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Slave trade
 

From Stone age till the Slave trade.

To sum up the history of a whole continent is impossible, but let's try. One factor that makes this even harder is that european colonism has destroyed mush of historical evidence. But geological investigations tell us that the human race comes from this continent. The color of the skin of these first people on earth are uncertain. What we do know today is that Sahara was a fertile agricultural area about 5000 bc. About 5000 years ago (3000 bc.) Sahara dried out. As a result sub-Saharan Africa was isolated from the rest of the world. The coast in East Africa and Madagascar is an exception. At Madagascar in example we find a mixed african-indonesian culture telling us about settlers from Indonesia. The Timbila (a wooden xylophone) is another example of evidence of this theory. Discoveries of porcelain form China from 800th century tells us about trade across the India Ocean.

Until about forth century most people in Africa lived in small stabile agricultural societies, most of them based at cattle's, corn and iron. The technology was simple, but the judicial systems and the religions was pretty sophisticated. The villages was led by chiefs, some places the chief was elected, and could be dismissed. When white people later arrived they didn't understand these societies and called them primitive. Around 400 the camel came to North Africa. A very effective way to transport goods. Late in 6. century the arabs and Islam started to expand. There where established trade routes, bringing luxury goods to West Africa and gold the other way. These trade routes made the bases for some empires, being exceptions in older african history. Where these empires have significance to ethnic music they are described in the states articles.

Slave trade.
The arabs have been taking slaves from East Africa since before Christ. They where used as servants and craftsmen. Some the african societies held slaves themselves. But this was in a small scale and this slave activity was pretty human.

The discovery of America changed this in a dramatic way. The plantations in America required cheap labor, and the new colonies in West Africa was the perfect place to find this. This grew into a triangular trade. Europeans shipped tools, weapons and clothes to Africa, collected slaves and shipped them to America, and shipped tobacco, cotton and groceries back to Europe. The profit was huge, up to 300 percent. The inhabitants around the trade centers at the coast of West Africa had no choice. They collected slaves for the europeans. If they refused they where shipped themselves.

This was of course dramatic for the people that where shipped, they where treated like animal. About 15 millions reached America alive. But the number of people that died in this traffic is somewhere between 50 and 100 millions. This created an enormous lack of labors in Africa. The women and children left alone had great trouble growing food. Great parts of Africa was drained out.