Black mother: The years of the African slave trade

Description

African independence is one of the great facts of the modern world. Yet Africa was also independent in the past. African states had many and varied links of alliance and commercial part nership with Europe for several hundred years before the colonial period began. Black Mother is about the course and consequences of this long African-European connection that endured from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth. It makes an answer to three vital questions: What kind of contact was this with Europe and America? How did the experience affect Africa? Why did it end in colonial invasion and conquest? As with its predecessor, The Lost Cities of Africa, the aim of this book is to reassess the past of Africa, and thus contribute to a fuller understanding of the independent Africa of today. Black Mother Author’s Note Introduction BLACK MOTHER Contents List of Illustrations ONE: FACT AND FABLE 1 Before the Trade Began 2 The Old States of Africa 3 Similarities 4 Slaves and Slaving 5 Differences TWO: THE YEARS OF TRIAL 1 At First a Trickle 2 Gold and Elephants’ Teeth 3 And Then a Flood 4 Battle for the Coast 5 The Trade Pays Off 6 Abolition THREE: MANNER OF THE TRADE 1 How Many? 2 The System Installed 3 Rules and Customs 4 Attitudes and Opinions 5 Where Did They Come From? 6 Three Regions FOUR: MANI-CONGO 1 Discovery 2 Royal Brothers 3 Congo, Ngola, Matamba 4 Law and Order 5 From Alliance to Invasion 6 Root of the Evil FIVE: EAST COAST FORTUNES 1 A Riddle at Kilwa 2 Cities of the Seaboard 3 The Vital Contrast 4 In the Wake of the Storm 5 When You Pipe at Zanzibar. . . SIX: FRONTIER OF OPPORTUNITY 1 Like Nothing Else .. . 2 The People of the Salt Water 3 “Children of God” 4 Partners in Trade 5 Behind the Coast 6 Disaster at Benin 7 One Gun: One Slave 8 Ashanti: The New Battle for the Coast 9 The Partnership Cracks 10 Men like Ja Ja: The Last Phase SEVEN: FOUR CENTURIES: A SUMMING-UP An End and a Beginning Acknowledgments Bibliography Index