This book review examines the work of Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. The review focuses on Manning’s qualitative and quantitative approach at explaining the dynamics of slave trade when viewed from the Continent of Africa.
The author’s approach of examining the slavery issue from the lens of economic history and the involvement of normal Africans living in Africa is then examined. Manning’s main thrust of argument is that Africans themselves were no innocent bystanders but active collaborators who participated in enslaving their own brethren for narrow personal or tribal gains to dispose off an adversary or gather wealth and this ‘sacrifice’ was a boon to the Occident and the Orient whose masses were spared the forced migration.
The author’s statistical, graphical and pictorial representation is then examined to note that such a treatment has contemporary appeal rather than a dry narrative of historical events.
The review then examines the validity of Manning’s statistical data and opines that the extrapolations that manning indulged in determining census could result in large errors.
Irrespective of the possible factual errors Manning succeeds in holding the interest of his readers through his graphical and pictorial representations that makes even boring statistical numbers exciting.
A vast body of literature exists that study the period of slavery in American history and its consequent effects on the state of race relations. Patrick Manning’s work, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades focuses on African slavery through the lens of the economic history of the continent and its people. This book review examines the main aspects of Manning’s work to capture the essence of African slavery.
Manning in this book concentrates not on the slaves or the dynamics of slave trade in America but on the Africans who were left behind in Africa during the slavery period. Manning holds that these Africans were not just mute spectators of the injustice but also participants in it who did so for narrow personal or tribal gains to dispose off an adversary or gather wealth (Manning, 1990, p. 2). In collaborating with the Colonial powers, these Africans contributed to the depopulation of Africa that led to her subsequent economic demise.
The enslavement of Africans, Manning argues, was a sacrifice that served to benefit the Occident and the Orient (Manning, p. 3) whose masses were spared the forced migrations and thus could in the modern world compete with the West. Africa’s losses of human capital during the slavery period have in a large way contributed to its present poverty and lack of economic growth, a harsh fact, which the developed world chooses to ignore.
Throughout the book, Manning offers comprehensive economic statistics on the number of Africans who were transported from across the continent. He breaks down these statistics as per regions and countries. Manning presents his evidence in a pictorial form (p. 10) as well as graphical form (p. 18) which clearly brings out that the volume of slave trade peaked from 1700 to about 1850 and declined thereafter by the turn of the 20th century. In chapter 3, Manning uses a demographic model in an easy to understand schematic representation (p. 40) to drive home the process of enslavement as it was operative during the period.
Manning then backs up his theses with a dispassionate and lucid analysis of slave trade numbers, computer simulation and the economics of slave trade to finally state that the actual end of slavery happened because of the protest and uprising by the slaves themselves, Christian and intellectual enlightenment as well as the growing realization of Africans who were left behind in Africa that their dwindling numbers harmed them in the long run even if it provided for short term prosperity. The weakness in Manning’s statistical approach lies in his extrapolation of unreliable census data of the middle to late colonial period which brings to suspect the numbers that Manning arrives at for example, the assessment that the Sub-Saharan population was 50 million in 1850 (p. 84) is doubtful.
The author has assiduously referred to all previous great works and thus he provides a comprehensive annotated bibliography for future research scholars to build upon. Manning’s unique treatment of the subject where the focus is on the Africans who were left behind in Africa throws new light on the subject. Manning’s use of modern analytical methods as well as computer simulations makes the book interesting for contemporary readers. Notwithstanding some errors in the statistical extrapolations, the book is an honest attempt at filling gaps in the recording of African Slavery history which would of use and interest to lay readers and scholars alike.
Works Cited
Manning, P. (1990). Slavery and African life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.