Of course, slavery existed in black Africa long before the white man arrived. Across the western grasslands and into the dense tropical forest stretched a row of barbaric ie non-literate kingdoms with complex systems of government and distinct social classes, even castes, of which the slaves were the lowest. In fact, this was the initial impetus for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Due to conflict with Muslim raiders, slavery had never completely disappeared in southwestern Europe. The result was that, when their explorers moved southwards down the African coast, the natives came out to offer them various items for trade, including prisoners of war. It was only when the plantation system developed in the New World that the true horrors of the slave trade developed, for these early slaves ended up in Portugal and Spain living a far better standard of living than they could have experienced in Africa. That is, of course, assuming they were merely enslaved and not killed. Once, when John Hawkins went on a slaving expedition, he was dismayed when his African associates decided to eat the captives rather than sell them.
I have just finished reading a book edited in 1967 by Darryl Forde and P. M. Kaberry entitled West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century, and was interested to discover that all of those kingdoms kept slaves. Mostly, they were used to cultivate farms. Slavery is really only economical under two conditions: small scale operations permitting close personal supervision, and large scale unskilled gang labour, such as required in mining, plantation work, and public works. The latter condition did not exist in West Africa at the time.
Their exact, or even approximate numbers are not known. However, in 1825 Saint-Louis and Gorée in Senegal possessed a population of 16,000, of which 12,300 were slaves. Just the same, these two centres were major ports for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which would not be outlawed by France for another five years, so one wonders how many of these 12,300 were, so to speak, permanent residents, rather than livestock awaiting shipment. (Nevertheless, in the black Muslim kingdoms of the Sahel, slaves represented a quarter to a third of the population even before the trans-Atlantic slave trade.)
Nevertheless, these two ports formed the north and south boundaries respectively of a Wolof kingdom named Kayor, whose political structure was described by Vincent Monteil in the last chapter of the book. It had a barter, rather than a money based economy, with slaves being a major item of exchange. They could be exchanged for iron bars, and in 1880 a horse was valued at two slaves. Whether this was an indication of the abundance of slaves or the scarcity of horses I cannot say.
The main crops were millet and rice. Slaves purchased in the market were required to work for their masters from 6 am to 2 pm, after which they could attend their own farms, and they had Mondays and Fridays off. Not only that, but if their master mistreated them, they could choose another master. Presumably, this was done with the encouragement of master number 2, but the idea was to make a cut in the ear of that person's child or, better still, his horse. Afterwards, he legally belonged to the father or owner. The logic was that the guilty man had been sent to the wronged freeman as "compensation".
The bulk of the domestic slaves, however, had been born into slavery. Surprisingly, the master normally acted as their guardian and father rather than an oppressive overseer. They worked for their master for two-thirds of the day, and when the harvest was over, they travelled the country as weavers, returning in June for the rainy season. In 1836 the French Director wrote that "It is not infrequent to find slaves who are richer than their masters and who eat and drink at his table." They might even buy slaves of their own.
Prisoners of war, on the other hand, were normally women, who were turned into concubines.
However, the most important slaves were the "throne slaves" owned by the king. They were the only stable element in the society, and the only ones on which the king could rely. They served as his soldiers, but at the price of being allowed to run rampant looting the peasants, who hated them intensely. They were also notorious alcoholics - but then, so were the kings. In battle they were incredibly brave. With more influence than the free-born, they had power of life and death over the king, and even married his daughters. The highest offices in the land were reserved for them, although they were still expected to place irons above their beds to remind them on their servile condition. When Kayor was forced to become a French Protectorate in 1883, the treaty was signed by the king and ratified by six throne slaves. Not surprisingly, the throne slaves preferred slavery to freedom.
"We must be careful here," writes the author, "not to let our modern anti-slavery prejudices distort our judgment of this capital and original institution." Just the same, I expect that, with the exception of the throne slaves, most Wolofs would have preferred to be free. In Senegal the descendants of slaves still suffer stigma and discrimination.
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