WHY SLAVERY IN AFRICA INCREASED

 

    African people were not the only group of humans to experience the slave trade. However, over time slavery outside the African continent decreased while the demand for enslaved Africans increased. This article is theory-based. Africans were not always targeted for slavery, the demand for African people was a practice that happened over the years. From the beginning, all humans were subjected equally to enslavement. Most humans were enslaved due to proximity and Africans were not exempted from this tradition. The first instance where people of African descent were enslaved in large numbers outside the African continent was in the Middle East. The well-known perpetrators of slavery were the Arabs. According to Scholar Chouki El Hamel, even before the rise of Islam, there existed a negative perception of skin colour among many Arabs. Abyssinians or modern-day Ethiopians were one of their early targets. Despite the skin colour prejudice among early Arabs, it cannot be concluded that they targeted Africans for enslavement because when Arabs created their large empires. They enslaved those in relative proximity including Europeans. Perhaps, the best explanation as to why Ethiopians were the first to be enslaved in their region was due to proximity.

        The expansion of Arab empires led to the enslavement of various European and African groups. The presence of Arabs in North Africa led to an increase in enslaved Africans. However, when Arab Jihads and warfare began to decrease in the Iberian Peninsula and the black sea region enslaved Europeans became less populous. Also, empires in Europe began to protect their subjects from enslavement. Africa being more diverse made it easier for slave traders to penetrate the Continent. Chouki El Hamel writes that" with the Turks on the horizon, the slaves became the focus of rivalry between Christians and Muslims. The Russian and the Ottoman empires competed against each other and offered to their subjects in Peripheries protection against slavery". The competition between Christian and Muslim nations and the small geographical region of Europe crippled access to enslaved Europeans. This led to an increase in the demand for African Slaves. There were not many traditional African religions in a concentrated region with expansionist or imperial ambitions competing against each other.

      Some groups of people hold the opinion that Africans were chosen specifically for Slavery because of the curse of Ham, this brought about a psychological inferiority complex toward the black people. Another school of thought is of a different opinion. They write that when the Spanish came to the Americas among the first people that they enslaved were the native population, this aligns with the initial theory of proximity. However, the native population was not enough, so Africans were brought in. When the Spanish came into the New World, they had to conquer the land and to achieve that they used conscripted soldiers or enslaved African soldiers. These black soldiers helped the Spanish conquer and pacify parts of the Caribbean and South America. One Scholar believes that Africans were brought in to conquer and pacify the land because of their performance against Spain as Conscripted soldiers. Scholar Mathew Restall writes "The broader cultural context to the Spanish in the Spanish use of black fighters in the conquest and subsequent accounts of their roles in the Spanish perception of Africans as natural warriors. This perception is deeply rooted in Iberian and African history going back to the role played by black slaves in the Muslim armies of North Africa and the Middle East during the medieval phase of the trade in sub-saharan Africans and to the black experience of the reconquista as armed auxiliaries on both sides of the conflict." This quote explains that the Arabs and Spanish normalised the service of African men as nation builders either as warriors or enslaved people.

       It can therefore be deduced that in the old world, Africans were enslaved due to their proximity and changes in society but in the new world Africans were enslaved due to their ability to withstand tropical temperatures and their reputation as warriors. Chouki El Hamel writes that "it is worth mentioning that the Hamitic theory was widely accepted in Western Europe and used to justify the enslavement of black Africans in the Americas. Indeed, American abolitionist, Frederick Douglas  (1818-1895) noted that American Slaveholders used the argument that God cursed Ham to excuse slavery."