For over a period of 400 years, more than 15 million were victims of the transatlantic slave trade. Fueled by economic ambitions, transatlantic slave trade contributed to what has been described as the largest and extensive forced migration in human history. The sheer scale of the slave trade and its devastation spread across generations and the geographic regions of Africa, South America, the Caribbean as well as the Pacific Islands.

In the historical accounts of some European men and white American men about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, “their idea of ‘African complicity’ is more myth than a reality,” I say. It claims: Africans captured other Africans and sold them to European ships. The theory is misleading but we know why the story has changed from, “We conquered, enslaved and colonized Africa” to “We were just trading with them.” Propaganda. The tune has changed.

So let’s deal with the charge of African complicity during slavery.

Is it not more myth than reality the idea of Libyan Complicity when in actual fact Libyan refugees were captured and turned into slaves in Europe as a result of a terrorist invasion? If the story we hear is that the Libyans sold themselves into slavery how would the next generation of Libyans feel? The idea of Libyans sold themselves to Europeans would be preposterous!

Or is it not more myth than reality the idea of Iraqi Complicity when actually Iraqi refugees were captured, spirited to the USA and Europe, and in some instances found themselves slaves in twentieth century Europe as a result of another terrorist invasion? Was it Iraqi Complicity? Again, here, the idea that Iraqis sold themselves into slavery would be preposterous!

So why is it not equally a preposterous charge that Africans sold themselves into slavery? Could Slavery have been the result of the barbaric invasion of Africa by the so-called missionary Europeans, or civilizing Europeans, in the same way that freedom-fighting-regime-change-terrorists in the Levant have forced so many into refugee status?

I ask: How exactly are the so-called historians who identify as African, or even Black, able to repeat, or rather regurgitate the ideological lies, the pungent hatred of their European and white American colleagues in re-branding the terrorism that befell mostly West Africa as some African Complicity?

Or is terrorism new? Is it only experienced by others who are not Black, or African?

The narrative of the Slave trade and the nonsense of African complicity is preposterous. Indeed, those who use that phrase in Africa didn’t even pass secondary school English. What African Complicity? If we had to speak of complicity now in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, when anyone from that nation found themselves working in some German Clothing Factory for close to nothing the world would riot.

But African complicity in the slave trade? Who do these European and white American historians think we are? The fact that we don’t read your books, written in bad English, with close to little logic (I am close to calling it zero logic once I am done with reading all your major works), or even comment on them, or the fact that we do not attend your conferences in the West doesn’t mean we do not know that you lie—all the time. You lie.

And if I were all Africans, I will burn all your nonsense from all our libraries in the land.

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Amenuti Narmer
https://grandmotherafrica.com/category/narmer-amenuti/
~ Success is a horrible teacher. It seduces the ignorant into thinking that he can’t lose. It seduces the intellectual into thinking that he must win. Success corrupts; Only usefulness exalts. ~ WP. Narmer Amenuti (which names translate: Dances With Lions), was born by The River, deep within the heartlands of Ghana, in Ntoaboma. He is a public intellectual from the Sankoré School of Critical Theory, where he trained and was awarded the highest degree of Warrior Philosopher at the Temple of Narmer. As a Culture Critic and a Guan Rhythmmaker, he is a dilettante, a dissident and a gadfly, and he eschews promotional intellectualism. He maintains strict anonymity and invites intellectuals and lay people alike to honest debate. He reads every comment. If you enjoyed this essay and would like to support more content like this one, please pour the Ancestors some Libation in support of my next essay, or you can go bold, very bold and invoke them. Here's my CashApp: $TheRealNarmer
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109 COMMENTS

  2. I am assuming the slave markets of Salaga Kintampo Kumasi, Akuse Kpong Senchi and Krachi did not exist. The old Osu saying “beh ‘——‘ dzibo ni obayeh nyon lo?”, referencing the fact that well into the last century African grandees.of Accra still had estates worked by their bondsmen who were the descendants of people held in servitude by their parents and grandparents on the Akwapim hills.

    Further, for some of us from the south whose bloodlines include Central and Northern Ghanaian Heritage qualified by ” wor na’akewoba” or “wor’meni ahewor keba” in English ” we who were brought hence” ” we who were bought and brought hence”. Even are traditions customs and oral histories reflect the fact that pawning and sale of humans is not foreign to our ancient culture. Some of us even used to hunt and compel suitable outsiders to govern over us in situations where refugees from different areas wished to provide themselves a neutral arbiter to coalesce around. Dis wan dieh I no gree.

    • The thing is that your oral history is replete with myths. I have studied terrorism in the twentieth and twenty-first century and the theory explains all the myths, truths, half-truths and tales of our slave past.

    • Komla big difference between our slavery and that conducted under the west. For one slavery in our traditions was family inclusive leading to inter-breeding even in the case of my family are also in line for the throne. We were not murderous, raping them, butchering like congo under Leopold; going to a particular island like Columbus did wiping out a whole race. No genocide nothing compared to what the Arabs did for 1200 years and the Caucasians did for another 400 and counting in my books. Over half of these slaves were lost on the journey. Please do not compare and rather try researching into not one but different slavery systems in Africa.

    • Nouvi Angelo , I AINT claiming that. I am saying that pawning and purchase of people was not introduced by Europeans. In fact Elmina was initially a slave entrepot for Sistren and Bredren brought from Mayombe Loango and Bini by the Portuguese

  3. I guess what my own grandmother told me in my own home-village is also myth.

    What I have seen with my own two eyes is also a myth.

    Well. We can keep lying to ourselves and our children about our own heartlessness.

    Let us blame it on a phantom. We are good at it.

  4. No more preposterous, Narmer, than the inspired narrative by Moses himself that his people ended up enslaved in Egypt because ten elder brothers had sold their younger sibling to a caravan of Ishmaelites/Midianites! That’s history corroborated by all three monotheistic/Abrahamic scriptures!

    • Checked in the Pentateuch and also in Revelations (the 12 gates of new Jerusalem) and except for when Jacob added Ephraim and Manasseh to the 12 tribes, the number has been constant. What are your references?

    • Exactly. Ephraim and Manasseh are not Jacob’s children so at the time of the sale of Joseph there were no 10 elder brothers.

    • Since we both have ten fingers, let’s total how many each sister gave Jacob and how many their maidservants chipped in to help. (Genesis 23-26) Ten before Joseph( Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Gad, Zebulon, all born in Padan Aram … and probably Dinah with Benjamin being born on the way(Rachel’s second boy) as they fled a thieving Uncle Laban. Leah and the maids’ children were big enough to pasture livestock and Joseph old enough to be sent to them in Dothan, right? Now in Revelations 7:5-8 you have them listed(the 10 first) with Joseph and Benjamin bringing up the rear, as it were.

  5. Slowly, the elated would come into the fold. The well guarded edifice is collapsing, and it’ll soon implode.

  6. I also heard from my paternal grand mother that thrives, burglars and other anti social people were also added. As for the complicity of chiefs and elders l suspect because of galamsey

  7. Namer. When you deny the truth or aspects of it, you cannot have people like us trusting you, and helping your cause. I don’t read white people as primary source, to make slavery and slave trade arguments. People like us don’t. We know of African slaves by Africans from African stories and sources!

    Can you credit Africans?

    We know of Masa Musa who enslaved Africans for Islam and for self. Did the Europeans tell us this? Do we need Europe to know this?

    We know of the king of Dahomey and his slave wars. Did Europe have to tell us?

    We know of Asante, Akyem etc slaves. Just yesterday, I learned from a friend that the “Donkors” in Ghana were progenies of and slaves. Is that inaccurate?

    How does that make Africans enslaving Africans and selling our own into slavery, a white man’s narrative and or propaganda?

    I assumed you seek accuracy in all your posturing, write up, and agenda. I have to rethink now.

    Damn!

    Alexander. May 26, 2018. 1405 GMT.

    • Can we have a discussion without ad hominems like trust or distrust. Or of leaving the cause? Am I to be scared that you do not trust me?

      Nothing you have intimated is outside the scope of European invasion and terrorism. The USA is not the only army killing in Libya today. Or are they? But they invaded Libya, and the issues that stem from that are not unique to Libya. The same can be said of slavery.

  8. This is personal. Because I take you seriously. I expect that you would be at least accurate to the facts. As far as I know those are the facts and worse. So that when you ignore that and make a write up as you did above, I was sincerely shaken!

    I asked myself, could I trust anything else you have to say or write?

    See?

    So I put it up here.

    I am not a man to lie and not say things as they are. I trust in accuracy and truth. I can be in error, and expect to learn when this becomes obvious.

    Sorry if you miss my point then.

    Best regards, Sir.

    • Like I said, none of us lived in Africa during the slave trade. All history and so called facts of the period are then hearsay. Alas who wrote what? And even for the oral narrative, the questions must be asked: Who coined the narrative?

      I have studied terrorism in the Levant for more than a decade now and I am left to trust that the theory of terrorism explains away the complexity of the slave trade as far as African involvement is concerned.

      But the fact that remains is that European missionaries (and Arab missionaries before them) invaded West Africa and stoked the ensuing chaos. That is fact. The rest we can all study carefully. I give you a theory to explain away the tales of the past, which is the onset of foreign invasion. I am not in anyway trying to confuse let alone lie.

    • There is an issue of enslavement in every civilisation that existed in this world. The difference is the types of treatment metted out to these slaves; the barbaric treatments, the genocide, the butchering was what differed….

    • Narmer Amenuti I say go way u there. You’re not even fit to be called an amateur hahaha.

      Facebook ‘historian’ , keep typing and proclaiming your ‘historical truths’
      Hahaha

    • Alexander Brown never make the mistake of taking Narmer Amenuti seriously oo. He suffers from the malaise called “afrocentrism.” haha. for me Narmer Amenuti ‘s posts are a form of comic relief at best. i don’t take him seriously.

  9. Sir we have complicity in the slavery. Don’t look to anything else. Just look at the military pact with the US. It’s our president and the legislators who have made it possible. So Senior don’t forget we actually were not one. We subjugated one another and to tribute in human currency and resold them. Ask how could the few whites get men from the north, I mean African man? The white man had a collaborator. We have agency in that thing and we have agency in what’s happening as our president sells out the nation for 20 Trump’s shit.

    • That narrative is not outside the scope of the Onset of Terrorism in West Africa. It is as if to say that Gaddafi was complicit in the murder of his own people although he was invaded by USA. It is as if to even suggest that Gaddafi sold his own people into European slavery although the slavery is the result of the invasion.

      It is not that what you allege may not have even happened. While you look at the results, I look at the totality: the impetus for chaos, the chaos itself and the results of the chaos.

      The impetus was foreign. These foreigners, who were white bred terrorism all over the continent. They funded it. In the same way western nations today fund terrorism in the Levant for their own interests, they say. In fact western nations today train terrorists in the same way they trained and armed terrorists in Africa for their slaves. In the same way they trained and armed terrorists states in West Africa for the constant flow of their slaves.

      Hence to say that there were terrorists nations and states in West Africa and that this alone was the African “agency” for the slave trade is a narrow view. What is true is that there were terrorists nations, states and guerrilla mercenaries alright, but they were funded and armed by who? European nations? For what? The refugees of war! The Trans-Atlantic Slaves! European nations stoked chaos in West Africa and run away with the refugees of war!

  10. The problem some of you, Hermann W. von Hesse, have is that you stop at the door of understanding that the popular narrative you claim about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is not outside the scope of the Onset of Terrorism in West Africa. It is as if you say that Gaddafi was complicit in the murder of his own people although he was invaded by the USA. It is as if you even suggest that Gaddafi sold his own people into European slavery although the slavery is the result of the US invasion.

    It is not that what you allege may not have even happened. While you look at the results, I look at the totality: the impetus for chaos, the chaos itself and the results of the chaos. This is where Herman needs to learn about thesis-making.

    For example I claim that the impetus for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was foreign. These foreigners, who were white, bred terrorism all over the continent. They funded this terrorism. In the same way western nations today fund terrorism in the Levant for their own interests, they say. In fact western nations today train terrorists in the same way they trained and armed terrorists in Africa for their slaves. In the same way they trained and armed terrorists states in West Africa for the constant flow of their slaves.

    Hence to say that there were terrorists nations and states in West Africa and that this alone was the narrative enough to indict African agency for the slave trade is a narrow view. What is true is that there were terrorists nations, states and guerrilla mercenaries alright, but they were funded and armed by who? European nations? For what? The refugees of war! The Trans-Atlantic Slaves! European nations stoked chaos in West Africa and run away with the refugees of war!

    Again Herman, you need to learn these things. I have given you a free lecture on thesis-making. Controversial perhaps, but impactful.

    • Does that change the accuracy of what Moses narrated about near-fratricide turned money-making venture of a sibling sold to a passing caravan on its way to Egypt/Africa by his brethren?

    • Of course it does! I am actually not understanding your take. If for the Moses narrative you mean the voluntary movement of the ancient Hebrew to Egypt? And their subsequent maltreatment that the story alleges? First, I don’t believe such a thing happened. It was cooked in my opinion. But I can still discuss a story, for that’s all it is – a story.

      So it is different.

    • Facebook warrior Hermann W. von Hesse? If that is to say I defend my thesis better than you defend your European ideologies, then I accept! Lol.

    • Neither the Egyptians nor the descendants of the Ishmaelites deny it so why should we Midianites(as their descendants) think it was a cooked story?

    • Ebenezer Nii Amu First-quao. I have discussed my opinion of Exodus here: https://grandmotherafrica.com/hebrew-yahweh-concoction…/

      But I don’t deny what others allege. I don’t believe it is another story. I don’t believe their story. I think I am capable of not believing that someone is not lying.

      For instance, I don’t believe in those who claim they are descendants of Kemet or of the ancient Hebrew.

  11. The idea around here is that colonizers coerced some africans into ‘complicity’ while other africans fought back(were captured)..

    • “It’s chess, not checkers” is the saying. There simply could not have been a ‘one size fits all’ method to capture such a multitude of people. And evidence can be destroyed, fabricated, and misappropriated. The truth may be too far convoluted with lies, half-truths, and conjecture to ever have it down to an exact.

  12. “The story of Africa. Complicity is fake. I don’t hear that about the holocaust even though so Jews were involved. It was afterall a matter of divide and conquer.”

    That quote is from Grace Ayensu Danquah, it couldn’t be more apt. It couldn’t have added too much more to my day!

    • Narmer Amenuti haha if this wasn’t so serious. But this fake narrative has to stop. Like I said I never hear that about the holocaust even though some Jews helped to out other Jews because it is widely believed that to achieve this goals the Germans pitted Jew against Jews. So why is Africa any different? Why should the African be blamed under any circumstances?

    • Ain’t no body blaming anybody. Just stating fact. It is the philosophical and genetic descendants of the ” the SlaverMentality” Complex within our native elites who have sold us into modern day slavery, their ancestors are the ones who sold Afrikans. Even today aren’t Dagaa , Lobi coerced into pawning their children by their ” traditional Outtara and Mossi masters” into Baule cocoa slavery in Ivory Coast today. Get real fellas.

    • “Aren’t Dagaa , Lobi coerced…” So how exactly do you believe that you are “real”? Coerced by who – have you asked that question?

  13. Keep the fire blazing big brother Narmer Amenuti. Ignore the insults and pay no heed. Insults are the last resort of a man who’s lost his defenses. If for nothing at all, you’ve touched on matters that would otherwise go unquestioned.Our people believe in the sanctity of written and spoken words, without acknowledging that behind every script there always an agenda and the vilest of such was the one that plagued our kind for almost half a millennia

  14. Humans today on the planet are more culturally and geographically divergent than genetically, and it’s the genes which characterize us much more. Enslaving neighbouring tribes or trying to subjugate them had pervaded most of the planet. We Africans are not special types of humans, purified of all human vices until Europeans or Arabs came to teach or coerce us into their devilish ways. Whitewashing our history is absurd, it’d seem.

    • Let me add: But the Jews, you see, they are pure of evil. That is why the Holocaust was a Nazi crime, not a Jewish crime. Right?

    • Narmer Amenuti, did evil start among Germans and Jews with the holocaust? What’s the import of your retort?

  16. I agree that all humans are corruptible. We have a coon infestation in America right now. But as far as the trans-atlantic trade of Africans to the Americas goes, even if you substantiate a case that africans were willingly ‘complicit’, it comes down to two points: 1. There would be no supply if there were first no demand. 2. Whosoever has a will, seeks a way.

    Europeans willed and enforced the entire trans-atlantic slave trade. No amount of redirected blame will change that.

  17. I myself am a descendant of a sold boy, not connected with Arabs or trans-Atlantic slave trade. I’m interested in Africans honestly acknowledging some truth sometimes. How can the continent develop purely on whitewashing of our history?

  18. Sold? How? We all have stories in our families talking about some member sold to that family or the next. You compare this to Trans-Atlantic Slavery? Jeez.

  19. Narmer Amenuti, did you start your post as exclusively on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, or you wanted an honest dwelling on all aspects of human bondage? Why can’t you engage in historical surveys, without behaving as a propagandist for narrow agenda?

  20. Narmer Amenuti I’m re-posting this here for u.

    Alexander Brown ask Maxwell Nartey what Reindorf (who was born in 1834) said about local involvement in the slave trade long before Europeans even dreamt of conquering us.

    Reindorf knew slave traders and even mentioned them by name. Eg. ANKRA of Otublohum.

    Acknowledging African participation in the slave trade doesn’t minimize European culpability. Especially when we highlight how Africans themselves fought against the slave trade and raids. Building protective walls around towns, overthrowing oppressive regimes such as Akwamu. Also Muslim clerics overthrew corrupt Wolof kings and abolished the Atlantic slave trade from Senegambia in 1776.

    After all Africans themselves were not militarily and economically placed to abolish the trade globally. But they resisted the slave trade and their fiery resistance more than anything else was what prompted the global abolishment of the trade in human cargo.
    In the Portuguese colonial enclaves of Benguela and Luanda, Africans in the interior fought Portuguese colonial armies and their African auxiliary troops who were raided for captives.

    The slave trade was very complicated and Narmer Amenuti your simplistic tropes only betrays your lack of understanding about the Atlantic slave trade.

  21. Yes Johnson Tunu. I did. I only wrote about the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Humans. Nothing else. I cannot speak of other type of human servitude. Once you even intimated that we were all slaves on Facebook. I get your point but stop watering down serious dialogue. Stopping speaking in generalities.

    So why confuse the issue with your story of having descended from a someone sold? Need I tell you those in my family who were bought into the family or sold out? No need. What I am more horrified about is Kunyowu (Trans-Atlantic Slavery), not some other thing. It was not called Kunyowu by the Gbe peoples for fun. Why the specificity if it was as you say just like any other human bondage. Why refer to the Holocaust if, as you say it was just like all human bondage? Why even honor it? Specificity matter. Always. Don’t water down Kunyowu with some family history.

  22. Hermann, thanks for learning something here. I goat would realize that you changed your stance from: “Africans sold Africans” to “It was complex.” You are learning albeit, very slowly. And I don’t blame you. You might be slow. Although I am sure you will finally grasp that the complexity that you now accept is worth explaining through my Theory of Terrorism.

    But alas… I wait for you. One day at a time.

  24. Narmer Amenuti bass off. You’ll be the last person I’ll take African history lessons from. Apuuu. Massa go bed.

  25. You see Hermann? You are still stuck on factology. You are so childish you treat facts like new toys. In time, if Wisconsin has the scholars to educate you, you will come to understand that a PhD is more about the ability to develop a Theory that explains the facts. Not the regurgitation of the facts. For instance the theory of the European Miracle attempted to explain some facts about European history. You? You are committing facts to memory.

    But, my friend, you continue to read me long enough, you will learn men! You will learn!

  26. Narmer Amenuti hahaha you’re stuck in your own dogmatic and warped thinking about African history. I don’t share your views about history or historical methodology. It’s misguided at best

  27. Since you’re not a truth-seeker but rather a propagandist, possibly because you’re ashamed of acknowledging that parts of African history are not honourable(though all peoples have this mixed baggage), and since you post materials not as an intellectual pursuit but to exhibit your superiority by shaming others and constantly digressing, it’s unpleasant to be your interlocutor, so having expressed enough of My position, I wish you good luck in your Squealer(“Animal Farm”) type of role.

  29. Bringing up “black on black crime” usually doesn’t actually resolve that problem. It merely justifies some resentment that person harbors against other africans and it deflects from Europe’s crimes against Africa.

  30. Narmer Amenuti but shouldn’t we be seeking truth? And/or evidence?
    Is that not what history is all about?

  31. Rashad Penn, I used to view the world the way that some Africans view it today, until I stepped into the Experiment that is America and I had to give up my childish ways about race and capital.

    This talk about African Complicity in the Slave Trade hearkens as you say to the same theoretical deflection used by US Federal Governments to shirk real responsibility for crimes against humanity and to forget dealing with Police Brutality and legacies of Slavery.

    When I hear fellow Ghanaians repeat the nonsense, albeit in the realm of the Slave trade, I insist on them understanding the impetus behind their claims. Rather they keep acting like somone like me is more evil than their supposed claims of impartiality to the facts.

  32. Hermann, I abhor that word: Truth? Let alone that idea to seek it. You don’t understand philosophy if you insist on Truths. People in Ntoaboma, and I imagine the vast masses of Africans have a preoccupation with the “Truth.” What is that?

    What we should seek are sensible theories to explain each one of our supposed “facts.” When a posit one, then I am evil. When I write about theory-making, you throw tantrums. But you seem so convinced that the books you read and the professors who write them know the truth. You seem to convince yourself that everything you read is true.

    It is a perplexing exercise to make readers understand that what they already know is as much a propaganda as what I present. But you call me a liar and yourself a “truth-seeker”? Jee, give me a break!

  33. Narmer Amenuti well I’m not dogmatically worded to “truth” but definitely I’m dogmatic about evidence. There’s no history without evidence!

    Narmer Amenuti we don’t theorize about the past. We look for evidence from the past.
    If u say all Africans are noble in the 21st century and therefore all Africans must have been nobles in the 18th century wouldn’t make sense to me a historian. Is this what you call “I theorize about the past”?
    That’s not history. That’s a figment of your afrocentrist imagination gone wild.

  34. Hermann let’s say it’s a fact that some africans sold my ancestors into slavery. What should I do with that information? Hate all africans? I’m not trying to argue. I’m trying to understand where you’re coming from. Because you’re an African calling another African an “afrocentric hotep”.

  35. Hermann W. von Hesse. Evidence is what many call facts. And that many still confuse the facts with the “Truth.” What is the truth in this case: the facts or the theory? If I present a theory to explain away a set of facts, and you say I am lying, then you don’t understand science. If you also think there’s only a single theory for any set of facts then you need better education. Take this lesson from me: Any set of facts (evidence) can be explained through at least one Theory other than the No Theory Thesis.

    I have tried many times to present this in many short essays. But folks keep missing the point. You in particular, We are not in a race to win a prize. Even then I would win, you will lose (lol). But all this is just about theory-making. Smart people approach it thus without acting like there’s one “truth.” What is that?

    And, stop making up foolish instances as Theories. If you want to critique a theory I have presented, do that. Stop talking in generalities.

  36. Rashad Penn read my posts very carefully and you’ll appreciate why Narmer is wrong.

    I don’t think u understood what I posted.

    Read it carefully and come have a conversation with me

    Rashad Penn “afrocentrism” is a malaise which prevents black Americans like your self from understanding African cultures, histories and peoples.
    Afrocentrism = you’re comfortable in your hotep and conspiratorial bubble.

    There’s nothing ‘African’ about ‘afrocentrism ‘

    Distorting and/or misrepresenting African history to boost black egos isn’t gonna stop police from being racist.

    It deprives u of the ability to fully understand and appreciate the nuances of African histories and cultures.

  37. Rashad Penn, you waste your time with Hermann. Half of the time he is not sure what it is he speaks. He will keep running you back to whatever he may have said or not. You end up scratching your head until you realize Hermann is still growing. LOL.

  38. Narmer, I’m not wasting time lol and I’m not trying to argue. Hermann, help me unpack this:

    1. Are you suggesting that I don’t understand/side with you because I don’t read carefully?

    2a. In your opinion, is Black American culture and history, by extension, African culture and history?

    2b. Are Black Americans, by extension, African?

    3. In your opinion, are Black American afrocentric scholars merely conspiracy theorists?

    4. “Distorting and/or misrepresenting African history to boost black egos isn’t gonna stop police from being racist.”

    Who has argued that?

  39. Whether myth or not, its problematic to address this issue as Africans. We need to kill that idea by simply shifting to the reality, which is the fact that European oppression always works in a way that the oppressed must have hands in their oppression. So it becomes by default, problematic to even start entertaining any form of premising that says the African was complicit in slavery.

  40. Not one commentator has mentioned The Bull Romanus Pontifex (Nicholas V), January 8, 1455

    We [therefore] weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso — to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.

  41. Audu Salisu aptly sums it up for those whose Critical Reasoning can grasp the main point being highlighted in this debate – that is the particularity of the “Kunyowu” of the Maangamizi cannot be lost in the generality of all that Slavery is made out by Eurocentrism to be: “Whether myth or not, its problematic to address this issue as Africans. We need to kill that idea by simply shifting to the reality, which is the fact that European oppression always works in a way that the oppressed must have hands in their oppression. So it becomes by default, problematic to even start entertaining any form of premising that says the African was complicit in slavery.” This is not to gloss over the injustices of the Afrikan subjugation of fellow Afrikans to slavery-like forms of servitude and other weaknesses and imperfections of indigenous Afrikan societal development in the course of the independent Afrikan making of Afrikan and World History; nor excuse, deny or exonerate the Maangamizi crimes of African traitors, especially of those socially engineered in the schools and training processes of Eurocentric Coloniality by the European vampires of White Supremacy Racism! A few traitors that can always be found among an oppressed people do not make the entirety of the oppressed people complicit in the criminality of the oppression imposed upon them! Such traitors must always be clearly selected out, exposed and punished in the emancipatory struggle of the oppressed as a whole!

  42. Narmer Amenuti he is still learning. He has been brainwashed to feel that he is partially responsible for a heinous crime that was perpetuated on his tribe, his ancestors and his ancestoral home/land and his ability to change will only be based on the fact of his acceptance that the victim was also responsible for the crime. It’s akin to a battered woman saying her husband beats her because she did something wrong. NO the husband beats her because he is a monster …nothing she did necessitated the beating. This syndrome is a true clinical syndrome.

  43. Grace Ayensu Danquah , me brainwashed? For stating that Africans participated in the slave trade?

    You don’t understand African history.
    And I don’t take African lessons from you.
    The way u keep shifting the goal posts betrays your confusion.
    You have a binary understanding of history.

    Brainwashed? At least I’m not a Christian. Have a good day.

  44. Narmer Amenuti read my lips very well. African history is nuanced ok. You can suit yourself with your facebook posts. No one cares about your warped opinions.

  45. Hermann W. von Hesse not for stating it .. we all agree that it’s factually true.. according to the grand scheme of the oppressor. The problem is when you repeat it in an attempt to diminish the African pain and to attempt to make the victim partially responsible for the crime.

  46. Grace Ayensu Danquah understand African history first before singing the “oppressor” tune.

  49. Hermann W. von Hesse I know that. That is precisely why I will not ask those who studied same before me to go and read history. Thank you I rest my case.

    No disrespect though. I hope you know that.

  50. Grace Ayensu Danquah I didn’t ask you “to go and read history “. I asked you to understand the nuances of history.

  51. Hermann W. von Hesse what is the difference?.. isn’t it to suggest that I don’t understand the nuances of history? FYI I do understand the nuances of history very well.

  52. Grace Ayensu Danquah u don’t. U kept shifting the Goal posts and resorting to redherrings and strawman arguments like “I was a history major in school” “I studied history before you ” , “you’re brain washed”.

    None of these proves your expertise in what you’re talking about. Expertise lies in the delivery.

    And finally I’m out.

  53. Hermann W. von Hesse I kept saying that because you kept resorting to “go and read history” or the supposed “nuances of history” so I had to keep reminding you that I studied history before you did. Lastly my goal post has not shifted it has remained the same. Nothing you say about the involvement of blacks in the slave trade will diminish the pain of the black man nor will it make the black man partially responsible for a crime that was perpetuated against him. Even if we were in tribes, or kingdoms or groups … the BLackman is NOT in anyway responsible for the slave trade. The black man WAS the victim!!!!!! Point blank period.

  54. Grace Ayensu Danquah stop misquoting me. Besides studying history in college doesn’t make one a historian. The expertise lies in the argument.

  55. Hermann W. von Hesse my argument is sound. For you to even believe that the Blackman is somehow complicit in the crime is mind boggling and a shame. But we can agree to disagree

  56. Black freedom fighters in Amerikkka aint even tripping over what Africans did or didn’t do to/for us. Its irrelevant in the belly of the beast. We should channel our brilliance towards the greater good of the people..

    Hermann, I’m gonna send u a link. It might blow your mind or maybe you can school me..

  57. Grace Ayensu Danquah here we go again. You’re not an (Africanist) historian. I’m sorry that’s not your expertise

  58. Hermann W. von Hesse I agree I am certainly not a “Africanist Historian”. I hate labels I don’t even know what is required of that person. Again for you to categorize yourself is such constricting shallow labels continues to be mind boggling and a shame. Since when does one have to be a “Africanist Historian” to have knowledge and intellect and to be able to have an opinion on this topic???. You are very funny.. smdh .. go ahead and continue to be brainwashed. FYI as for intellect you can’t attempt to lord it over me. Mine is overflowing. You will eventually graduate from your TA and learn someday.
    I am done here.

  59. Grace Ayensu Danquah, you debate an incorrigible student who wallows in American largess and for that matter is blinded by his own indulgence, which is why he insists that what he wallows in must be pure – or without the Blame. What he reaches into must be better than what he leaves behind. This student is quite a character.

    • Ah i don’t know if the brother has read the uncontested anthopological works of Anta diop and Josef Ben-jochannan as well as history from john Henrik Clarke all in blessed memory. This narrative is just some European literature.

    • Seyram Amegadze Keep watching I think you may be surprised to know that he has a stack of all mentioned or those of that ilk, right in front of him.

    • Thanks SaMa’at Sakuhai. I dismissed it rather too soon.
      I have searched him, and have seen he’s done lots of independent research more than i initially gave him credit. He left me shaken but i am glad he did and I am super glad he is with me and i would try to directly ask via mail on my observation. If you or anyone can help in that regard, i would be grateful. But i would be back soon and would try and find him. Thanks
      Saw some contact beneath the video, i would try it. thanks

  61. Thought you might find the following interesting:

    Earth Talk – Primitive Slavery – Rising Firefly. Vol 67 ~ Nehez Meniooh

    For the last 500 years, the “African” has been primarily associated with the concept of enslavement. Modern educational institutions, while asking for our respect, tell us that black history in the West started with slavery. They teach that slavery, though horrific, is normal: a product of human culture, traceable to its earliest societies. Perhaps this is why the majority of European governments see no need to lend even a formal of apology to those responsible for building their infrastructure (through the free labor). This system’s habit of distorting human history in order to protect its image from being associated with the with evils it has committed against its own creators does not have any limits which it will not cross. It is necessary, for the sake of young developing minds under the influence of modern education and media, to expose the basic concepts of human life. We must do all that we can to prevent the destructive psychosis of modern culture from being perpetrated further into future generations.

    Black civilization, or let’s say Pharaonic civilization — to avoid the racial distraction that all political leaders have been maintaining for the past few centuries — knew no such thing as modern forms of slavery. An explanation of what is known as slavery in our Ancestral paradigm will continue to prove the ridiculousness of this system. It is time that we expose the difference in cultural refinement that exists between the “modern” man and the “primitive”.

    Within the Kemetic cultures, there are different forms of what can be translated most closely to slavery. In the traditional languages of Western Meritah, we have the concept of “buying” a person. However, this is not the same concept as paying money for another human being and henceforth owning him/her as property. Though translated as “to buy”, this concept should more appropriately be related to the act of “taking responsibility for”. In this process, the priest or spiritual authorities of one ethnic group can observe the destiny or spiritual predispositions of a foreigner and in doing so conclude that they can better provide what is necessary to allow for the proper development or achievement of the destiny of that individual. This is done usually when the family, community or ethnic group of that individual, does not have the resources or knowledge to guarantee the proper utilization of the individual’s capabilities and he/she is at risk of an unrealized destiny.

    This notion demands a high level of spiritual refinement even to comprehend because within Kemetic culture there are ways to read the identity, destiny, and history of an individual through Earth energies. Priests who provide this service become very sensitive to the energies that they spend their lives reading and often can see energies that are unseen to others in their daily lives. Only when they see a potential that is at risk of being untapped will they proceed with “buying” a person.

    Among the spiritual tribes of Western Meritah, a person who has been “bought” spiritually is a very fortunate individual. That individual has been saved from an unfulfilled destiny. He/she has been provided the tools and resources that now enable them to achieve their destiny. This process takes place when people are old enough to separate from their parents and make decisions for themselves. A person can be brought into their elder years. This makes the process of re-education more challenging because the perspective of the individual has already been built through the foundation of his or her education. The process should be understood first and foremost as a spiritual responsibility taken by the buyer to improve the individual’s quality of life. The individual who has been bought is an adult and at any time can make the decision to leave the tutelage or influence of the buyer, but that option would be seen as self-defeating. Bought individuals are not given a lower class in society. They are often respected depending on the respect of their master in relation to the success of the application of the knowledge and resources their master has bestowed upon them.

    Another concept that can be associated with slavery is referred to among the Tem tribes of Western Meritah as a kohrey. Kohrey translates into the action of picking a ripe fruit but can be better understood as “adopting”. In this instance, a professional of a certain field will ask for the responsibility of raising a child who carries the predispositions or gifts that enable him for success in that field. This differs from “buying” a person because the “picking” is done either while the child is in the womb or while the child is still very young to ensure that his/her educational foundation is laid appropriately by people who have expertise in the field which the child’s destiny has set for him/her.

    Also, a kohrey has new less value in society than others. Many kohrey become leaders in the community, considering the qualities seen by the master who motivated him/her to “pick” them. Their decision is from a place of leadership to ensure that the community will benefit from the successes of that individual achieving his or her destiny rather than allowing the parents to be spiritually ill-equipped in his/her upbringing. Kohreys can become kings, they can become priests and any other respected or revered position in society.

    The third type of social position that one can associate with the idea of slavery grows out of the tribal pacts throughout the continent of Meritah. Kemetic society is very complex, with many protocols, rules, and customs. These rules or logics are referred to as “the tradition” and were dictated long ago by Ancestors. In some cases, an act of moral quality, intelligence, or bravery shown by the forefathers of one ethnic group can benefit another ethnic group and results in a pact between the two, ensuring peace, support, or cooperation between the members of the two different groups. Members of the benefiting group will gratefully take the position of apprentice, receiver or “slave” to the other group out of respect for the deed or benediction of the Ancestor(s) of the acting group. In many cases, this designation will give the descendants of the acting group certain privileges with the benefiting group, such as the right to take a wife without question from the benefiting group, or the right to do what one chooses in the territory of the benefiting group without question or objection.

    continued next…

  62. Earth Talk – Primitive Slavery FF. Vol 67 ~ Nehez Meniooh

    continued from last…

    In other cases, when the ambitions of one tribe cause hardship on another tribe which through proof of wisdom or endurance withstands and overcomes, the ambitious tribe is left in shame. Shame in the Kemetic society is a very bad position to be placed in. Many ethnic groups live by the motto, “Death before dishonor/shame.” The pact made between the shamed tribe and the one who has persevered by maintaining truth and respecting justice forces the descendants of the shamed group to carry the mistakes of their parents. In this situation, they can be referred to as the slaves of those who presented an example of overcoming human moral quality. This can also mean that their women can be taken for marriage without question. They can be publicly humiliated and cannot react with anger because of the agreements and vows that their Ancestors made long ago. One can also fill a role of servitude to the persevering tribal member when they see him/her or visit each other’s territory.

    This is not only much different from modern slavery, but it also carries some irony in relation to modern slavery. If we consider that people of color all over the globe have been enslaved for the morality empty ambitions of a few of the species who refer to themselves as white, not because it is their color but in the sole aim to disassociate themselves from the rest of their species, anyone moving forward under the modern philosophies or benefiting from the oppression of humanity will inevitably one day be seen carrying the shame of their predecessors who tried so hard to destroy their own species and their own planet by their own greed…

    One cannot deny that there is also the notion of a servant within traditional society. These are the people who work as laborers. They can serve others or provide the services in the society that others who contribute specialties, do not have time for. These members of society can be associated with a slave because they work hard. However, this association would be ignoring the complicated social fabric of traditional human culture and forcing the rest of the world to fit the scope of modern values.

    Modern man has been infected by materialism and has become drunk with the power he sees leading him to accumulate wealth. For one who only honors material wealth, one who serves others with hard work and does not accumulate much wealth is seen as inferior. However, in a society which is more focused on the immaterial aspect of life and the moral and spiritual qualities that can be achieved by any human being who submits to the rigor and challenge of a spiritual education and the spiritual pursuit, every individual contribution to the society allowing all the chance to grow in this process is as valued and respected as the next.

    No servant is beaten, bought or sold. No servant in traditional society is returned to his or her master and punished if he/she runs away. No servant is chained or whipped. No servant is seen as less than a human being because every individual is involved in the same spiritual becoming as his/her observer.

    Modern man has only succeeded in fooling himself in his hopeless rantings about his own greatness and evolution. What should be more alarming is that modern man, trapped in a cycle of self-destruction, remains fertile, so more and more children are coming to men and women who do not have the resources to properly educate them and lead them towards their destiny. And, every human being who comes in life must face a spiritual existence that has lasted since the beginning of time — far before modern education, modern money or modern politics.

    As it stands, we, in the colonial territories are not equipped for this. Alone, we cannot see past the lies of our forefathers who — too fixated on protecting their own image — sold us out (their own children) to a destiny of slavery to a man-made system. They have given us to a destiny of holding a worldview of destruction guaranteed by mis-education. This mis-education has taught us to submit ourselves to a life of slavery while charging those who live according to the discipline that has always defined humanity as being backward slaves.

    In this era, we shun the contribution of our elders; we pursue the material fads of our youth; we spend our life force pursuing paper money imprinted with images of mortal men who themselves had poured their own life-force into ambitions that only death forced them to abandon. In such an era, we would be far more fortunate to live as traditional slaves (as defined above). We would be fortunate to receive the help of those who have never left the complex rules and regulations that define our species on this planet.

    Would you rather be a slave (Kohrey/laborer/indebted to others who showed the way) living in a truly human society or a proud member of a society of slaves? The history of slavery in the modern world clearly shows that it has been evolved over time by our political leaders to ensure that we are always ready to feed our blood to this monster which we have created.

  63. As for this one l deduce African type of slavery took place. Even to go deeper “Tikosi” was a form of slavery until recently abolished in Ghana. The fact that many of our chiefs are selfish up to do day has not helped matters. From oral traditions they were complicit when it came to slavery whether by Africans or Europeans it is inhuman. The atrocities of whites during Trans Atlantic Slave Trade was very traumatic and wicked. Nevertheless black man’s wickedness to his fellow human is still present in other forms today. We need a complete of heart if Africa is to unite.

    • I guess you meant to say ‘trokosi’. It’s sad you made such a comparison but i can understand. If you can tell on authority that such people were ever disposed as slaves i would be happy. Secondly, i would like to know what you think about Nuns and how different is the world beloved Nuns that we gleefully mob when they come to our villages to the trokosi’s. Thanks

  64. Seyram Amegadze oh ideas r like noses l have my own u have urs so l will not argue with u over somebody’s article.

  65. Seyram Amegadze Nuns have no comparison to the Trokosi system. Nuns go to the monastery willingly and can leave when they wish. That is not the case with the Trokosi system.

  67. Seyram first off you go and take an example from India a country with a well known entrenched rape culture.

    Secondly, the article you posted us replete with examples of Nuns leaving the monastery on their own volition. My point was NOT that abuses don’t exist in the Catholic church. We all know the sexual misconduct of that church.

    My point was and is about the freedom to join and leave the monastery willingly. That’s all. The Trokosi system can get you admitted on the basis of a debt owed by your family member and until your term runs out you do not have the option of leaving. The two systems are NOT the same. no way

  68. By running, suicide and finally leaving at old age, you mean ‘willingly’ Cool no argument.

    Trokosi is of-course different, and no sane individual would imply that people go there on their own accord and so is the nuns but through religious mental subjugation of the individual. Because just as no sane individual would love to serve in the shrines as trokosi willingly, no sane person would take a vow to be to be poor and worthless and even in the face of barrage sexual molestation and other kinds of abuses. What i am saying in essence is that they may have difference means of admission, but they are principally the same at ALL LEVELS

  69. Seyram Amegadze actually a lot of People take a vow of poverty and chastity. You have monks outside of Christianity who do exactly that. That is where the difference lies: volition as opposed to compulsion.

  70. If you say so, wouldn’t contest it but from where i sit, all of those are forms of subjugation and wouldn’t rate one above the other.
    Having said that, i would like to leave you with a 6 part testimony cum confession of a serving nun and judge for yourself if not for the fear of the phantom Seoul killer, would any sane person be even close to that evil cult? Below is part one, the links to 2-6 are beneath the article.
    http://www.theymetjesus.com/…/charlotte_eng_part_1.htm

  71. We need a complete change of heart if Africa is to unite.

    Africans must learn how to debate how to debate issues passionately without resorting to abusive language. That is negative energy. Let us develop positive energy.

    I think the subjugation topic of Asian some Asian countries is a must read.

    The Solewoyinkas abound and l share some of his views but it is about time we stop the blame game and see what we can do about our bad leaders and for ourselves.

  72. It’s important that when discussing our history that we do so in ways that edify us mentally. To do so necessitates that we engage facts and logic.

    Yes, the Trans-atlantic slave trade was initiated by the Europeans. It was their brainchild. That is a fact. Africans didn’t sail to Europe or the Americas to advertise slaves for sale. Europeans built a whole industry ( shipbuilding, banking, insurance, public liability companies etc) to facilitate the trade. However, the Europeans who sailed here for slaves were too few to start a war with the Africans over slaves. They would have been massacred. Even when they established forts in Africa and settled here they lost many wars against the Africans including the Asante and the Zulus. They even lost in Haiti when they were a multinational army against poor slaves.

    Until the 19th century Europeans settlers were paying rents to our Kings to occupy our lands. They were our subjects. Colonialism only started in the 19th century and ended in the 20th century. We simply give them too much credit when we argue that they came here and captured us. THEY HAD NO SUCH POWER.

    The slave trade was aided by the fact that there existed inter-ethnic wars that produced a good number of slaves. The Asanthene recieved tributes in slaves and gold from conquered peoples. Many of these slaves were then exchanged for guns, textiles and alcohol.

    The Europeans did settle in Cape Verde where they were sent from Portugal. A lot of these Portuguese married African women and produced mixed race kids who became known as Lancados. Many of these became slave raiders which is why many of the northern ethnic groups saw then to be light-skinned such as Babatu the notorious slave raider. The work of the Lancados, who were Portuguese Jews, has gone unmentioned in history.

    So the slave trade was kept alive by a myriad of factors and peoples; White, Black and mixed

    • Of course nobody or l shd talk for myself said some Europeans did not come to do the inhuman. This has nothing to do with edification of black which l strongly support. But fact cannot be altered. Our oral traditions cannot be overlooked either.

      It is about time we face facts and dare campaign against negative energies that is drawing us back. We need a u turn about the way we think about ourselves and act. We need positive energies like empathy, love,truth, noble ideas…. The list is endless.

      In logic the premises lead one to conclusion not half truths. We r talking about complicity or condoning and conniving here. To digress a little we still see vestiges of corrupt black leaders signing dubious contracts on our behalf. We need attitudinal change especially our chiefs and political leaders.

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