apart from the moral aspect and the immense suffering that it caused, the European slave trade was economically totally irrational from the viewpoint of African development. East African countries did make maximum use of their labor. Despite the advantages of the introduction of new food crops from other continents that later became staples in Africa, these weren't made completely available to all for reasons that slavery itself impeded. Trade relationship with other countries established many things for African societies including telegraph, railroad, and irrigation systems. Most of countries who were involved in this long distance relationship made sure that East African countries received most of the advantages from the new technology and industrialization. There is enough evidence to suggest that trade relations benefited East African countries, among them includes the fact that in 1800 Zanzibar was already the principal centre of foreign trade along the East African coast, a meeting place for Arabs, Indians and Europeans interested in exchanging their products for those of the African mainland. However, the disadvantage lies in the fact that the workers and servants who made the goods possible and available for trading received very low wages and some even received none at all due to the nature of their status (Klein. 2001). It discounted the fact that these were the same people who opened trade routes which later became the main avenues of commerce for new European colonies. Indeed, colonization proved beneficial to Africa in that it helped improve if not enhances its economic system, it opened their doors to the rest of the world, but sad to say, the rest of the world only saw the slaves in them and not the real person within. Work Cited Amber, J. (2004). Abduction of innocents: in conflict-torn areas in East Africa, children are stolen in the night and forced into slavery in rebel camps. In the second of our series, a girl who escaped the rebels in northern Uganda recalls her months in captivity and the hard road back. Find Articles Webpage. P 1-12. Published on December 2004. Accessed online on 29 Jul 2006 from Beachey, RW. (1976). The Slave Trade Of Eastern Africa. London: Rex Collings Beck, S. (2004). Africa and Slavery 1500 - 1800. Accessed online 30 Jul 2006 from Cooper, F. (1980). From Slaves to Squatters: Plantation Labor and Agriculture in Zanzibar and Coastal Kenya 1890 - 1925. New Haven: Yale University Press. Collins, Robert O., Ed. Documents from the African Past. Princeton, New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001. Gray, JM. (1962). History of Zanzibar from the Middle Ages to 1856. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. Columbia University Press. HighBeam Online Encyclopedia, Accessed online on 28 Jul 2006 from Klein, M. "Review Article: The Study of Slavery in Africa," Journal of African History 19, no. 4 (1978), 599-609 Klein, M. "The Slave Trade and Decentralized Societies," Journal of African History 42, no. 1 (2001), 49-65. Neville, C. "Kilwa and the Arab Settlements on the East African Coast," Journal of African History 4(1963), 179-90 Nwulia, M. (1975). Britain and Slavery in East Africa. Washington D.C: Three Continents Press Kingsnorth, G.W. An Introduction to the History of East Africa, 3rd Ed, 1965 "Tanzania." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. P. 33-42. 31July2006 . "The East African Slave Trade". Chapter Three, The Story of African Slavery. BBC World service Online. Accessed 28 Jul 2006 online from: Read More