Slavery in Africa

Forced labour and slavery
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Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were once commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient and medieval world.^[1] When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade (which started in the 16th century) began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa.^[2]^[3] Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practised in some parts despite it being illegal.

In the relevant literature African slavery is categorized into indigenous slavery and export slavery, depending on whether or not slaves were traded beyond the continent.^[4] Slavery in historical Africa was practised in many different forms: Debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, slavery for prostitution, and enslavement of criminals were all practised in various parts of Africa.^[5] Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa. Plantation slavery also occurred, primarily on the eastern coast of Africa and in parts of West Africa. The importance of domestic plantation slavery increased during the 19th century, due to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Many African states dependent on the international slave trade reoriented their economies towards legitimate commerce worked by slave labour.^[6]

^ Stilwell, Sean (2013), "Slavery in African History", Slavery and Slaving in African History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 38, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139034999.003, ISBN 978-1-139-03499-9, For most Africans between 10000 BCE to 500 CE, the use of slaves was not an optimal political or economic strategy. But in some places, Africans came to see the value of slavery. In the large parts of the continent where Africans lived in relatively decentralized and small-scale communities, some big men used slavery to grab power to get around broader governing ideas about reciprocity and kinship, but were still bound by those ideas to some degree. In other parts of the continent early political centralization and commercialization led to expanded use of slaves as soldiers, officials, and workers.
^ Cite error: The named reference Lovejoy-2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Sparks, Randy J. (2014). "4. The Process of Enslavement at Annamaboe". Where the Negroes are Masters : An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade. Harvard University Press. pp. 122–161. ISBN 9780674724877.
^ Dirk Bezemer, Jutta Bolt, Robert Lensink, "Slavery, Statehood and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa", AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY WORKING PAPER SERIES, No. 6/2012, p. 6
^ Foner, Eric (2012). Give Me Liberty: An American History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 18.
^ David Eltis; Stanley L. Engerman; Seymour Drescher; David Richardson, eds. (2017). "Slavery in Africa, 1804-1936". The Cambridge World History of Slavery. Vol. 4. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781139046176. ISBN 9781139046176.

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