Slavery

Do Africans feel "Deep Sorrow" for Africa's role in the slave trade or is it just the "white man's burden"?

Mighty black kings in the Bight of Biafra near modern-day Senegal and Benin sold their captives locally and later to European slave traders for goods such as metal cookware, rum, livestock, and seed grain.

The slaves came from many different sources. About half came from the societies that sold them. These might be criminals, heretics, the mentally ill, the indebted and any others that had fallen out of favour with the rulers. Most came from captured tribes in inter-tribal warfare. [] It is believed that capital punishment and human sacrifice in the region nearly disappeared since prisoners became far too valuable to dispose of in such a way.

For those left behind in Africa the standard of living increased substantially and the region became divided into highly centralized and powerful nation states, such as Dahomey and the Ashanti Confederacy. It also created a class of very wealthy and highly Europeanized traders who began to send their children to European universities.