A brief history of slavery.

This morning has been slightly relaxed in comparison to our first two days. James (Malala) and Edgar came to Fisherman's Rest this morning to give us a talk on slavery in Malawi, music in Malawi, the role of the British in the abolition of slavery in Malawi and about the 'Gule Wamkulu' dance; a Nyao tribe tradition.

As we all know, slavery changed the face of the world, from the role of the British, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Swahili Arabs, Zanzibar and the rest of eastern Africa. The slave trade was the act by where people sold other men and women, and usually by force. Slavery removed people's human rights, and also took away their freedom.

In Malawi, the slave trade operated in a few different ways:

The Swahili Arabs came to Africa looking for gold and ivory, after a period of time, they started to look for workers so that they could get more gold and Ivory across the sea to Arabia.

In Malawi specifically, the yao tribe were notorious traders, and saw the opportunity to sell people to the Swahili Arabs, so they could work in plantations and coffee farms. As time went on, the chiefs in charge of their kingdoms seized the opportunity to also start buying and selling slaves to make copious amounts of money.

The yao and other powerful tribes, stormed all throughout Malawi, where they would fight and force weaker tribes into submission, so they could traffic people and sell them as slaves to the Swahili Arabs.

Families would also sell their own blood kin and relatives for money to the slave trade.

Another way people would end up being sold to the slave trade was to settle debts, if a man had borrowed money from a friend and didn't pay up in time, they would be sold to make money to pay the debt they owe.

Historians believe that there are positive and negative effects of the slave trade:

- a positive impact was the improved agriculture with the introduction of new varieties of crop
- more wealth and a stronger economy
- greater variety of items to trade
- wider spread of Islam

- a negative impact of the slave trade was the massive depopulation of Malawi

For any further information on the 'Gule Wamkulu' follow this link:

http://magazine.africageographic.com/weekly/issue-19/african-dance-malawi-gule-wamkulu-chewa/