The Atlantic Slave Trade

Paper Summary:

The Portuguese arrival on the Gold Coast of Africa in 1439 brought the beginnings of the Atlantic Slave Trade, subjecting the continent to four centuries of depredation. The paper argues that the intensity of the suffering endured by the African people should be described nothing short of a Holocaust. By examining tragic facts in the form of tables, this paper analyzes the Atlantic Slave Trade from an Afrocentric point of view rather than from either a Eurocentric or even Africanist perspective. In other words, this paper makes little or no apology for presenting material from an African perspective or for identifying emotionally with African history. Instead the paper "presents an insider's perspective which more overtly embraces an African identity."

Paper Outline:
From Harmony to Holocaust
Africanist vs. Afrocentric Point of View
The Effect of the Atlantic Slave Trade on African Culture (in General)
The Effect of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Specific African Cultures
African Complicity?
The Problem Remains the Same

From the Paper:

"The observations made by Tunde Obadina above are echoed in "The Maafa: A Holocaust of Greed." In this reading, the situation on the African continent resulting from the slave trade is described as one of pure chaos. Kingdoms would rise and fall depending on how well they filled the individual "slave-quotas" dictated by the Europeans. Cultural continuity was almost a contradiction in terms as established groups would pass from the scene in quick succession, one after the other. So to ask if the African cultures were affected by the slave trade is go about understanding this situation in completely the wrong way. The effect was a given. Better to ask exactly how much damage was done to African culture as a result of the trade in Africans. This much is clear, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was "an event which destroyed peoples and whole cultures, an event which would destabilize a continent, changing it forever.""

More papers on The Atlantic Slave Trade:

• Essay # 90755 : "Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade"
• Essay # 90775 : "Personal Perspectives and the Atlantic Slave Trade"
• Essay # 90472 : "The Atlantic Slave Trade"

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