Now available on Amazon, my new book Trans-Slave Trade Routes and Traders of Africa

The Trans-Slave Trade Routes and Traders of Africa is a history of the underdevelopment of the continent from the perspective of this inhuman trade. It shows the many ways routes and traders took the trade to the remotest communities in the continent, thus making it the greatest episode of Africa underdevelopment history of all times.

https://www.amazon.com/Trans-Slave-Trade-Routes-Traders-Africa/dp/1537285327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472779510&sr=1-1

Slavery’s Impact in Cameroon

Visit Songs of Freedom to read more about Measha Brueggergosman, an award-winning Canadian soprano who has traced her roots back to the Bassa tribe from Cameroon, Africa. Our discussions at Port of Bimbia explored transatlantic slavery and the impact of slavery on the Cameroon. 

Leopard knife Rulers of Nweh Country: Case Study of Traditional Governance in Africa

Paper Abstract

Present day leadership in Africa seems devoid of any consideration for traditional African values of power and governance. Past African traditional rulers were wont to philosophize, rationalize and ritualize the origin and essence of power and authority from a people centered perspective. This is gone to large extent today in the socalled modern African rulership.The study of leopard ‑ knife rulers of Nweh country examines one of the indigenous concepts of power and authority in Africa and shows how the traditional method of apparent centralization and effective dispensation of power in a hierarchical  governance system was people centered. What emerges from this study is that African traditional governance was in practice people centered and quite often decentralised. The study also shows that indigenous rulership values have influenced the conceptualization power and governance in contemporary Africa and is partly responsible for poor governance in the continent.

Slavery in Africa-Online in Oxford Bibliography Resource, 2012

Slavery in Africa is a very old institution with diverse origins, forms, and ramifications. It is therefore subject to different perceptions and definitions in different ex-slaving societies in the continent. Forms of servitude like polygyny, tribute payments, and retainership of royal households were practiced in Africa but were not slavery in the strict sense of the word, though they are known to have created enabling conditions for slavery. The history of slavery in the continent shows development from servitude to slavery, but large-scale outright enslavement and sales of captives were byproducts of the external slave trades. The trans-Atlantic, trans-Red Sea/Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan slave trades appear to have been largely responsible for introducing slavery and analogous practices among many African peoples. In this article, slavery is defined as the subjugation of individuals to temporary or permanent involuntary servitude, including using such persons as chattels, as sex slaves, and in rituals. Slavery is not determined by the way an enslaved person is treated but by the fact that the function such a person performs is involuntary. Though slavery in Africa dates back to the periods of ancient Egypt, Roman imperialism in North Africa, and the epoch of ceremonial kingship of ancient empires of Sudan, it became a terrible experience only during the external slave trade. It was in this period that states whose rulers had not yet used retainers and who became involved in slave trade eventually practiced domestic slavery. As a rule, most polities that took part in the slave trade became slave users. The external slave trade is known also to have influenced development in the continent, albeit negatively, even after it fell. For instance, European colonization of Africa is linked to the trans-slave trade in that it weakened the continent so badly that it did not take much effort on the part of European imperialists to colonize it. It also exposed the rich resources of the continent, which the Europeans exploited with impunity through colonization. Recruitment and use of Africans in the exploitation of economic resources in the continent was involuntary, therefore colonialism was another stage of European perpetration of slavery in Africa. While new forms of slavery are plaguing the continent every day, the legacy of past slave trading and slavery negatively pervades almost all aspects of African development. A good knowledge of sources on slavery in Africa is important in appreciating its role in the underdevelopment saga of this continent

New Spaces for Negotiating Art and History in African Cities: Art in theDouala Port City. Conference paper

Paper Abstract

The port city of Douala in Cameroon is one of the most ethnically inclusive cities in Africa. Its ethnic inclusivity is the basis of its cosmopolitan setting. It is the outcome of a long history of pull factors which brought migrants of many different ethnic entities into this port. The Duala (indigenes of Douala) created fishing villages around the port not very long before the Atlantic commercial revolution which changed the fortunes of the port started. It became one of the major ports in the Atlantic trade as early as the 16^th century and remained in it till the close of the 19^th century. The enslaved persons who were the main item of the trade came principally from the many ethnic entities in the hinterlands of Douala. Thus Douala became a great pull center for hinterland slavers and other persons who were attracted by the growing economic opportunities of the port. Many of them settled permanently in Douala, often according to their ethnic affinity thus creating ethnic neighborhoods and civilization units which characterized the city artistic outlook even today. The paper shows how Douala city art is better appraised from multiethnic spaces. Because ethnic immigrants were wont to maintaining their ethnic identity so they upheld their cultures including artistic civilization in architecture, popular culture and many other artistic expressions. One finds art here and there in the city in public and private collections, graveyards, carvings, traditional wood and bamboo furniture, wooden and clay bowls which are vivid demonstrations of the ethnic diversity of Douala city. Indeed Douala is artistically Cameroon in miniature. The ethnic inclusivity of Douala artistic wealth is eloquently acknowledged and demonstrated in the municipal symbol of the ‘Douala man’ at the ‘Rond Point’ at Deido. A close observation of the huge art structure shows diversity in Douala city art in terms of the material used. Douala city art is essentially multiethnic and Douala has in its inclusive growth also absorbed immigrant art from outside Cameroon.

BIMBIA IN THE TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADE, 1740-1870

E.S.D. Fomin and Henry Kah ( Summary of an introduction to the Bimbia port restoration Project)

The importance of Bimbia in the Atlantic history of the Age of Sail is seen in the rather belated role it played in the Atlantic trade of the period. Though Bimbia was known to Portuguese explorers as early as 1472 when they got to the neighboring Island of Fernando Po it did not become an important collecting point for slaves and other cargoes until the second half of 18^th century. It was instead Douala that rose rapidly when Rio del Rey, the first slave trding port along Cameroon Coast, fell around 1650. The emergence of Bimbia appeared to have been directly influenced by the changing fortunes of Rio del Rey and Douala in the trade. Though Bimbia became a major trading port much later, at the peak of its influence it covered the former commercial sphere of Rio del Rey including coastal and hinterland markets and routes. Rio-del-Rey, Bimbia, Douala and Grand Batanga ports on the Cameroon coast are yet to make their own contributions to this history. Many other factors make the study of Bimbia in Atlantic history exciting. For example the success of Isubu (Bimbia people) in the Atlantic trade in the midst of a very difficult physical environment and the total neglect of the port for over a hundred years despite significant architectural remains of trade structures in the area.