Are Africans ashamed of their contribution to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?

Question

Naz...but they did know what was happening on their land...the attacks on other African tribes...aswell as the slave ports they allowed Europeans build on the west coast...I'm not saying that they are...I just want to see others peoples views on the matter. Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm interested in this topic myself.  It almost seems like African countries don't even care about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or you would hear about it more often.  Either that or certain people are filtering what information historians do gather.  

Africans kidnapped members of other tribes, including children, to sell to white European slave traders.  I don't think we had poor innocent naive natives dealing with the big bad white slave traders.  They kidnapped someone.  They sold that person for money or supplies.  They knew what they were doing.

Answer 2

No, for two reasons:

1) The African slave-traders didn't know - partially - what they were selling slaves into.  They couldn't know how much worse slavery in the US could be,compared to Africa.  The US is a very, very rare situation were slavery would be heriditary.  

2)What the African slave-traders did was on their own; African societies did not command them to sell slaves to the US, just as our governments do not command criminals to do the awful things they do.  In short, there was no collective responsibility for the slave trade to America.

(But, the southern US has collective responisibility, because the state govts. actively supported slavery.)

Answer 3

No

Because the trans Atlantic Slave trade was 80% European contribution

Europeans had the ships

Europeans made the raw materials

Europeans gave raw materials for human

Europeans shipped humans across the Atlantic

Europeans sold Humans at different ports in the Americas

Only African leaders and kidnappers supplied captives

The African population were not involved in the trade unlike European populations which produced the raw materials and built the ships and shackles. Europeans in America who bought these Africans from other Europeans in America and owned humans for life

Only 19 countries in Africa have a history in the Atlantic Slave Trade. 34 African countries dont. Im of African ancestry and my ancestors country had no involvement of the slave trade so its not an African thing.

African modern day nations involvement in the trade

Where slaves originated from.

40 million were made captives

Nigeria 22%

Democratic Republic of Congo 20%

Angola:13%

Ghana: 10.3%

Republic of Congo 6.3%

Cameroon: 5%

Senegal: 4%

Benin: 4%

Mozambique 3%

Guinea 2.4%

Togo 2.1%

Equatorial Guinea: 2%

Madagascar: 1.6%

Sierra Leone: 1%

Cote d' Ivoire: 1%

The Gambia: 0.8%

Liberia 0.7%

Gabon: 0.6%

Guinea-Bissau 0.2%

European modern day nations involvement in the trade

32 million were bought

Portugal 35.4%

Spain 22.1%

Britain 17.7%

France 14.!%

Holland 4.4%

Denmark 0.2%

European colonies where the slave destinations were

18 million survived to these destinations

Brazil 35.4%

Spanish Empire (Latin America) 22.1%

British West Indies (Caribbean) 17.7%

French West Indies (Caribbean) 14.1%

British North America (USA) 4.4%

Dutch West Indies (Caribbean) 4.4%

Danish West Indies (Caribbean) 0.2%

22 million total death toll of the trade

Europeans bought 32,000,000 humans off African leaders or kidnappers. Europeans sold these humans to Europeans who had ships. Europeans who shipped them across the Atlantic then sold these captives to Europeans in Americas who owned slave markets. These markets owned by Europeans once again sold these captives but this time to their life long owners European Americans.

Im not saying African did not contribute in the trade but morally it was by far Europeans who contributed the most. No one should be ashamed as no one today contributed to it maybe their ancestors but not themselves

And Africans certainly are not ashamed today they have nothing to be.

Answer 4

US slavery is but a small part of the New World slave trade--there were many more sent to the Caribbean and Brazil than the coloinies and then the US.  Most slavery in Africa between tribes was multi-generational and sometimes brutal, but it did not reach the proportion of the Atlantic slave trade.

Many Africans and others says that the African participation was not "race-based," but that is a strange argument.  The whole sordid enterprise was economically driven from all sides.  Without complicit cooperation from other Africans, not as many slaves might have been sold into slavery, as there would have been less access in the interior.  However, there has been slaving all around the African coastline for thousands of years, beginning with Arabs and spreading throughout the world.

Answer 5

Absolutley not...the African people are not united enough to be ashamed as a whole. it was not entire country's that helped in the slavery effort but rather small tribes and pirates throughout the west coast of Africa. There are thousands upon thousands of tribes throughout Africa, therefore, its hard for a entire country or particuliar governement to take responsibilty for slavery.