Re: "Sale of slaves was unders the control of African states and elites"

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Ricardo:

> Sorry, I don't like to take prisoners when in a good mood.
>
> The left does not need a mythical (anti-Marxist) view about the
> "bad" Europeans and the "good" Africans:

No one believes in "'bad' Europeans & 'good' Africans."  "The Negro
is not.  Any more than the White Man," as Frantz Fanon said in _Black
Skin, White Masks_.

> "My examination of the military and political relations between
> Africans and Europeans concludes that Africans controlled the
> nature of their interactions with Europe. Europeans did not possess
> the military power to force Africans to participate in any type of
> trade in which their leaders did not wish to engage. Therefore all
> African trade with the Atlantic, including the slave trade, *had to be
> voluntary*. Finally, a careful look at the slave trade and the process
> of acquisition of slaves argues that slaves *had long been used in
> African societies*, that African political systems placed great
> importance on the legal relationships of slavery for political
> purposes, and that relatively large numbers of people were likely to
> be slaves at any one time. Because so much of the process of
> acquisition, transfer, and sale of slaves was under the control of
> African states and elites, they were able to protect themselves
> from the demographic impact and transfer the considerable social
> dislocations to poorer members of their own societies"
>
> John Thornton in *Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic
> World, 1400-1640*

In 1400, neither "Europeans" nor "Africans" existed.  Back then, no
one thought of himself or herself in such terms.  It took centuries
that followed the origin of capitalism before folks who lived in the
areas that have come to be called "Europe" & "Africa" respectively
began to think of themselves as "Europeans" & "Africans."  And it is
the growth of the Atlantic slave trade & chattel slave production
under the new mode of production called capitalism that gave rise to
categories "Europeans" & "Africans."

The passage quoted from John Thornton's work is evidence that for
those who lived in the area that has come to be called "Africa"
between 1400 and 1640, what mattered was *classes, kins, tribes, &
states,* for they were innocent of such dichotomies as "Africans" &
"Europeans."

Yoshie