By Bernard Williams 4J – AVU – 2016 The short term and lasting impacts of slavery on Africa

Contents ▪Slides 3 and 4 – Population ▪Slide 5 – Development and Technology ▪Slide 6 – War ▪Slide 7 – Liberian Civil War ▪Slide 8 – Racism ▪Slide 9 - References

Population "During slavery many of the able-bodied people, between 18 and 40, were taken out so society's ability to reproduce itself economically, socially and culturally was impaired," - Zagba Oyortey, an Ghanaian cultural historian. Africa was bled of healthy, fit young men and women It is estimated that 12 million people were taken from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas 6 million Africans died in transport from Central Africa to the coast. It is estimated that if the Atlantic Slave trade had never existed, by 1850, Africa would have been populated by 50 million people rather than the 25 million it did.

Population Estimates of Africa from 1800 to 1950 YEAR POPULATION (by millions) The table shows that following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, the population took many years to re-adjust after losing 12 million people. Not only did this loss of people affect the population but also affected African societies ability to reproduce, this was caused because most people taken were young, fit and men, this dented the African population hugely.

How did the Trade affect Africa's development? Britain and Europe were ahead technologically of Africa, so when Britain's involvement in Africa was given the go- ahead in the late 17 th Century, Britain brought a huge amount of modern technology to Africa. ▪Transport Links – Mainly in western Africa, Roads were modernized and many new roads were put down. This is because traders used these routes to transport captured slaves from central Africa to port cities on the west coast. ▪Farming – Advanced during Slave trade because British Ships would use food from Africa's farms to feed the Slaves. However, as the Trade mainly took young people many stretches of fertile land lay uncultivated because there was no farmers to tend to it. This particularly affected stretches of land that run through Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria

WAR For Hundreds of years parts of Africa have been blighted by conflict. Many enslaved Africans sold to Europe were prisoners of tribal wars. Simply put, the demand for an increasing amount of slaves led to an increasing amount of conflict between communities in Africa that has existed ever since. Selling slaves from neighboring tribes became hugely profitable for African coastal kingdoms. Slavery was introduced as a form of punishment replacing other criminal sentences and capturing slaves became a motivation for war rather than its result. Slaves would often be traded for weaponry and this is where conflicts grew in mass and in severity. The slave trade had quickly led to an arms race. When the slave trade was abolished in 1807, the kingdoms that had grown immensely in wealth and power in parallel to the trade fell, and were left vulnerable to conquest or colonization. The inter-tribal conflicts in Africa lead to an increased demand for weapons. The continuing tidal wave of European firearms fueled further war and instability.

Civil Wars in Liberia Liberia was Americas main foray into colonisation in Africa. The link began as a scheme to take freed slaves back to their home continent. The name Liberia itself stemming from the word ‘Liberated’. The capital city, Monrovia was named after president James Monroe. Many of the liberated slaves return to Africa and promptly enslave the native people. Applying plantation methods learnt during their time in America. This system remains for more than 120 years, until Samuel Doe, the first native born Liberian, was elected as leader in He scrapped the system and seemed a beacon of peace in Liberia. However, this did not last long because an American supported member of Doe’s parliament, Charles Taylor started the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), overthrew Doe and took charge of the state. This caused the two groups, the NPFL and the Official Armed Forces of Liberia to begin warring in the two Civil wars in Liberia from which caused the death of roughly 750,000 people.

Racism Most African slavery was rooted in financial interests or legal punishment. When the white Europeans who preached a Christian ideology needed moral justification for something that has so obviously inherently wrong. It was then claimed that the African people were biologically inferior and were destined to be manual workers, treated shockingly bad and similarly to cattle, it is no surprise that this belief of inequality reached the masses in Europe and the world. Slavery therefore acquired a Racial motivation. This caused it to be impossible for slaves and their future descendants to attain any social status because of the colour of their skin. Partially due to Americas alliance with Holland in African colonialism, many problems in Dutch owned South Africa such as Apartheid have been indirectly caused by this propaganda.