The East African Slave Trade

The History and Legacy of the Arab Slave Trade and the Indian Ocean Slave Trade

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Scott Clem

"It is certain that large numbers of slaves were exported from eastern Africa; the best evidence for this is the magnitude of the Zanj revolt in Iraq in the 9th century, though not all of the slaves involved were Zanj. There is little evidence of what part of eastern Africa the Zanj came from, for the name is here evidently used in its general sense, rather than to designate the particular stretch of the coast... to which the name was also applied." (Ghada Hashem Talhami, "The Zanj Rebellion Reconsidered", The International Journal of African Historical Studies)

It has often been said that the greatest invention of all time was the sail, which facilitated the internationalization of the globe and thus ushered in the modern era. It was the sail that linked the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, and thus it was also the sail that facilitated the greatest involuntary human migration of all time.

The transatlantic slave trade was founded by the Portuguese in the 15th century for the specific purpose of supplying the New World colonies with African slave labor. It was soon joined by all the major trading powers of Europe, and it reached its peak in the 18th century with the founding and development of plantation economies that ran from the South American mainland through the Caribbean and into the southern states of the United States.

The East African Slave Trade, on the other hand, or the Indian Ocean Slave Trade as it was also known, was a far more complex and nuanced phenomenon, far older, significantly more widespread, rooted in ancient traditions, and governed by rules very different to those in the western hemisphere. It is also often referred to as the Arab Slave Trade, although this, specifically, might perhaps be more accurately applied to the more ancient variant of organized African slavery, affecting North Africa, and undertaken prior to the advent of Islam and certainly prior to the spread of the institution south as far as the south/east African coast. It also involved the slavery of non-African races.

The African slave trade is a complex and deeply divisive subject that has had a tendency to evolve according the political requirements of any given age, and is often touchable only with the correct distribution of culpability. It has for many years, therefore, been deemed singularly unpalatable to implicate Africans themselves in the perpetration of the institution, and only in recent years has the large-scale African involvement in both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Slave Trades come to be an accepted fact. There can, however, be no doubt that even though large numbers of indigenous Africans were liable, it was European ingenuity and greed that fundamentally drove the industrialization of the transatlantic slave trade in response to massive new market demands created by their equally ruthless exploitation of the Americas.

©2017 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors

I Got Through It

This reading was very dry. Informative but dry. I can't say that I would suggest listening to this book. Reading it would have been better for me.

A must read to understand the slave trade!

Absolutely educational read about the slave trade. How the British worked hard to abolish it. How the Portuguese and Arab powers control it and how it’s the oldest slave trade known.

More of an informative pamphlet than a book.

Certainly more than I ever knew on the topic but only a very scant review of the subject. Not worth a credit.

awful

this book should be titled the story of Livingston not anything to do with the East African slave trade absolutely nothing. p if you are contemplating getting this book because you want to learn about the East African slave trade do not purchase it that is not what this is this is a story about Livingston and explore in the 1800s long after the damn East African slave trade ended this is a waste of money

Zero stars was not an option!!!

The reading of this book was barely tolerable. I really rely on reviews when I pick new books and felt this is definitely the worst book out of the 50+ books I’ve selected from audible. They did speak a lot about Dr. Livingstone in this book and if your looking for information on his life, I would recommend “Into Africa” by Martin Dugard! That was my previous book and why I was looking for more information about the East African Slave Trade. I was extremely disappointed in this book!!