West African Response to the Slave Trade

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses ideology, ruling apparatus, and military structure of the peoples of Senegambia, the Sahel Dahomey, and the eastern Niger Delta States. It focuses on their response to the unique internal and external changes that they experienced when faced with the Arab and European slave trades before 1800.

From the Paper:

"Thus, in the savanna, the advance of Islam was similar to that in Senegambia. Oppressed peasants and slaves joined up with charismatic leaders of a proselytizing and universal religion to create social change. However, not all were convinced. Some, for example the Bambara, held tenuously to their traditional beliefs. The clash between Islam and traditional religions created wars that further wracked the region (Barry, 94-102). Islam became the vehicle for those seeking social change for several reasons. For one, it undermined the legitimacy of the traditional rulers. They were established upon the basis of being first-comers to a region, of having been accepted by local spirits, and by the inheritance of the divine right to rule through specific kinship systems."

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