The Karma of Economic Slavery (3)

BONDAGE: Slavery in Africa  existed throughout the continent for centuries before the arrival of white settlers but was a small part of the economic life until Europeans introduced a form of slavery which  devastated African life and society in the 1400s. The Portuguese were the first to buy slaves and the Spanish the first to use enslaved Africans in the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The Abolition of Slavery by Great Britain in 1833 led to the collapse of the international African slave trade economy resulting in European financial losses. This coincided with the colonisation of Africa and was the beginning of a commodity based trading system designed to serve the industrialisation of Europe.

Historically Africa had engaged in international trade from the time of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Prior to the official partition of Africa by the major European nations, West Africa had developed extensive international trading systems with its economies advancing in every area, particularly in the area of trade. Following the collapse of the slave trade Africa became a source of raw materials for the rapidly industrialising European powers. The colonisers encouraged the development of a commodity based trading system to meet their own requirements.  The consequence was a trade network linking the total economic output of African regions to the demands of the colonizing state with devastating results for the indigenous people.

In Tanganyika for example, “the colonial authorities shifted labor from food production to a labor intensive, non food cash crop, cotton.’ The colonial authorities also promoted the minor crops of peanuts and sesame while reducing dietary staples such as millet and sorghum. This led to inadequate food reserves, chronic malnutrition and famine. By insisting on the development of certain crops, Europeans undermined the existing economic power structure creating the total dependency of African countries upon Europe. Colonialism lasted in Africa for only a period of about eighty years, the legacy was enduring; Africans became and remain unequal partners in the arena of international trade and economics.

Following decolonisation Africa borrowed vast sums from various nations, banks and companies in an effort to feed, educate and modernise its people The price being political influence over Africa with a requirement to devalue their currencies. Political instability and devastated economies remain, with social issues of health and education ignored largely due to mismanagement by corrupt dictators many of whom  became puppets of the West. Today debt slavery is the commodity which holds Africa in bondage.