A white male friend of mine just gave me the "Africans sold other Africans to white people for slavery." How do I handle this?
Unfortunately, it is true that West African tribes traded their POWs into slavery.
However, it was those white colonizers who instituted the racial basis through which we see American (both north and south) society today.
And the actions of the Africans on the continent does not excuse the horrors of the middle passage and the horrors that the slaves faced when they reached the New World.
So if/when you and your friend discuss this again, make sure that he understands that by using this argument, he is passing the responsibility for hundreds of years of oppression away.
(It also stands to mention that at least in the US, the importation of slaves ended in 1807, while slavery as an institution didn’t end until 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment. Ask him if those 58 years of chattel slavery were also the faults of the Africans)
trapcard:
Also this idea that “africans sold other africans” is wrong.
During that time they did not identify as africans or even black.
those labels were created by the europeans following colonization.
these tribes identified on very local levels, you were a part of your tribe or group.
There was no “African” or “black” identity.
You also fail to mention
that a lot of the time the european colonizers would threaten these kingdoms with war if they did not sell them these prisoners.
Why would you risk going to war over your enemy was the thought process.
A majority of the time the european colonizers also told these kingdoms “yes we will return these people back and we will teach them english!”
which was a blatant lie.
The point of this all being that the selling of the to be slaves wasn’t as simple as “oh we need money”
it was a lot of trickery and double crossing on the side of the european buyers
and the fact remains that once the colonization truly began these people were being kidnapped and sold regardless of the kingdoms voice.
There were numerous wars between varying kingdoms and european colonizers because of this.
so this wasn’t some simplistic cut and dry situation as people seem to try and make it seem.
Regardless the triangle slave trade’s impact is still being seen and felt in every facet of a black person’s life.
whether or not “africans sold other africans” happened really doesn’t matter.
White europeans managed to create a long standing system of racism and oppression through their violent actions per usual.
So that’s that on that.
[caps removed and spaces added for accessibility]
