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African History 4: The Effect of Slavery on West Africa 100 Views


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Description:

Today we'll learn about how West Africa wasn't disconnected from the rest of the world, like many people seem to think. Seriously. It's not on island or anything. Look at a map, people.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Slavery wasn't something that just…happened.

00:06

Plantation owners didn't wake up one day and say… [Plantation owner wakes up yawning]

00:09

“Man, I’d love for my life to be a continuous war crime.”

00:14

And then BAM!

00:15

Slaves. [Slaves appear in Plantation owners bedroom]

00:16

The slave industry was Godzilla-huge.

00:18

It relied on slavers, European governments, and some African kings all being in cahoots.

00:24

It also required a massive and complicated infrastructure.

00:27

In order to export millions of people, forts and dungeons needed building… [Ship carrying cargo]

00:31

Political systems needed reorganizing…

00:34

Shipping lanes needed finding…

00:37

And somebody had to find those vulnerable populations to exploit, right?

00:40

There’s a summer job we could take a pass on… [Man inspects summer job adverts]

00:44

The slavery industry was so colossal that it totally transformed West Africa.

00:48

And it seriously influenced how later West African history went down. [History of West Africa appears]

00:52

Despite what many people still think to this day, West Africa wasn’t particularly disconnected

00:57

from the rest of the world.

00:59

Though maybe it would’ve been better if it had a no talking to Europeans policy… [African man walks away from European man]

01:04

Also, West Africa wasn’t particularly backwards, primitive, undeveloped, or low-tech.

01:09

OK, it was no Silicon Valley.

01:12

But by the year 1400, African kingdoms were basically the twins of European kingdoms. [Africa and Europe in a room]

01:17

Seriously, Europe and Africa had all the same stuff.

01:20

Feudalism…

01:21

Bureaucrats…

01:22

Divinely appointed kings…

01:23

Armies of pikemen and knights…

01:25

It was the whole medieval shebang—just with more bananas and… fewer sheep. [Knights and sheep cross a road]

01:31

The reason that West Africa later came to be seen as primitive wasn't because of West

01:35

Africa's own development.

01:37

It was because the slave industry broke down settled states and laid waste to farmland.

01:43

On top of that, it stole talent and bankrupted consumers. [Slave kidnaps girl contestant]

01:47

Much of the rest of the world had excess people and wealth to develop and buy technologies.

01:52

But West Africans were struggling just to hold onto their kids.

01:55

In colonial times, anthropologists took a look at the mess that was West Africa and [Anthropologist working in a lab]

01:59

assumed it’d always been some kind of primitive wilderness.

02:04

Based on what they saw, it was inconceivable that Africa could’ve produced complex, developed

02:08

societies anywhere close to those in Europe.

02:11

But that would be like a guy walking into a house, dumping garbage on the floor, and [Man throws garbage on the floor]

02:14

saying…

02:15

…eh, guess it always stank in here…

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