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250 Years Ago in West Africa

(Benin statue of a horseman, possibly showing a king of Benin)

The Fulbe people (also called the Fulani) create three new states around the Senegal and Gambia rivers--Senegambia--near 1700, following the collapse of Songhai.

These were Futa Toro, Futa Jallon and Bondu. Ethnic groups that settled in the area earlier included the Wolof, Serer and Mandinke peoples. All four peoples shared some cultural similarities. They had clearly defined social orders: royalty, nobility, warriors, peasants, artisans, and slaves. Artisans, such as potters, wood workers and black smiths, were usually formed into separate castes. These artisan castes did not have the full rights of other members of the community--blacksmiths and wood workers were often shunned as workers of magic--but served a vital economic role.

Slaves were not considered property in the Senegambian states. Slaves used to farm land were more like the feudal serf in Europe, farming their own small plots and giving a fraction of the produce to their masters. Royal slaves were often used to lead armies (they had no claim to throne and were considered safer than members of the royal family or other nobles), and thus became very important people. Some states had no slavery at all. Age-grades were groups of men and women who were initiated into adulthood at the same time. These age-grades cut across family ties and created community-wide loyalties. Often military service was based on age-grade.

For example, when a group of boys turned 16, they would all join the army.

All three Fulbe states were Islamic. The two "Futas" were strict Islamic states, ruled by a kinglike figure, the imam, who was also the chief religious leader. In Bondu, the ruler, called the almamy (from the Arabic al-imam, a religious leader), was much more tolerant. The population of Bondu included a large variety of ethnic groups, including Mandinke and Wolof. Many of these people, as well as many Fulbe themselves, had not yet converted to Islam but they had full rights in Bondu and were not persecuted. As a result of the pressures of the slave trade, Bondu and most neighbouring states banned the sale of their own citizens as slaves. People from neighbouring states, captured in war, were still sold into slavery.

The 17th century marks the true beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. While the Europeans were also interested in such trade goods as gold, ivory and tree gum, humans soon became one of the most important "commodities" to be acquired from east and west Africa. It is estimated some 11 million Africans were taken as slaves and an equal number died in transit during the 300 years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but the real number may never be known for sure.

This was the beginning of a "dark age" for most of Africa as European political, military and economic pressure mounted from west, south and east, combined with

Moroccan and Turkish pressure from the north. While European settlements remained largely limited to the coastal areas demands of the slave trade saw older established empires, such as Songhai, fall apart, and the decline of the traditional trans-Saharan trade in relation to the new trans-Atlantic routes. The Benin kingdom survived these pressures, but a number of new states arose around the Niger river area, in part, due to the new trade patterns created by the slave trade. These states raided inland to capture slaves to sell to the Europeans on the coast.

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