Did Africans ever own European Slaves?

           Poring over the history of North Africa, I learnt about the northern slave trade/Trans-Saharan slave trade. This slave trade was so broad and full of moral variations. It is crucial to note that acquiring white slaves in Mali was not rare. Some wealthy West Africans commonly the mandikas on their return from their hajj to Mecca bought Levantine or light-skinned slave girls. 

           As stated by Ibn Battuta, the Arab girl's black African master was Farber Suleiman, his last name hinting at Soninka or Mandinka origin. Slave girls of Ethiopia and Turkish origin were acquired by West Africans arriving with Manzamusa. In Cairo, they purchased Ethiopian and Turkish slaves and brought them back to the Mali empire because many of the elites in Mali were Muslims. The Mandika took the hajj to Mecca and while they were there, they procured Arab and Turkish slaves transiting through North Africa and bringing them back to the Mali Empire. 

             One of the most overlooked parts of North African history is the expansive slave trade of Europeans brought into North Africa through the moors and the barbary pirates, about 20,000 British and Irish captives were held in North Africa from the dawn of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century. Approximately 700 Americans were held hostage as North African slaves between 1785 and 1815. 

               Thomas Pellow was enslaved at age eleven and was a slave for twenty-three years. Thomas alongside other slaves acted based on the command of the Sultan. Pellow narrates a game played by black African troops of the sultan which was used to control and frighten European slaves and whites slaves, he says "The black African troops would habitually throw a white captive into the air in such a way that he would break his neck when he hit the ground, this was performed as punishment for minor infractions or offences at the direction of the sultan". Historian, Robert Davis projects that one million white Christians Europeans were enslaved in North Africa from the start of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th century.