The role of slavery in the economic and social history of Sahelo–Sudanic Africa

It is generally recognized that by the late nineteenth century slavery was widespread in Black Africa. This chapter shows that the development and expansion of slavery in pre-colonial Africa were both linked originally to export demand for slaves. It provides an important link between the export slave trade and economic, social and political processes in pre-colonial Africa, which is central to the debate on the impact of the export slave trade on African societies. The historical development of Africa up to the colonial period produced several distinct economic and social zones. The Sahelo–Sudanic zone appears on the historical scene in Africa as the oldest supplier of the external slave trade in the direction of the desert and the Mediterranean. The slaving activity and the permanent military deployment that it engendered, explains better than the production and trade in gold, the constitution of aristocrats and warlike states

Archaeology · Colonialism · Constitution · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Geography · Political science · Politics · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law

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