African Slavery
Slavery has existed since the beginning history, and references can be found throughout the Old Testament and other ancient writings from around the globe. Slaves were often the spoils of wars and battles for the victors, and usually were a different ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race from those who enslaved them (Slavery pp). In the majority of cases, intermarriage, granting of liberty, and the right to buy one's own freedom have caused slave and slave-owning populations to merge throughout the world (Slavery pp). Slavery is almost always practiced for the purpose of securing labor and in the strictest sense, slaves have no rights (Slavery pp). The 1926 Slavery Convention described slavery as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised," thus, a slave is someone who cannot leave an owner, master, overseer, controller, or employer without explicit permission and will be returned if they escape (Slavery pp). Although, slavery is outlawed in all countries by United Nations conventions, there are still some states today, such as Myanmar and Sudan that facilitate the institution of slavery (Slavery pp). These "unfree laborers" are usually told
Slavery is alive and thriving today. In December 2001, three slaves in Niger escaped from their master and revealed their story of bondage, leading police to visit the camp of the slave owner, a nomad chief called Waglassane Ouksoum, intending to arrest him, but he escaped, however the police rescued twelve other slaves (Niger pp). Sadly, when a slave escapes or is freed he tries to find his family, but most often, the relatives are now slaves in another family, and if contact is made, chances are he would be re-enslaved by his relatives' master (Niger pp). One woman who escaped in 1998 told authorities that she had been kidnapped and sold at the age of four, and when she reached adolescence, she was given as a companion of a male slave, resulting in the birth of a daughter who was later given by the chief to his daughter as a marriage gift (Niger pp). According to human rights advocate, Idrissa Boubacar, slavery impedes economic and social development, and "the regions most affected by slavery are also those worst hit by emigration because young descendants of slaves often escape from communities where they would be enslaved (Niger pp). When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, it was not only the white slavers who opposed, but the African rulers as well, for they had become accustomed to wealth gained from selling slaves or from taxes collected on slaves that passed through their domain (Obadina pp). Although African traders were greatly distressed by the news, as long as there was demand from the Americas for slaves, the lucrative business continued, and did so for many decades after the British abolished it (Obadina pp). The British set up naval blockades to stop the slave ships, but it had very little effect in suppressing the trade, and actually made it even more profitable because the price of slaves rose in the Americas (Obadina pp). Moreover, the demand for slaves was largely responsible for the numerous wars that plagued Yorubaland for half a century following the fall of the Oyo empire, and took the intervention of British colonialism to impose peace in Yorubaland in 1893 (Obadina pp). From the beginning, they seized Africans and shipped them to Europe to be sold as servants and objects of curiosity to households (Obadina pp). Today, in the Portuguese port of Lagos, where the first African slaves landed in 1442, the old slave market now serves as an art gallery (Obadina pp). In 1472, the Portuguese sailed southeast along the Gulf of Guinea and landed on the coast of what became Nigeria, then other Europeans followed (Obadina pp). These Europeans found people of varying cultures, some lived in villages, others lived in towns ruled by kings with nobility and courtiers, similar to their own medieval societies (Obadina pp). Relations between Europe and Africa were economic, and European merchants traded with Africans from trading posts established along the coast, exchanging items such as brass and copper bracelets for products such as pepper, cloth, beads, and slaves - "all part of an existing internal African trade" (Obadina pp). Long before European slave buyers arrived, domestic slavery and trading in humans was common in Africa (Obadina pp). Black slaves were captured or bought by Arabs and then exported across the Saharan desert to the Mediterranean and Near East (Obadina pp). The inter-communal wars that were waged to procure slaves were extremely destructive to human lives, and tens of thousands of people were slaughtered in a single skirmish (Obadina pp). These wars and kidnappings fuelled hostility and suspicion between communities, leading to distrust as a basic requirement for survival, thus arresting and distorting the cultural development of African societies (Obadina pp). People became uncertain as to the meaning of life and their place within it, giving rise to superstitious beliefs and customs as people sought salvation and protection from the spirit
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Approximate Word count = 2654
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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