Soul Invictus

All good points. I'm not trying to allude pinning slavery on Christians. My case is simply these points

1) Christianity was not a religion traditionally practiced in African culture

2) Christianity was predominantly used to pacify the African during the slave trade

those are the only points I was making to my father...or rather trying to


My reason for posting this thread is to find out if there is any substantial evidence to support my father's idea that it was readily practiced before the colonial period regarding needing slaves for the New World (although I agree with seebs that it was at least heard of in Africa, but I am not sure to what extent, if any, that it was embraced/practiced. ) That's all I'm inferring, Celsus. No more no less. Any feedback is respectfully accepted and appreciated though. I just wanted to clarify my stance in case there was any misunderstanding.

Invictus

Celsus

For (1), that depends on what you mean by "traditionally". As I've said, Christianity made inroads in Africa during the first four or five centuries CE, then got wiped out by Islam. Plenty of African countries are also now very Christian, as a result of colonial missionary efforts (e.g. Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, etc.).

For (2), that is a very long and complicated discussion, and you'll probably find plenty of evidence to support either side. Firstly, Christian missionaries were not officially endorsed by colonial governments, but were definitely tolerated and encouraged as part of the pacification of Africans. Many also acted as spies on behalf of colonial governments. On the other hand, missionaries were the first to introduce education, schools and other public infrastructure for Africans, far outstripping any colonial governments' efforts. The very act of proselytisation, while patrimonial, was in some ways a recognition of their humanity, something the Portuguese, British and others lacked. So the "predominant" part of your argument is definitely shaky.There certainly is. Mali, Gana (I think) and others were slave trading kingdoms with sizeable slave populations (between a quarter and a third of their populations were slaves). They existed between the 900s and 1500s. The questions about their practice are whether they assimilated them quickly or not. That is one reason why the slave trade was easily practised by Europeans. The already slave-trading empires simply found new buyers (and drastically increased the power of kingdoms like the Ashante along the west coast). Meanwhile, the landlocked west African kingdoms had begun to decline, but I'm not sure how far you can correlate that with the coming of Europeans.

Joel

Toto

African slaves who were brought to the New World retained some of their pre-Christian religious practices, which you see reflected in Santeria and Voudun, that can be traced back to Africa (although they had to hide a lot of this from the slave masters.)

IIRC the height of the slave trade was in the 1600 - 1700's, while Christian missionary work in Africa was somewhat later, starting about the time of the abolition of the slave trade.

Celsus

Good point. Voodoo originated in Benin, not Haiti as is often thought.
Not entirely accurate. It is all about the peak of the efforts. In Ghana, Portuguese missionaries had begun setting up schools by the 1500s. The first missionary girl's school was set up in 1635. However, missionary efforts sputtered and often came to halt before they started permanent missions in the 1700s.
Joel

Shake

Somebody back me up here: Not necessarily African slaves, but the Bible sure has lots to say about slaves. Heck, the 10C mentions servants! I don't know it well enough to quote, but I know the OT speaks about slaves quite a bit. Probably right along with those other crazy rules, like a man can marry a woman he rapes! There were those during the American Civil War who used Biblical justification for owning slaves!