Position:Home>History> Africans enslaved their own people!!!!?
Question: Africans enslaved their own people!!!!!?
My white coworker just sat on my desk & stated the above with a smirk!. I wanted to know more so I asked him which tribes he was referring to because Queen Nzhinga, the Dahomian army and Madame Tinubu were instrumental in successfully thwarting European efforts to enslave their tribe members!. I then asked, "Yoruba, Igbo, Ibo, Ife, Fulani, which one!? The term African as an identity came much later!."
He looked stumped & then said, "Well, my people came here as immigrants 60 years ago so we are not responsible for slavery!."
I told him no one accused him of anything!. Just like no one asks immigrants to re-fight the War of 1812, nor do we require them to re-write the Bill of Rights!.
Yet his grandparents were able to benefit from that history!. Likewise, African Americans fought in every war this nation had but were not treated as citizens when his family immigrated!. True Americans inherit the good with the bad!. He just turned red & walked away!. Why the white guilt complex!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The "white guilt complex" as you so nicely put it, is because anyone who has even started to look into our history and our association with slavery will have found out that white people were extremely prejudiced, totally inhumane and created the largest breach in human rights possible during that particular time!. We cannot justify what we did and we are still ashamed of it!.
Actually, you probably just out-smarted him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I'm not sure it was white guilt!. Perhaps your counter-arguments were presented with some emotion, and they are irrelevant!. I couldn't identify an African tribe that engaged in the slave trade with Europe and America, and while I believe you that some resisted, there seems to be an historical consensus on the fact that Africans committed Africans to slavery!. Your description of the conversation conveys an unwillingness to acknowledge that fact!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Yes, it's true, Africans were instrumental in the slave trade!. Many times slaves were captured in wars with neighboring tribes, who were then brought to the Europeans!. I don't know specific tribes, but consider the ones near the Congo and Niger Rivers and in Angola for example!.
I think that people have white guilt because it is politically correct to do so, and sort of as a way to redeem your country as it were from its past sins!. I don't know for sure!.
Cheers!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Your coworker is just being stubborn and self involved!. While it may not be directly each and every white person's fault that blacks were enslaved, everyone still has to acknowledge that it happened!. I don't think i really answered your question, sorry!.
If you want to check out more about white guilt, Shelby Steele has written many articles/books about the topic!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
This guy sounds like a d*ck, but any ways!.!.
Whether slavery existed within sub-Saharan African societies before the arrival of Europeans is a hotly contested point between Afrocentric and Eurocentric academics!. What is certain is that Africans were subjected to several forms of slavery over the centuries, including chattel slavery under both the Muslims with the trans-Saharan slave trade, and Europeans through the trans-Atlantic slave trade!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
White slave traders pretty much confined their activity to trading on the west coast of Africa!. The actual enslavement and transport of slaves to the coast was just about all done by Africans!.
Long before Europeans engaged in slave trading, Arabs did so on the east coast of Africa!. And while the European-driven slave trade ended by 1833, the Arabs continued until very recently (and sub rosa, to this day!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com
Everyone enslaved their own people! The only reason that we in America used Africans was because the sun was a problem, and Africans couldn't get sunburn!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I think you answered him quite well!.
People not realise the extent to which it betrays bigotry to ask (as far too many do), "How can they do this to their own people!?"
In what way are these "their own people"!? If there were to be an act of violence perpetrated by a gang of English thugs against a German family, or an American gang attacked a family of Canadians, would we ask how they can do this to "their own people"!? I think not!.
Simply because both perpetrator and victim happen to be black does not make them one another's "own people"!. In the western world, there seems to be this perception of Africa as a single nation!. It is not!. It is many nations, within which there are many, many tribes!. These tribal bonds are often stronger than the national ones!.
When discussing the British Empire's role in the slave trade, many people will mitigate the blame by pointing out that it started with Africans selling "their own people" into slavery!. Once again, it was not "their own people" who were being traded, but the members of conquered tribes and nations!.
I hate to sound as if I'm lecturing (perhaps I am), but the phrase "their own people" is not a million miles from "they all look alike to me"!.
I am not for a moment condoning or excusing this behaviour!. Quite the reverse!. But when deploring the violence, let's have an informed debate and not undermine our position by demonstrating bigoted ignorance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
As the saying goes, you can't make yourself clean by pointing at the dirt on somebody else!. So your coworker is right about the historical fact that Africans enslaved other Africans (for that matter, he'd be right if he said that Europeans enslaved other Europeans, or that some free blacks in the pre-Civil War South owned slaves), but he's wrong if he thinks that lets white Americans off the hook for this country's history of slavery and racism!.
White Americans whose ancestors arrived on these shores after the Civil War have to be honest enough to acknowledge that they have benefited from white privilege, which has its roots in slavery and Jim Crow segregation, even if their ancestors never owned black slaves!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Yes, blacks enslaved blacks!. You think a couple of shiploads of white guys (even with guns) could enslave an entire continent!? Impossible!. They had trading arrangements with certain warlike tribes who enslaved their neighbours and sold them on!.
also, white guys enslaved white guys!. The whole of the Roman Empire was built on slavery!.
also, Arabs enslaved both blacks and whites!. Blacks in great numbers - notably through the great slave emporium at Dar es Salaam!. As for whites - there are documented cases of white mariners falling prey to Arab pirates as recently as the early nineteenth century!.
But the big question is; why should any of this come as a surprise to anyone!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
I like the way you fielded the comment!. The fact is, slavery seems to have existed for as long as recorded history, and probably well before that!. The details on the slavery differ (economic slavery like in sweat shops, the racial slavery practiced in America, the land-based slavery of serfdom), but there are always people who seek to benefit from the enforced labor of others!. As to why the guilt complex!. There are some, African American and white alike, who bring up the evils of slavery in America almost as if its happening today, or that it was unique to Americans!. Thus the tendency to look for things to "mitigate' the evil!. "Well, they did it to themselves too" or "slaves in America really weren't treated too bad"!. For some reason, its not enough to simply learn and recognise the historical facts!. People feel the need to remove themselves from their own historical roots, if those roots are grounded in unpleasant realities!. For myself, I'm guiltfree on the slavery thing!. Now, talk Holocaust and I have to admit to being descended from people who perpetuated that horrible event!. The best any of us can do is to try to prevent history from repeating itself!.Www@QuestionHome@Com