How Have Fractured Familial Relationships Iherent in the Slave Tradeaffected Ghana
Editor's notation: This column first appeared as a chapter in the Vox eBook, The Long Economic and Political Shadow of History, Book 2, available to download here.
Between 1400 and 1900, the African continent experienced four sizeable slave trades. The largest and best-known was the trans-Atlantic slave trade where, showtime in the 15th century, slaves were shipped from Westward Africa, Westward Central Africa, and Eastern Africa to the European colonies in the New World. The iii other slave trades – the trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean slave trades – were smaller in scale and predated the trans-Atlantic slave merchandise. During the trans-Saharan slave trade, slaves were taken from south of the Saharan desert and shipped to Northern Africa. In the Red Sea slave trade, slaves were taken from inland of the Cherry Sea and shipped to the Center E and India. In the Indian Body of water slave trade, slaves were taken from Eastern Africa and shipped either to the Eye East, India, or the plantation islands in the Indian Ocean. In total, close to xx one thousand thousand slaves were taken from the continent (Nunn 2008). According to the best estimates, by 1800 Africa'southward population was half of what information technology would take been, had the slave trades not occurred (Manning 1990).
Slaves were captured through kidnappings, raids, and warfare. A summary of the method of enslavement amid a sample of 144 former slaves is provided in Table one. Historical accounts suggest that the pervasive insecurity, violence and warfare had detrimental impacts on the institutional, social, and economical evolution of societies. There are numerous examples of the slave trades causing the deterioration of domestic legal institutions, the weakening of states, and political and social fragmentation (e.g. Inikori 2000, 2003, Heywood 2009).
Table 1. The methods of enslavement of Koelle'due south Informants
Notes: The data are from Sigismund Koelle's Linguistic Inventory. The sample consists of 144 informants, interviewed by Koelle, for which their ways of enslavement is known.
The most illustrative case of this is the experience of the Kongo Kingdom, which was contacted in 1493 past Diogo Cao. Initially, a diverse assortment of products was traded between the Kongo Kingdom and the Portuguese, including copper, textiles, ivory, and slaves. At get-go, the just slaves to be traded were prisoners of state of war and criminals. However, the Portuguese demand for slaves, the pervasiveness of slave traders and merchants, and competition for the throne within the Kingdom all resulted in a dramatic and uncontrollable increase in slave capture and raiding throughout the Kingdom. By 1514, King Afonso (the Kongo King) had already written to the King of Portugal, complaining that the Portuguese merchants were colluding with noblemen to illegally enslave Kongolese citizens. In 1526, in an attempt to end the trade, Rex Afonso requested the removal of all Portuguese merchants. In the end, his efforts were unsuccessful. Large scale slave-raiding continued unchecked into the 16th century, when it culminated in the Jaga invasion of 1568-1570. Large-scale civil war ensued from 1665-1709, resulting in the collapse of the in one case-powerful Kingdom (Heywood 2009).
An empirical literature has emerged that aims to supplement these historical accounts with quantitative estimates of the long-run affect of Africa's slave trades. The commencement paper that attempted to provide such estimates was Nunn (2008). In the study, I undertook an empirical examination, with the following logic. If the slave trades are partly responsible for Africa's electric current underdevelopment, then, looking across different parts of Africa, one should detect that the areas that are the poorest today should also be the areas from which the largest number of slaves were taken in the past.
To undertake this study, I had to first construct estimates of the number of slaves taken from each state in Africa during the slave trades (i.e. between 1400 and 1900).
These estimates were constructed by combining data on the number of slaves shipped from each African port or region with data from historical documents that reported the ethnicity of over 106,000 slaves taken from Africa. Figure 1 provides an prototype showing a typical folio from these historical documents. The documents shown are slave manumission records from Zanzibar. Each row reports data for one slave, including his/her proper name, ethnicity, age, and then on.
Later on amalgam the estimates and connecting these with measures of modern twenty-four hours economic evolution, I constitute that, indeed, the countries from which the virtually slaves had been taken (taking into business relationship differences in land size) were today the poorest in Africa. This tin be seen in Figure 2, which is taken from Nunn (2008). It shows the relationship between the number of slaves taken betwixt 1400 and 1900 and average real per capita GDP measured in 2000. As the figure clearly shows, the relationship is extremely strong. Furthermore, the relationship remains robust when many other cardinal determinants of economic evolution are taken into account.
Figure 1 Excerpt from certificate taken from Zanzibar archives
Figure 2 The human relationship betwixt slave exports (normalised past a country's state expanse) and existent per capita GDP in 2000. Both variables are measured on a log scale
An alternative interpretation of the relationship shown in Effigy two is that the parts of Africa from which the largest number of slaves were taken were initially the most underdeveloped. Today, because those characteristics persist, these parts of Africa continue to be underdeveloped and poor.
I also tested this culling hypothesis by checking whether it was, in fact, the initially least developed parts of Africa that engaged most heavily in the slave trades. I find that the data suggest that, if anything, it was the parts of Africa that were initially the most developed, not to the lowest degree developed, that supplied the largest number of slaves. In the assay, I also used a statistical technique called instrumental variables estimation to place the causal issue of the slave trade on economical development. The findings from the instrumental variables estimates suggested that increased extraction during the slave trades did, indeed, cause worse economic operation. Overall, the determination from the analyses is that the relationship shown in Figure two is most likely causal and not spurious.
My estimates in Nunn (2008) allowed, for the first time, the impacts the slave trades had on economic evolution to be understood quantitatively. In particular, using the estimates, one is able to calculate how much more developed Africa would be, if the slave trades had not taken place. These calculations were undertaken in Nunn (2010). As an initial step in the calculation, kickoff annotation that the mean level of average per capita income of the countries in Africa is $1,834 (measured in 2000). This is significantly lower than the income for the remainder of the globe (which is $8,809), and it is much lower even than the income of other developing countries (which is $4,868), where a developing country is divers as i with less than $14,000 in per capita income. According to the estimates from Nunn (2008), if the slave trades had not occurred, and so 72% of the average income gap between Africa and the remainder of the globe would not exist today, and 99% of the income gap between Africa and other developing countries would non exist. In other words, had the slave trades non occurred, Africa would not be the most underdeveloped region of the earth and it would have a similar level of development to Latin America or Asia.
My findings in Nunn (2008) provided suggestive testify that much of Africa'southward poor performance tin can be explained past its history, which is characterised by over 400 years of slave raiding. Although my analysis stopped brusque of providing a definitive agreement of exactly how and why the slave trades were so detrimental to economical evolution, information technology did provide suggestive show that was consistent with historical accounts of the slave trades resulting in a weakening and underdevelopment of political structures, as well as in impeding the formation of broader ethnic groups, leading to more than ethnic diversity. The study showed that the countries from which the largest numbers of slaves were taken were also the areas that had the most underdeveloped political structures at the end of the 19th century, as well equally being the countries that are the most ethnically fragmented today.
A number of studies followed on from the research in Nunn (2008), past attempting to meliorate understand the channels through which the slave trades bear upon economic development today. Green (2013) revisited the impact of the slave trade on indigenous fractionalisation. He extended the findings in Nunn (2008) by examining the unabridged world, and constructing estimates of the consign of slaves in all countries in the earth. Using these data, he besides found a strong relationship between slave exports and greater ethnic fractionalisation.
Co-ordinate to his estimates, all of the difference in ethnic fractionalisation between Africa and the balance of the world can exist explained by its experience with the slave trades.
In a series of studies, Whatley and Gillezeau (2011) and Whatley (2014) combine slave shipping records with ethnographic data and estimate the relationship betwixt slave shipments and institutional quality and ethnic diversity in the locations shut to the ports of shipment. Their assay, consistent with Nunn (2008) and Dark-green (2013), indicates that the slave trades did result in greater ethnic fractionalisation. In addition, their analysis also shows that the slave trades resulted in a deterioration of local ethnic institutions, measured in the late pre-colonial period.
Some other subsequent study, undertaken by Nunn and Wantchekon (2011) asks whether the slave trades resulted in a deterioration of trust. The paper's line of enquiry was motivated by two facts. The showtime is that trust has been long-hypothesised to be an important foundation for economic prosperity (e.g. Algan and Cahuc 2010). The second was the fact that, during the slave trades, individuals oftentimes turned on one another, kidnapping, tricking, and selling each other into slavery. The existing historical evidence indicates that these forms of betrayal were common. For example, among the sample of slaves reported in Table ane, 20% became slaves because they were tricked by a family unit member or friend.
In our study, Wantchekon and I extended the data construction efforts in Nunn (2008) and constructed estimates of the number of slaves taken from each ethnic group in Africa (rather than country). The ethnicity level estimates are displayed visually in Figure three. The analysis combined the ethnicity-level slave export estimates with fine-grained household survey data, which reports individuals' trust of those effectually them, whether neighbours, relatives, local governments, co-ethnics, or those from other ethnicities. The written report documented a potent negative relationship between the intensity of the slave merchandise among ane's ethnic ancestors and an individual's trust in others today.
The study then attempted to distinguish between the two most likely channels through which the slave trades could have adversely affected trust. One is that the slave trades made individuals and their descendants inherently less trusting. That is, it created a culture of distrust. In the insecure surroundings of the slave trade, where it was common to experience the betrayal of others, even friends and family, greater distrust may accept developed, which could persist over generations even after the terminate of the slave trade.
Some other possibility is that the slave trades may have resulted in a long-term deterioration of legal and political institutions, which are then less able to enforce good behaviour among citizens, and as a event people trust each other less today.
The study undertook a number of different statistical tests to place the presence and strength of the two channels. They found that each of the tests generated the same reply: both channels are present. The slave trades negatively affected domestic institutions and governance, which results in less trust today. In addition, the slave trade also directly reduced the extent to which individuals were inherently trusting of others. Nosotros also institute that, quantitatively, the second channel is twice as big equally the beginning channel.
The ethnicity-level slave consign estimates I constructed with Wantchekon spurred a second line of research that looked into other impacts of the slave trade, using the new effectively-grained data. For example, Zhang and Kibriya matched the ethnicity-level slave export data from Nunn and Wantchekon (2008) with fine-grained information on the location and intensity of conflicts within Africa from 1997-2014. They find a strong positive relationship between the intensity of the slave trades and the prevalence of civil conflict today. Given the stiff link between income and conflict, this probable represents an important aqueduct behind the reduced-form relationship between the slave trades and income documented in Nunn (2008).
A number of subsequent studies have also explored other cultural consequences of the slave trades. For case, research by Edlund and Ku (2011), Dalton and Leung (2014), and Bertocchi and Dimico (2015) found that the trans-Atlantic slave merchandise resulted in a long-term increment in the prevalence of polygyny (i.e. the practice of men having multiple wives). This is due to the fact that information technology was primarily males who were captured and shipped to the Americas, resulting in a shortage of men and skewed sexual activity ratios within many parts of Africa. Interestingly, Dalton and Leung (2014) found that there is no evidence of such an touch on for the Indian Ocean slave merchandise, where in that location was not a strong preference for male slaves. This has led the authors to conclude that Africa's history of the slave trades is the primary explanation for why today polygyny is much more prevalent in Due west Africa than in East Africa.
Effigy 3 Maps showing the number of slaves taken from each ethnic group in Africa during the trans-Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades
a) Indian slave exports
b) Atlantic slave exports
The study by Bertocchi and Dimico (2015) is especially interesting, because information technology takes the assay one footstep further and shows that the greater prevalence of polygyny, which arose due to the slave trade, has led to an increase in HIV rates. They document that women who are in a polygynous relationship are more likely to have sexual partners other than their husband. This is perhaps not surprising, since in polygamous societies wealthy older men are typically the ones who have multiple wives, leaving a large number of immature athletic men, without wives, able and willing to appoint in extramarital relationships. Thus, according to the authors' findings, the trans-Atlantic slave merchandise is an important gene in explaining the loftier rates of HIV in Africa today.
A study by Teso (2016) also examined the consequences of the skewed sexual practice ratio that resulted during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, merely focused on the impacts on female labour forcefulness participation. The shortage of males in the population, during the trans- Atlantic slave trade, meant that women had to undertake many of the tasks traditionally performed past men, such as those in agriculture, or in the armed services, and to accept positions of leadership and authorisation. The Dahomean female person 'Amazon' army, shown in Figure ii, is the all-time-known example of this. The female army was established past Dahomey in the 17th century at the top of the slave trade, and their existence continued until the end of the 19th century. Teso's (2016) research shows that those parts of Africa that experienced the trans-Atlantic slave trade virtually severely accept higher rates of female person labour force participation today.
Figure ivA photo of the female ground forces of Dahomey, who were often referred to as 'Amazons'
A number of studies have turned the line of enquiry started in Nunn (2008) on its head by asking, not 'What were the consequences of the slave trades?', only 'What were the causes of the slave trades?'. Fenske and Kala (2015) examined what role atmospheric condition played by combining information on slave shipments with information on almanac historical temperatures, measured at a 5-degree grid-cell level. They plant that negative weather shocks (taking the form of abnormally cold years) increased the supply of slaves from the locations that experienced these shocks. They likewise discover that locations that experienced such shocks during the height of the slave trade tend to have lower income levels today. In a separate study, the same authors examined how the suppression of the slave trade afterwards 1807 afflicted slave shipments (Fenske and Kala 2016). Not surprisingly, the suppression led to a decline in slave exports, although this was focused in British-controlled parts of the continent. The authors besides showed that the decline in slave exports occurred alongside an increase in violence and coercion within the continent. Thus, the bear witness suggests that non only did the slave trade take detrimental effects, but perchance its abolition did besides.
A study by Nunn and Puga (2015) has examined the extent to which geography affected the capture and export of slaves during the slave trades. My co-author and I used the information from Nunn (2008) to document how uneven terrain, taking the form of cliffs, ridges, and escarpments, was used by societies to defend against and escape from slave raiders. The uneven terrain could exist used to assist build defensive fortifications and to provide places to escape, in the face up of slave raids. We show that, as a effect, those places in Africa that are more rugged were better able to escape the slave trade and, thus, are richer today.
Although inquiry understanding the long-term impacts of Africa'south slave trades is nevertheless in progress, the evidence accumulated upward to this point suggests that this celebrated event played an of import function in the shaping of the continent, in terms of non only economic outcomes, only cultural and social outcomes likewise. The evidence suggests that it has affected a wide range of important outcomes, including economic prosperity, ethnic diversity, institutional quality, the prevalence of disharmonize, the prevalence of HIV, trust levels, female labour force participation rates, and the practise of polygyny. Thus, the slave trades announced to have played an of import office in shaping the fabric of African guild today.
References
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Bertocchi, Thousand and A Dimico (2015), The Long-Term Determinants of Female person HIV Infection in Africa: The Slave Merchandise, Polygyny, and Sexual Beliefs, IZA DP No. 9102
Dalton, J T and T C Leung (2014), "Why is Polygyny More than Prevalent in Western Africa? An African Slave Trade Perspective", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 63 599-632.
Edlund, 50 and H Ku (2011), The African Slave Trade and the Curious Case of Full general Polygyny, MPRA Paper NO. 52735
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Source: https://voxeu.org/article/understanding-long-run-effects-africa-s-slave-trades
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