African History Lecture Notes – 5th February 2004

The second of two lectures concerning West African slavery, with two examples of how the slavery influenced, and was influenced by, the trade

First Example Senegambia
(the region between the two rivers, the Senegal and the Gambia)

it was one of the first areas to have European Contact; partly because it was close to Europe
-	before 1600 a large number of slaves came from this region, ⅓ of the total

the area was dominated by the Wolof people, who were a substantial empire before 1550. However, after for the next 50 years or so, there was a period of warfare, anarchy, and chaos. This disarray produced large amounts of slaves, which, along with the proximity to Europe (see above) fuelled the slave trade.
-	however, by 1600, the situation had stabilised

As noted in previous lectures, the Portuguese were looking for gold. Here, there was actually gold present; in the Bambuk gold-fields, which were a considerable distance inland. They still, however, failed to access them
-	their hopes of finding them were driving by the navigable rivers leading inland, but the African environment proved too harsh to allow extraction

As well as gold and slaves, other goods were found: raw cotton, ivory (not the lack of elephants in the region now), animal hides and gum arabic (which was a useful adhesive at the time)

The Afro-Portuguese society in the region was another interesting feature. The male Portuguese traders took local women as their concubines, mistresses etc – creating a Creole society, a mixed race one that was crucial to the trade

The bilingualism of this society was crucial in the society, allowed trading networks to be established

By the 17th and 18th Century, a new supply of slaves was found. These were found from the Niger river region, who were transport from their to either the Senegal or Gambia.
-	these slaves were captured by an Islamic trading network;
-	this was not a state, but formed the mercantile component (trading class) in other societies

The traders received salt in exchange for the slaves – a good example of the sort of specialised social structures created by the slave trade

By 1700, the Portuguese were superseded by the French (in Senegal) and the British (in the Gambia)
-	the two powers developed their trade in the different ways

BRITISH – the Gambia river was navigable for about 200 miles (by large, flat bottomed ships). The British had a network of small, sparsely manned outposts (perhaps 1-2 men per post).
-	this meant a trade did continue, but it was easily disrupted by local African non-compliance

FRENCH – the Senegal river was navigable for a longer distance; around 400 miles, but it was not tidal, meaning the trade was only possible 6 months of the year.
- the French, instead of multiple small outposts, had one large one, at Makhana, as well as slave ports on the coast, Goreé, St. Louis and Rusfique, which still exist today – these slave ports were very similar to their Ghanaian equivalents – El Mina etc,

The 2nd example for the slave trade comes from further south, at the Niger delta, in the 18th and 19th Century

The Niger delta is a ‘typical’ big river delta, lots of swamp land etc. There was excellent soil, which led to a rich, complex agriculture, but few large areas of land
- there were, therefore, many linguistically defined social groups there, but few, if any, large political structures
- this geography made the slave trade difficult to implement here

In the early part of the slave trade, it was uneconomic to extract slaves from here; it was simply cheaper to get them elsewhere
But African Initiatives changed this
As in South Africa (see lecture notes, previous term), population growth made resources scarce
- warlords, factions began to export slaves

the villages were linked by trading house – one man, his wives/children, some other relatives, who traded in goods between villages in canoes

(note: canoe here refers to any flat-bottomed boat, not small, single person ones – often these very massive, with cannons and so on)

these trading houses were known as canoe houses, and were an interesting form of proto-capitalist organisation; the profits were split between the members of these canoe houses

Recruitment to the canoe house was, curiously, possible from slaves. If a slave was deemed to have particular skills or knowledge that were useful to the canoe houses, he/she would be retained, not shipped to the Atlantic.

Another feature of the slave trade here was in integration into local religions. In particular, Oracles of the various social groups (eg Igbo) demanded slaves as offerings.

Important to note the contrast with the first example – here the Europeans never settled, there was no Creole society, the slave trade was driven by ecology and local politics.