History of Africa - Slavery and Salvation

Good morning, I hope the day finds you well.  Today I am working through the History of Africa series with Zeinab Badawi.  Today’s episode is called Slavery and Salvation and the run time for this episode is 44:51.

Zeinab Badawi visits Ghana and learns about the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  The slave trade led to competition for enslaved Africans between European nations.  These nations build forts along the Atlantic coast.  She hears about the inhumane conditions that the slaves were kept in while waiting for shipment across the Atlantic.  Zeinab also looks at the driving forces behind abolition and why did many Africans return to the Continent, particularly to Liberia.  How were these returnees received by the local communities?
The Transatlantic from the 16th to the 19th Century represents one of the more brutal periods in history.  More than twelve million Africans were transported from Africa to places overseas to endure a lifetime of servitude.  Zeinab looks at how slavery became entrenched, the conditions, and the ways Africans fought back.  She concludes with a look at those who returned to Africa.

The Portuguese were the first who dealt with the slave trade.  Zeinab starts off this section of African history in Ghana and the slave forts.  Millions of slaves would have passed through these forts before being shipped to Africa.  At the height of the slave trade, there were about 80 forts, castles, and lodges.  Zeinab tours the biggest fort: Cape Coast Castle in Ghana.  She explores the fort with a retired university professor.  She learns more about the history of the fort.  Over the course of eleven years, the fort changed hands five times.  The Transatlantic slave trade was fueled by greed.  Zeinab tours a lodge in Mozambique that was built by the Portuguese.  It is now a museum and she takes in the richly decorated rooms and the expensive furniture. 

Zeinab explores the conditions in which the captives were held.  there were stories that the people were willing.  However, there are records to show that the captives fought against their enslavement.  Zeinab tours one of the dungeons where the captives were held.  She comments on the air having a malevolent scent even before stepping down into the dungeon.  The retired professor points out the features of the dungeon.

The next fort Zeinab goes to is St. George’s Castle.  It was built by the Portuguese and was the oldest European structure in Sub-Saharan Africa.  It took hundreds of men to build the castle.  It was originally built to protect Portuguese influence in the region before it was turned into a place to store slaves awaiting transport.  Zeinab and the professor take a tour of the female courtyard and she learns about the treatment of the female slaves.  The men would have used the women for their own purposes.  The women would have been washed down and brought to the man for him to do what he wanted to.

Zeinab interviews two academics who are experts in slavery.  Oral tradition is that if a woman was discovered pregnant, they would not be put on the ship.  However, these professors warn that you have to be careful with the information.  The woman would have resisted being treated that way and their stories would have been told in epics.  One legend has it that a group of women set themselves and left one woman behind to tell the tale of what happened.  Zeinab then looks at the few handwritten accounts from the slaves themselves.

One of the accounts was from Olaudah Equiano and he was a vehement abolitionist.  He put his account out there about being a slave.  He put a face to slavery and even the British newspapers were picking up on the abolitionist movement.  There were stories and images showing the inhumane conditions that the slaves underwent.  Some groups argued that it was the Africans themselves who had some of the blame for the slave trade.  Would the slave trade end?  To learn more about the abolitionist movement continue to watch this episode.

Ugh, the only thing that keeps this series from being perfect is that this was not divided into chapters on the play screen.  This is a topic that can stir up great emotions and Zeinab handled it carefully and very well.  This would be an excellent episode to show to a classroom setting.