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How did slave systems work for centuries? This episode analyses the economic, political and commercial mechanisms that have transformed the capture and sale of human beings into a real system of production and exchange.
The history of African slavery cannot be understood solely through the violence exerted by the outside powers. It also involves examining the economic and political mechanisms that have enabled the gradual integration of African societies into different trafficking channels.
In several parts of the continent, war, razzias, dynastic conflicts, judicial convictions and dependency were sources of captive supply. These practices sometimes pre-existed in Atlantic trade, but the considerable increase in external demand profoundly transformed their scope and function.
Trafficking gradually created powerful economic incentives. Captors could be traded for weapons, textiles, metals, manufactured goods, horses, currencies or prestige goods. Some political authorities used these resources to strengthen their army, consolidate their authority or increase their territorial control.
This dynamic produced cumulative effects. When a kingdom obtained weapons through the captive trade, it could have a military advantage to carry out new campaigns, capture more people and feed the trading system even more.
It would, however, be misleading to talk about a uniform responsibility for « Africa ». The continent was made up of extremely diverse societies. Some elites actively participated in the trades, some communities tried to escape, while others were destroyed, displaced or permanently weakened by the razzies.
At the same time, external actors played a decisive role in the expansion of these systems. Demand from the Atlantic world, the Arab world and other commercial spaces created large-scale international markets whose profitability helped institutionalize the capture and sale of human beings.
The economy of slavery therefore functioned as a complex chain. Local intermediaries, political authorities, regional traders, carriers and foreign traders participated in different stages of a system that transformed human beings into commodities.
Understanding these mechanisms also explains why slavery practices were able to survive long after the first abolitions. When a system of domination becomes integrated into economic, social and political structures, its legal disappearance is not necessarily enough to remove immediately the dependency relationships that have made it possible.
This episode therefore proposes an economic and historical reading of African slavery, without exonerating the outside powers or occulting internal responsibilities. The aim is to understand how converging interests, power relations and international markets have been able to operate for centuries a system based on the commodification of human beings.
