Resistance and Rebellion.


It is without a doubt that Africans would resist the slave trade, slavery and forced labour from the very beginning by any means possible. Strategic defences such as moving communities to areas surrounded by hills, barricading villages with fences and poisoned bushes, and mazes to confuse slave traders amongst others were utilised. There was also violent and non-violent means of resistance against Europeans mainly by Africans. This was duly noted by slave traders, captains and crewmen of slave trading ships, doctors, and even slave masters who described them as “lazy and ill-disposed to labour”. Some “open and violent” means of resistance included the “poisoning of animals and owners, and sometimes turned it against themselves by committing infanticide, self-mutilation and suicide… absent themselves from enslavement for a few hours or a few days, regardless of the punishment they might receive on their return”. Whereas non-violent means included, sabotage, conspiring and forming maroon communities; freed people “petitioned authorities, led information campaigns, and worked actively to abolish the slave trade and slavery”. Additionally, “black abolitionists launched or participated in civic movements… delivered speeches, provided information, wrote newspapers, articles, and books." Such resistance, however, has often been overlooked, underestimated, and/or forgotten.

African rulers such as Queen Nzinga Bandi (c. 1583 – 1663) launched resistance campaigns against the slave trade and with the help of alliances fought against the Portuguese who controlled parts of what is now Angola. King Agaja Trudo of Dahomey (c. 1708-40) not only banned slave trading but also attacked European forts along the coast. In the late 18th century Muslim states in West Africa were also opposed to the slave trade and banned human trafficking. For instance, Abd al-Qadir (Abdel Kader Kane) a religious leader Futa Jallon (current day Guinea) threatened British slave traders that death would be the result of anyone who tried to acquire slaves from his country.


Left: Queen Nzinga Bandi, Right: Muslim leader Abdel Kader Kane

 

There was also rebellion in the “middle passage” (the journey from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean) as Africans battled to the European crew and tried to gain control of the ships. The most famous example is that of the Amistad in 1839, in which Africans bound for Cuba aboard the Spanish ship, “Amistad”, broke free, and took control of the ship. Even though the original plan was to head back to Africa the sailors re-directed the ship to America where fortunately a trial took place where the courts found the Africans to have been captured and enslaved illegally and were thus determined “free-persons”. Other noteworthy rebellions and resistance campaigns were Tacky’s rebellion in 1960s Jamaica, Fedon’s 1790s revolution in Grenada, 1816 Barbados slave revolt by Bussa, and the 1831 slave revolt in Jamaica led by Sam Sharpe.




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