Connecting-Africa | Find publications

Advanced search

Find:


Title Kidnapping: An Underreported Aspect of African Agency During the Slave Trade Era (1440-1886)
Full text http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8kf4m24x
Date 2009
Author(s) Perry, Felton E
Abstract This article addresses the issue of African agency-that is, the active involvement by some of continental Africa's indigenous inhabitants, i.e., members of various ethnic, religious, and cultural communities-in aiding and abetting the European slave traders during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade era (1440-1886). They committed innumerable acts of kidnapping on their neighbors with whom they cohabited the sub-Saharan regions of the African continent: western, central, and to a lesser extent, eastern. There exist in some current societies memories of their past enslaving activities for which they have created various ceremonies to atone for their ancestors' predacious practices. Many of the abducted unfortunates, besides being incorporated into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, were sold into other slavery systems as well, i.e., the Trans-Saharan, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the ubiquitous internal networks for which there is a dearth of verifiable documentation translated into English. This lack of written records reflecting the numbers of humans absorbed into these systems means that there will never be an accurate accounting; however the European slave-ship captains maintained fairly good ship -logs of their slave purchases for the duration of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade system era, deficient in some aspects, they nevertheless provide a general picture of the enterprise from the mid-fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century.
Subject(s) Arts and Humanities; ARRAY(0x7305080)
Language english
Publisher eScholarship, University of California
Type of publication article
Format application/pdf
Source Perry, Felton E. (2009). Kidnapping: An Underreported Aspect of African Agency During the Slave Trade Era (1440-1886). Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 35(2). Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8kf4m24x
Rights public
Identifier qt8kf4m24x
Repository Berkeley - University of California
Added to C-A: 2014-04-01;17:16:10