Blacks in the Diaspora

Abstract

The history of foreign relations between Europe and Africa in the four centuries before colonization is the history of slavery and violence, linking up with the story of Africans in the diaspora today. The exploratory activities of men like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci led to European occupation of lands like Mexico, the West Indies, and the Americas and the decimation of indigenous people. The decimination process resulted in an acute shortage of labor in the numerous mines and plantations producing sugar and coffee, which were highly prized in Europe. The Portuguese solved this labor shortage by beginning to import Africans from Africa. The sugar barons of England then moved to sponsor British merchants in the big inhuman business that was to last over 400 years, carrying away healthy and strong Africans (especially those 15-35 years old) to build the pillars of Europe's prosperity while totally ignoring or suppressing all protests. Thus in 1775, Lord Dartmouth, then British secretary of state for the colonies, speaking of Europeans' capturing, selling, and buying Africans, said, We cannot allow the colonies to check or discourage in any traffic so beneficial to the nation (Davidson, 1971). African rulers who opposed the European activities were forcefully replaced with quislings, and African communities that refused to supply Africans were attacked or threatened with destruction by European warships. For example, in 1843, French plunderers threatened the Efik people