Upper Guinea and Origins of African Slave Trade Enslaved in the New World- by Waltner Rodney (1969)

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2/20

THE

JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

VOLUME

LIV,

No. 4

OCTOBER,

1969

UPPER

GUINEA

AND THE

SIGNIFICANCE

OF

THE

ORIGINS

OF AFRICANS

ENSLAVED

IN THE NEW

WORLD

The author s a

Ph.D.

from

he

University

f

London

and

currently

ecturer

n

African

History

t

University ollege,

Dar es

Salaam,

Tanzania,

ast

Africa.

Attempts

to

pinpoint

the distributionof Africans

in the

Americas

have

been

made far

more

frequently

n the

litera-

ture

on the

New

World

than

in

the studies

of

the

African

con-

tinent tself.The

question

usually posed

is: Where did the

black slave

population

of

Brazil, Mexico,

or Haiti

originate

There

are

certain

inherent limitations

in

conducting

this

type

of

enquiry

from

New

World

base.

For

instance,

the

un-

reliability

of

the

African

ethnonyms upplied

by

slaveowners

has

long

been

recognized,

but the

problem

s nevertheless

not

susceptible

to

successful resolution

withoutdata

which emer-

ges fromtheAfricanarea of provenance.Here it is intended

to

shift the

emphasis

and

to

discuss the movements

of Afri-

cans from a

particular

region

of the

mother

country

to

various

points

across

the

Atlantic.

t

so

happens

that,

during

the

sixteenth

century,

nd

for

the

first

four decades of

the

seventeenth

entury, aptives

from

the

African

area selected

(namely, Upper

Guinea)

were

restricted

n

their distribution

to

certain

parts

of

Spanish America,

so

that

having

deter-

mined the

origins

of a

given

set of black slaves in the New

World one can

evaluate the usefulness of the exercise.

Toponyms

applied

by

Europeans

to

the West

African

coast often

shifted and

overlapped,

but

the term

Upper

Guinea

was

fairly

consistently

applied

to

the

stretch be-

tween

the Gambia

and

Cape

Mount.

As

far

as

the

Portuguese

327

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3/20

328

JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO

HISTORY

were

concerned,

it

fell

under

the

aegis

of

the

Cape

Verde

island

of

Santiago.

Within a few

years

of

the

organization

of

the Santiago administration in 1466, the adjacent mainland

from

Senegal

to Sierra

Leone

was

the

sphere

of

slaving

operations

designed

to

supply

labour to

the

Cape

Verde

islands,

Portugal,

Madeira,

and the

Canary Islands;

and

by

the

beginning

of

the sixteenth

century

the

Senegambia

and

Upper

Guinea

could

together

provide

upwards

of

3,500

cap-

tives

in

a

'good'

year.1

When

the

large-scale

export

of

Africans

to

the

New

World

began

via

Iberia,

it

was

Santiago

which

was the

main

base

in

Africa, attracting

Dutch and

Spanish

agents, apart

from

Portuguese

citizens.

Garrevod's

option

in 1518

to

supply

4,000

Africans

to

the Caribbean

was

sub-contracted in

Seville

to

Genoese

and

Spaniards

who had

establishments

in

Santiago.

For another

three

decades

the

Spanish

colonies of

the

greater

Antilles continued

to be

the

principal recipients

of

Upper

Guinea

Africans.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, several factors

combined

to

forge

a

strong

connection between

Upper

Guinea

and

the

Spanish

American

mainland

from Mexico

to Colum-

bia. The

basis of

the

bond

was

the

demand

for

slave

labour on

the

Spanish

mainland

and the

European

willingness

to

capi-

talize

ventures such

as

gold-mining

which held

prospects

of

great profits. Spanish conquests

and

epidemics

had

badly

depleted the population of Mesoamerica. The measles epidem-

ic

in Mexico

in

1545,

for

instance,

had

a drastic

effect

on

areas

on

the

coast and

nearby

European

settlements;

and it

was

precisely

in those districts

that

African

slave

labour

was

to

be

most

extensively

utilized.2

The

Spaniards

turned

to

San-

tiago (Cape

Verde)

which

was

then

the

most

firmly

stablished

slave

entrepot

in West

Africa,

and

whose

captives acquired

a

reputation which caused them to be sold at higher prices and

yet

to remain

in demand.

The

Spanish

orders

placed

at

Cape

Verde

were

fulfilled

by

the

intensive

exploitation

of

Upper

Guinea.3

1

Pacheco

Pereira,

Cdte

occidentale

d'Afrique (Ed.

R.

Mauny),

Bissau,

1956,

p.

90.

2

Carl

Sauer,

Colima

of

New

Spain

in

the

XVIth

Century,

UCLA

1948.

3

Walter

Rodney,

Portuguese

attempts

at

monopoly

on

the

Upper

Guinea

Coast, 1580-1650 , Juornal of African History, VI, p. 3 (1965).



4/20

AFRICANS ENSLAVED

IN THE NEW WORLD

329

Mexico,

Central

America, Columbia,

and

Venezuela

pur-

chased

the

great

bulk

of

Upper

Guinea

captives.

On

the

24th Sept 1561, a license was granted to Herman Vasquez

of

Mexico

to take

1,000

slaves

from

Cape

Verde.

In

fact,

in

1576

a

petition

from

the

colonists

of New Andalucia

(Venezuela)

actually

detailed

the ethnic

groups

within

Upper

Guinea from

among

whom

they

wanted the

slaves

recruited.4

Another

colonial

petition

from

Santa

Fe

in 1595

implied

that

there

was some

rivalry

between different

ocalities

in

Colum-

bia for

Upper

Guinea

slaves,

since

the

writer

wanted

these

Africansto be directed nlandto the

mining

reas ratherthan

remain

in

Cartagena.

The

purchasers

at the

mines were

prepared

to

pay

for

each

Upper

Guinea

captive

the

sum of

150

ducats,

while in the

city

of

Cartagena

the

price

ranged

between 100

and

120

ducats.5

Because

they

were

paid

in

gold

and

silver, Portuguese

authorities and

interested

merchants

both

n

Lisbon

and

in

Santiago

expressed

a

preference

or

the

Spanish American market and concentratedtheir efforts n

fulfilling

ts

needs.

Before

the

middle of

the

seventeenth

entury,

plantation

slavery

was not

prevalent

in

the

New

World,

and

the

West

African coast was

not

deeply

involved

in

slave

trading.

For

instance,

the

long

stretch of

coast

from

Cape

Mount

to

the

Volta

River was

virtually

untouched

by

slavers.

Since both the points of supply and those using slave labour

were

then

limited,

this

early

cycle

of

the Atlantic

slave

trade was

relatively uncomplicated

in

regard

to

the

iden-

tification f

origins

and destinations.

Upper

Guinea

relations

with

Spanish

America

were

peculiarly

exclusive.

On

the

hand,

Upper

Guinea

Africans

went

scarcely anywhere

except

to northern

outh

America,

Central

America

and

Mexico. On

theotherhand,the above-mentioned egions of theAmericas

received

slaves from

virtually

no

place

other

than

Upper

Guinea. When in

1563

the

House

of Trade

in

Seville started

issuing registers

authorizing ships

to

transport

an

agreed

4

G.

Aguirre

Beltran,

La

Poblacidn

Negra

de

Mexico,

1519-1810,

Mexico

1946, p.

12;

Federico

Brito

Figueroa,

La

Estructura

Economica de

Venezuela

Colonial, Caracas, 1963,

p.

113.

5

Archivo

General

de las

Indias

(A.G.I.),

Santa

Fe,

17;

Antonio

Gonzalez,

20 Feb., 1595.



5/20

330 JOURNAL OF

NEGRO HISTORY

number

of

slaves,

each

ship's

manifest

stipulated

by

name

a

place

in

West Africa

for

loading

and

one

in

America for

unloading. From thenuntil 1593

(when

the registers ceased

to

give

exact

information),

the

vast

majority

named

Cape

Verde

in

West

Africa,

while

the main

ports

of

entry

into

Spanish

America

were

Cartagena,

Porto

Bello,

and

Veracruz.6

By

1593,

there were

sizable black

communities

in the

Columbian Choco and Cauca Valley, in the Valle del Tuy

near

Caracas

and in

the

low

valleys

of

the

Bolivian

Andes.

Africans

became

racially

mixed

with

Europeans

and

Indians,

leaving

such

widespread

ethnic

offsprings

as mestizo

and

mulatto.

The

earliest

census

of

Mexico

in 1560

showed

that,

apart

from the

Indians,

there

were

13,180

Spaniards,

15,609

Africans

and

2,425

mestizos.

Throughout

the

seventeenth

en-

utry,

the blacks outnumbered

whites and were

overwhelm-

ingly predominant

n

such

regions

as Mexico

City

and

Carta-

gena.

The

same

was

true

of

Panama,

Columbia,

Venezuela,

Bolivia and

Peru. For

instance,

in

1600 it is estimated

that

therewere

20,000

Africans enslaved

in Lima

city

alone.7

Slave

exports

from

Upper

Guinea

to

Spanish

America

reached 4,000 to 5,000 per annum in the latter half of the

sixteenth

entury

nd the first ecades

of the

seventeenth

en-

tury; only

an

average

of

75%

to

80%

of these

reached their

destinations

alive.8

The

most

substantial

contributions

to

slave

exports

from

Upper

Guinea came

from

two

localities-

a northern

ector bounded

by

the

rivers

Gambia

and

Nunez,

6A.G.I., Casa de Contratacion, No. 2875, 2876, 2877, Registers of slaves;

H.

and

P.

Chaunu,

Seville

et

l'Atlantique,

Paris

1955,

Vol.

3,

1561-95.

7

See

Hispanic

American

Historical

Review,

XXIV

(1944),

which

is

largely

devoted to

the

slave

trade into

Spanish

America. The

present

day

absence

of

large

black communities

omparable

to those

in

the

United

States,

the

West

Indies,

and

Brazil

should

not

blind

one

to

the

scope

and

importance

of

the

slave

trade

from

Africa

to

the

Spanish

Main, notably

in

the sixteenth

and

seventeenth

centuries.

8

Mortality

was

calculated at

upwards

to

20%o.

See

Thomas

de

Mercado,

Tratos e Sontratosde Mercaderes,Salamanca, 1569, p. 66.



6/20

AFRICANS ENSLAVED

IN

THE NEW

WORLD

331

and the southern

extremity

etween

the

Sierra

Leone

estuary

and

Cape

Mount.

The latter was the

scene

of

warfare

pro-

vokedby the expansionof an elite of Mande extractioncalled

the

Mani.

Their

opponents

were

the

Sapi

who,

as

the

van-

quished,

fell

into

the

hands

of

Portuguese

slavers.

Further-

more,

Mani leaders became

engaged

in internecine

fighting

which

was

exploited

by

slave traders.9

The

Sapi

were

said

to

comprise

the

Nalu,

Kokoli,

Landuma,

Baga,

Limba,

Bullom,

Temne, Loko,

Susu,

and

Djalonke.

Most

of them

are

mem-

tioned

individually

in

the records

of

Spanish America,

as

well as

being

included under the term

Sapi'.

It is

probable

that

more

than half

of

the

Upper

Guinea

Africans

entering

the

New

World

in

the 1550s and

1560s

were

Sapi.

The

Atlantic

slave

trade

usually generated

its own war-

fare

and

raiding.

The

Mani-Sapi

conflicts eemed

initially

to

have had their

own

dynamic

when

they

broke

out

in

1545,

but

after the

first

15

or

20

years

of

local

hostilities,

the slavers

did in facthave to relyupon persuadingtheMani rulingclass

to

undertake the recruitment

f

captives

as an

end

in

itself.

Exports

never

again

reached

the same

level as

in the

heat

of

the

battles.

Very

early

in

the

seventeenth

entury,

he

slave

trade

in Sierra Leone tailed off

nto

significance,

nd

it was

not revived

until

the

eighteenth

century.

As

far

as

Upper

Guinea was

concerned,

t was

the

Gambia-Numez

belt

which

was the consistent source of slave labour. In this area,

there were

broad

similarities

in

the

way

of life

of all the

peoples

of

the

region;

but

there

was also

multiplicity

of

pettypolitical

units

whichwere

easily susceptible

to divisions

when their

rulers

were offered

European

goods.

Portuguese

slave traders

regarded

the

river

Cacheu

as

a

slaver's

paradise,

for within the narrow

compass

of

that

riverbasin,theyencountered ivepeoples-Djola, Papel, Ban-

hun,

Casanga,

and

Balanta-each of which was divided into

several

political

units.

Neither the

Djola

nor

the

Balanta

took

any

active

part

in

the

slave

trade,

but

they

were

nevertheless

to be

found

among

slave

cargoes

because

they

were

exposed

to

attacks

and

man

stealing

by

their

neighbours. The

Bijago,

9

Walter

Rodney,

A

Reconsideration of

the

Mane

Invasions

of

Sierra

Leone ,

Journalof AfricanHistory,VIII, 2 (1967).



7/20

332

JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

who

resided in

the

islands off he Cacheu

and

Geba

estuaries,

were

particularly

noted for

their

piratical

activities,

and

steadily supplied the Portuguese withDjola, Papel, Balanta,

Beafada

and

Nalu

captives. Bijago

hostilities

were

at

their

height

at the

turn

of

the

seventeenth

entury,

when

the

raids

of their

formidable

war canoes

forced the

three Beafada

rulers of

Ria

Grande de

Buba

to

appeal

to

the

king

of

Portugal

and

the

Pope

for

protection,

offering

n

turn

to

embrace

Christianity.10 ong

after

this

peak

period,

the

inhabitants of the

tiny Bijago

islands were

still

supplyingover 400

captives per

year,

all taken fromthe coastal

strip

between

the Cacheu and

the

Cacine.

Of

course, Europeans

were

goading

all of the

parties

involved.

While

some

crudely

plied

the

Bijago

with

alcohol,

others

more

subtly

guided

the

Beafada,

Papel,

Casanga,

and

Kokoli

rulers

along

the

road

to

internecine

onflict.11

The most

significant

artnership

was

between

the Euro-

peans and theMandinga, among the latter of whomwere the

principal

agents

of the

trans-Atlantic

lave

trade

in

Upper

Guinea.

African

resistance

taught

the

Portuguese

to

desist

from

raiding

and

to

engage

in

legitimate

trade;

and

no

African

group

in

Upper

Guinea were

better

qualified

than

the

Mandinga

in

matters

of trade. Muslin

Mandinga

traders

were famous

throughout

West

Africa;

and it was

fromindividuals such as the Muslim Mandinga, Abubakar,

that the

Portuguese

received

commercial

intelligence

and

African

products

for

export

from as

early

as

the

mid-

fifteenth

entury.12

he

Mandinga

were

politically

a

most

advanced

group,

and

enjoyed

social

and cultural

hege-

mony

in

Upper

Guinea

as a

consequence

of

the

fourteenth

century expansion

of

the Mali

empire

to the Atlantic

along

the course of the river Gambia. The decline of Mali in the

fifteenth

entury

did not effect

he frameworkof

Mandinga

rule in

Upper

Guinea.

The

Farim

Gabu

was the

supposed

10

Biblioteca de

Ajuda,

Lisbon,

Ms.

51-VIII-25 and Jesuit

Archives

(A.R.S.I.),

Rome,

Lusitania

74,

fo. 79-87.

11

Mateo

de

Anguiano,

Misiones

Capuchinas

en

Africa

(Ed.

Buenaventura de

Carrocera)

Vol.

2,

Madrid

1950,

pp.

131-145.

12

Diogo

Gomes,

De

la

Premiere

Decouverte de

la Guinee

(Ed. Monod,

Mauny

Duval), Bissau, 1959, p. 34.



8/20

AFRICANS

ENSLAVED

IN THE NEW

WORLD

333

representative

of

the

emperor

of

Mali,

and

while he had

obviously

lost

that

function,

he

was still

the

most

powerful

ruler in Upper Guinea, controlling large area betweenthe

Corabal and

the

Gambia.

Another

Mandinga

potentate

south

of the

Gambia

was

the

Farim

Brasso,

on

the

Casamance

river,

who

held dominion

not

only

over

Mandinga subjects,

but

also over

Balanta, Djola,

Papel, Banhum,

and

Casanga.

Similarly,

to the

north

of

the

river,

Mandinga kings

ruled

over

Wolof,

Serer,

and Fula

subjects.

Muslim

marabu

resided

under

the protectionof Mandinga kings

with

complete

free-

dom

of

movement

in

their

double role

as

religious prose-

lytizers

and

traders.

Besides,

many

of

the

resident

Portu-

guese'

traders

were

in

fact

mulattos

of

Portuguese

and

Mandinga

extraction.These

aspects

of

the

social

situation

in

Upper

Guinea

pointed

to the fact

that

the

majority

of

captives

were

exportedthrough

he

agency

of

the

Mandinga.

Djola

on the Casamance

experienced

Mandinga

attacks

bothby land and by sea. Mandinga war canoes roundedCape

St.

Mary

and

swooped

upon

workingparties

of

Djola

gather-

ing

sea

food

on

the coast.

These

two

peoples

had

common

borders in

the

Bintang

area

and

hostile

overland

incur-

sions

were

readily

effected.

t seems that

while

the

main

purpose

of

the raids

was

to obtain

captives

for sale

to

Europeans, Mandinga

rulers

regarded

this

as

a

means

of

discipliningrecalcitrantsubjects who refusedto pay tribute

or

to

recognize

Mandinga

supremacy.

This

was the

manner

n

which the

issues

were

posed

in the late

eighteenth

century

when

the

Mandinga

ruler

of

Fogny

was

exploiting

the

Ban-

hum and

Djola

of

the

Bintang

and Casamance.

He

demanded

tribute

from

them,

and

attacked

when

they

refused to

com-

ply,

selling large

numbers

as

slaves.13

n

the

sixteenth entu-

ry,

when

the Banhun

were attacked

by

the

Casanga

or

were

judged

by

the

king

of

Casanga,

these

actions

were carried

out

under

the

assumption

that the

Casanga

were

the

political

overlords

of the Banhun. These

two

peoples

are

closely

related,

but

the

Casanga

were

more

heavily

influenced

y

the

Mandinga,

and

held

a

place

in

the

hierarchy

of

power

under

the

Farim

Brasso.

This

they

exploited

to

fill

the

holds

of

13J. B. Labat, Nouvelle Relation de l'Afrique,Vol. V, pp. 19, 20.



9/20

334

JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

Portuguese

slave

ships.14

The

greatest

of

the

slave-trading

rulers of

Upper

Guinea

was the Mandinga Farim Gabu, whose main area of oper-

ation

was

the

middle

Gambia and

upper

Geba-Corubal,

and

whose

chief victims were

the

Bassarel, Coniagui,

and

Bad

jaranke.

However,

while

the

Djola (under

the

name

Feloupe)

and

the Banhun

were

frequently

mentioned

as

forming

part

-of

the

Spanish

American

population,

these

other

victims did

not

appear

on

any

New

World

list.

Indeed,

the

Bassarel,

Coniagui, and Badjaranke were seldom recognized in the

literature

on

Upper

Guinea

in

the

sixteenth nd

seventeenth

centuries.

They

have been referred

o

as

'Paleo-Nigritics' by

Baumann,

and it

is

probably

true

to

surmise

that

their

ancestors

were

present

n

the

region

since

the

Paleolithic,

and

that

they

can

reasonably

be

termed

auctocthones.15

The

expansion

of

the Mande

(Mandinga,

Susu,

and

Djalonke)

and

of

West

Atlantic

peoples

such

as the

Beafada and the

Fula

had led partlyto the incorporationof many of these auctoc-

thones and

partly

to

their

being

hounded into

extremely

diffi-

cult

environments,

uch

as

the boval or

scrub

country

n and

around Futa

Djalon.

The

word

'Tenda'

is

generally

used to

describe

the

population

of the

middle

Gambia

which was the

product

of

miscegenation

taking

place

from

the

fourteenth

century

onwards

between

the

Mandinga

and

Fula

on the

one

hand and, on the other hand, the Bassarel, Coniagui, and

Badjaranke.16 Together,

the

fugitive

lements

nd

the

partial-

ly

assimilated

Tenda

must

have

borne

the brunt

of the

Atlantic

slave

trade in

Upper

Guinea.

Lemos

Coelho,

writing

in

1669 after more

than

twenty

years experience

as

a

trader

in

Upper

Guinea, specifically

pointed

out

that the

Bassarel

were

the

principal

captives

sold

by

the

Mandinga.

He

also

noted that

the

population

of

the

Gambia and Corubal was

Mandinga

only

n the sense thatthe

original

inhabitants

were

culturally

dominated and

had

actu-

14

Andr6

Dornelas,

Relacao

sobre

Serra

Leoa ,

Biblioteca de

Ajuda,

51-

VIII-25;

Manuel

Alvares,

Descripqao

Geografica

da

Provincia da

Serra

Leoa ,

Library

of

the

Geographical

Society,

Lisbon.

15

H.

Baumann

and

D.

Westermann,

Les

Peuples

et

les

Civilisations

de

l'Afrique, 1962, pp.

367.

1a

Antonio

Carreira,

0

Fundamento dos

Etnonimos

na

Guin6

Portuguesa,

Bissau, 1962.



10/20

AFRICANS ENSLAVED IN THE NEW WORLD

335

ally

taken the

name

'Mandinga',

while

conversely

the Mand-

inga

had

become

naturalized'

(sic).17

Later

on,

an

official f

the French Senegal Company reportedthat slaves fromthe

Gambia

had

become merchantable because

of

war,

crime,

sorcery

or

the

fact

of

belonging

to

a

subject

race

18

It

can

be

demonstrated

hat the

last

category

was

inclusive

of

the

first

three.

Charges

of

sorcery

and

other criminal

offences

were

pressed against

the

imperfectly

ssimilated

subjects,

while

wars

were conducted

against neighbouring peoples

(like

the

Bassarel)

on

the

ground

that

they

were

disloyal

subjects.

In this

instance,

therefore,

close

association

with

the

African situation

adds

an

unsuspected

and

a

significant

element

to the

inventory

of

Upper

Guinea

groups

reaching

the

New

World.

As a

corollary,

t

is

equally important

o

notice

that

many

individuals in

Spanish

America

were

incorrectly

designated

as

Mandinga.

In

the

seventeenth

century,

a

few

discerning

observersdid notice that the supposed Mandinga population

on

the

Gambia was

not

homogenous.

For

instance,

Richard

Jobson

found

that on

the

upper

Gambia the

language

spoken

by

the better

sort

was

Mandinga,

but

that the

common

people

had

their

own

language.

This

must also have

been true

much

closer

to

the

estuary,

as

in

the

kingdom

of

Salum,

where the

ruling

strata

was

penetrated by Manding,

but the

citizens were Wolof, Fula, and Serer. Once a subject or a

victim

of

Mandinga

hegemony

had been

shipped

by Europe-

ans

under

the

mistaken

impression

that

the

captive

was

Mandinga,

then the

mistake

might

well have

been carried

through

as

a

positive

deception

on

the

part

of

the

enslaved

individuals,

for one

consequence

of

Mandinga

supremacy

was

that

other

groups

were

constantly

seeking

to attach them-

selves

to

and

'pass'

as

Mandinga.

There were other

positive

reasons

why

few

Mandinga

were

shipped

to the

Americas.

They

were the

ruling

elite-the

clans

and

castes

possessing

a

monopoly

of

skills such

as

ironworking

nd

weaving.

Even

clans

who

were of

lesser

17D.

Peres,

Duas

Descrig3es

Seiscentistas

da

Guine

de Lemos

Azevedo

Coelho, Bissau,

1953, pp. 25,

117,

134.

18

P.

Cultru,

Premier

Voyage

de

Sieur

de

la

Courbe

fait

a

la

Coste

d'Afrique

en 1685, Paris, 1906, p. 194.



11/20


12/20

AFRICANS

ENSLAVED IN THE NEW WORLD 337

impact

in

Spanish

America

was

not

a reflection

n their

num-

bers,

but

rather

on cultural

factors

reaching

back

into

their

Africanpast. Similar enquirieshave suggestedthat Fon cul-

tural

dominance in

Haiti did

not

correspond

to numerical

preponderance,

but

that

primacy

n Jamaica was aided

by

the

high

proportion

of

Africans

carried

to the

island.22

Knowl-

edge

of

the

proportion

of Africans

of different

egions

does

not

therefore

mmediately

allow one to draw

valid

conclu-

sions about cultural

survivals,

but

it

at least

opens

the

way

for an

enquiry

nto

the

dynamics

of New

World slave culture

and the

way

in which African elements were

incorporated.

On the other

hand,

it is

often

meaningless

to

distinguish

between

one

African

and

another

in

a slave

context,

nd in

some

instances

it is

positively

misleading

to

harp

on

the

tribal

origins

of

black

slaves

in

the

New

World.

This

is

the

principal

point

borne out

by

an examination

of

the

close

relations

between

Upper

Guinea and

Spanish

America.

Sierra Leone had innumerabletribal and political group-

ings,

and

yet

a

sixteenth-century uropean

observer

appre-

ciated

that

all

these

nations

are called

in

general

'Sapes',

in

the

same

way

that

in

Spain

several

nations

are called

Span-

iards. Like

the

Akan of

Ghana,

the

Sapi

constituted

single

language

cluster,

which

was

part

of the West

Atlantic

family.23

Their

linguistic

grouping

is

termed

Mel',

and

a few

Mande

(Susu and Djalonke) had also becomeacculturatedwithinthe

same milieu

as

the

'Mel'

speakers.

It

was

claimed

in

the

sixteenth

century

that

every Sapi

understood

every

other

Sapi.

This is

not to

be taken

literally,

but

there

was mutual

understanding

based

on

a

common

socio-political

structure

and on

similar

economic,

religious,

and

educational activities.

Aguirre

Beltran,

in

his discussion

of the

tribal

origins

of

Africans

carried

to

Mexico,

noted

that

Sapi

was a

generic

name referring o several Upper Guinea peoples.24What he

failed

to

perceive

was

that

the

very

existence

of

a culture

entity

uch

as

the

Sapi

was

a

challenge

to

his

preconception

22

(a)

A.

Ramos,

Os Culturas

Negras

no Novo

Mundo,

1946, p.

165.

(b)

Orlando

Patterson,

The

Sociology

of

Slavery,

London, 1967, p.

153.

23

P.

E.

H.

Hair,

An

Ethnolinguistic Inventory

of

the

Upper

Guinea

Coast

before

1700 ,

African

Language

Review,

Vol.

6,

1967.

24

G.

Aguirre

Beltran,

Tribal

Origins

of

Slaves

in

Mexico Journal

of

Negro History,Vol. XLII, 1957.



13/20


14/20


15/20

340

JOURNAL

OF NEGRO

HISTORY

accurate

and decisive

as

far

as

slave

procurement

was

con-

cerned. t was

said that the

Bijago

men were

prone

to

commit

suicide as a last resortwhen captured,and thereforePortu-

guese

traders on the

coast

avoided

them.28

Besides,

Labat

reported

that

the

Bijago

were

noted

for

rebellion

on

board

ship

and

were

sold with

great difficulty

ecause of

their

ferocity

nd

tendency

o

escape,

harm

themselves,

or

commit

suicide.29

his is

really

an

unusual situation

because,

in

gener-

al,

the

supposedly

adverse tribal

characteristics

did

not

stop

European slave traders from purchasing whomever was

offered

o

them n

Africa,

nor

did

it

preventEuropeans

in

the

Americas

from

grabbing any

serviceable

African,

especially

since

labour

was

chronically

short.

Indeed,

it

is when

one

pursues

the

question

of

tribal

characteristics

within

New

World

society

that one

finds

the

greatest

inconsistencies

nd

contradictions.

When

a

preference

or

a

given

set

of

black slaves

did

exist

in the Americas, it was tied to practical considerations,as

was the

case

on

the

African

coast.

Upper

Guinea

captives

were

undoubtedly

referred

n

large

areas of

Spanish

Ameri-

ca. The

reason seems

to

be

that

the

Guinea

of

Cape

Verde

was

the

first

region

with which

the

Spanish

American

slaveowners

had

constant

organized

contact,

with a few

Spanish

Americans

moving

to

reside

in

Upper

Guinea and

several Portuguese serving as agents in Mexico, Cartagena,

and

Panama.30

This

kind

of

organization clearly

had

mutual

benefits,

or slavers

and slaveowners

were informed

nd

more

solicitous

of

their

own

needs.

There

would

obviously

have

been

far

greater

opportunity

o

provide

Upper

Guinea

cap-

tives in the

required

volume,

with

regularity,

and

in

good

physical

condition,

s

distinct

from

Angola

(which,

up

to

the

firstdecade

of the seventeenth

entury,

was

supplying

Span-

ish America occasionallyand incidentalto theirmain Brazili-

an

interest).

To

some

extent, also,

practice

seemed

to

have

established

precedent, familiarity,

and

confidence;

and

the

28Alvares de

Almada,

Tratado

Breve

dos Rios

de

Guine,

Monumenta

Missionaria

Africana

Africa

Ocidental,

1569-1700

(2nd

series,

vol.

III,

Ed.

A.

Brasio), p.

318.

29

J.

B.

Labat,

Op cit,

vol.

V, p.

198.

80

A.H.U.,

Guin6,

caixa

I,

No.

54,

Petition

of

June

1647,

and

A.G.I.,

Santa

F6 37, reportof 10th July 1590.



16/20

AFRICANS

ENSLAVED

IN THE NEW

WORLD

341

atmosphere

urvived for some time

after

the

heyday

of

the

Upper Guinea-Spanish

American connection.

n

the

latterpart of the seventeenthentury,hips destinedfor

Spanish

Americawere

willing

o

pay

almost

thrice

s

much

for an

Upper

Guinea

captive

as

the

English

were

paying.31

Indeed,

he

Royal

African

Company

warned

ts

Sierra

Leone

agents

not to

bother with

slaves

because

Africansfrom

Upper

Guineawere

the worst

n

esteem

and were

disliked

by

the

Barbadian

planters.32

his was a

commentbout

those

Africanswhom heSpanishtermedideal', showing ow sub-

jective

the

evaluationswere.

Assigning

peculiar

et

of

behavioral raits o

any

human

group

s

always

an

unscientific

peration,

hether onducted

on

Africans, sians,

or

Europeans.

n

this

sense,

he search

for

tribal

origins

s

entirelymisleading.

he

stereotype

f

Upper

GuineaAfricans

n

Spanish

America

had

two

aspects.

Firstly, heyweresupposedto have beenveryhappysince

they

were

given

to

music,

ong,

and

dance.

Secondly,

hey

were

loyal

and

non-rebellious. he

firstcontention

eems

justified,

ut

it

was

not

peculiar

to

Upper

Guinea

Africans.

On the

contrary,

he

resort

o

song

and dance

was

an

impor-

tant

survival

technique

f

all

Africans

transported

o the

New

World.

Festivities

were

closely

ied

to

religion,

nd this

reflected

he

prevalence

of

these

features

n

all

African

societies.The second llegation boutfidelitys contradicted

by

the

evidence,

for

rebelliousness

like conformity)

an

throughout

he

New

World

for

thewholeduration

f

slavery.

It was

in

its

religious

manifestation

hat

African

ulture

survived

est

n

the

New

World

environment,

specially

when

protected y

an outward dherence o

Catholicism.

etween

1605

and

1635,

Sandoval

personally

aptized

40,000

slaves,

mostof whomcame fromGuinea to the provinceof Car-

tagena.

Pedro Claver of the Jesuit

order

lso carried

out

his

mission

n

the

Colombia-Bolivianrea

from 1610 to

1654,

and

was

subsequently

anonized

orhis

work

mong

laves.33

31

Public

Record

Office,

T70/10,

Thurlow to

the

Directors

of

the

Royal

African

Company,

15

March,

1678.

32

Ibid.,

T70/50,

Directors

to John

Case,

24

Aug.,

1686.

88J. M. Henao and G. Arrubla,Historyof Columbia,1938,p. 117.



17/20

342

JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO HISTORY

It

is

very unlikely

that Catholic

efforts

chieved

much more

than

formal

conversion,

change

of

names,

and

African

ap-

propriationof Catholic saints and the Catholic calendar. It

was admitted

that

in Mexico true

religious

conversion

was

difficult ,34

nd

although

Sandoval

prided

himself on

giving

adequate preparation

to those

he had

baptized,

he

also

men-

tioned the

festivals which

were

celebrated

by

Africans.35

Mexico

and

Colombia also had

their

religious

brotherhoods,

widely

known

from

Cuban and Brazilian

examples

as

cabil-

dos

or

cofradias.

These were the

organizers

of

the

celebra-

tions,

serving

both as the

guardians

of elementsof African

culture and the creators

of new

syncretisms

haracteristic

of

Latin America.

Popular

festivals known

as

diablitos

formed

the

principal

diversion of

the

city

of

Antioquia

in

Colombia

up

to

the

middle of the last

century.

The

festival which

started on

the

28th December

was a veritable carnival.

The

diablitos

(little

devils) wore feathered hats and fantasticcostumes; popular

sketcheswere

made

on

the

year's

events;

and

most

of

the

day

was

given

over

to

dancing,

singing,

and

story-telling

n the

streets.36

Upper

Guinea

Africans were sent

to

the

mining

areas

of

Zoragossa

and

Antioquia

in

great

numbers,

and

could

scarcely

be overlooked

in

tracing

the

roots

of

these

traditions.

It is

interesting

to

note that

in

Upper

Guinea

itself,

Catholics'

engaged

in

the same

pratices.

In

Guinea-

Bissau,

African

converts

matched

those

in

Antioquia

with

a

ceremony

which

started

on

midnight

of

1st

November and

lasted

for

three

days.

One writer described the

ceremony:

They

leave their houses

to

gather

at

the

door of the

church,

from which

they proceed

with

candles,

walking

in

procession,

singing

in all

the streets

Ave

Marias

mixed with

native

songs.

Men and women with fantastic

dress,

as

if

it

were carnival.'37

What

was common

to

Antioquia

and Guinea-Bissau

also

appeared throughout

he Catholic

countries

of

America,

and

allows one to

perceive

that

there

was

a

particular African

34

P.

Alonso

de

Sandoval, Op

cit

(Editor's

introduction).

35

p.

Alonso

de

Sandoval,

Op cit, p.

444.

36

Artur

Ramos,

Op

cit,

p.

257.

37

Henrique

Dias

de

Carvalho, Guine,

Apontamentos

Ineditos,

Lisbon,

1944,

p. 74.



18/20

AFRICANS ENSLAVED

IN

THE NEW

WORLD

343

response

to

socialization

under

slavery,

quite apart

from

the

fact

that

one

region

or

another

had

more

pronounced

Akan,

Fon, or Ibo influence. he same conclusioncan be drawnfrom

a

study

of

music.

African

influence

n the folk

songs

of

the

Americas shows

the

same trends in

Mexico,

Panama

and

Venezuela

with more

reknown

xemplification

n Cuba.

In

the

gulf

area and

other

parts

of

Mexico

today,

the

songs

and

dances

reflect

heir

African

origin.

Totally

improvisatory

n

character,

the

music is full

of

rhythmic

omplexities. 38

The

point

is that

these

survivals

spring

from

a commonfountof

African

practice

during

the slave

epoch,

rrespective

of

tribal

origins.

When

the

Spanish

Americans

insisted that

Upper

Guinea

slaves

were

especially

given

to

song

and

dance,

they

were

probably

making

use of

the

moral

escape

clause

by

which

every

group

of

slaveowners allowed

themselves

o

believe

that

our

slaves are

the

happiest

of

earthly

beings .39

Of

course,

African

drums

were also

beaten

as

a

call

to

rebellion,

and

this

is yetanotherspherewhere tribal originscan be shownto be

largely

irrelevant,

n

spite

of

numerous

contemporary

nd

academic

assertions

to

the

contrary.

There

was

a

sharp

contradiction

between

the

supposed

loyalty

of

Upper

Guinea

esclavos

de

ley

and

the

prevalence

of

slave

rebellions

and

escapes throughout

he

area

which

the

Spanish

called

Tierra Firme

and

Nueva

Espanha,

and

nota-

bl yinPanama, Mexico,and Colombia.Panama had a predom-

inantly

black

population

in

the

sixteenth

century,

carried

there

to

serve

the

rich

transit

trade

across

the

Isthmus

and

to

work

in

the

gold

placers.

Upper

Guinea

was the

principal

area of

provenance.

In

Panama,

the

maroons

did

not

simply

flee

from

their

masters

to seek

refuge

n

the

bush,

but

they

lso

returned

to

harass

the

commercial

nd

economic

activityof the whites. They foughtprotractedguerilla wars

from

about

1540

until

1574

when

the

Spaniards

had to

come

to

terms

with

them.40

n

neighbouring

Cartagena,

the

situa-

38

Beatrice

Landeck,

Echoes

of

Africa

in Folk

Songs

of

America,

New

York

1960,

p.

91.

39

Marvin

Harris,

Patterns

of

Race

in

the

Americas,

New

York

1964.

40

(a)

Documentos

Ineditos

para

la

Historia

de

Colombia,

Bogota,

1960,

Vol.

VI, DocumentNo. 1480 and 1566.



19/20

344

JOURNAL

OF

NEGRO

HISTORY

tion was not

much

different.

n

fact,

the former slaves were

sufficiently

obile

to

ignore

the

Spanish

administrative

fron-

tiersand to carryout common truggles n Panama and Car-

tagena.

In

Mexico,

it is estimated

that

in

1579,

there

were

2,000

maroons

at

large

amounting

to one-tenth

f

the black

population.

Recent research

on

Mexico has

provided

consid-

erable

detail on

the

series

of

attempteduprisings,

successful

rebellions,

nd

retaliatory

maroon

activity

against

the

Span-

ish

during

the

sixteenth

century

and

the

early

part

of

the

seventeenth,41o that throughout

the

period

when

these

Spanish

American colonists

had

a

preponderance

of

esclavos

de

ley

in

their

midst,

they

were witness

to

the

African

revolt

for

freedom nd

dignity.

Freedom

struggles always

produced

individuals of

stature

who

co-ordinated

and

inspired

their

own

people.

One

such

person

was

Domingo

Bio,

who

led

a revolt

in

Cartagena

in

1599-1600,

with a

plan

to

unite

most

of

the

20,000

slaves

then

in thatprovince. t was said of Bio that he had the support

of

all

the

nations of

Guinea in

this

city

and

province

(of

Cartagena).42

In

spite

of

a

tendnecy

to

present

their

slaves

as the

world's

happiest

people,

slaveowners

did have

to face

reality

from

time

to

time.

A

report

on the

3,000

slaves

in the

mines

of

Zaragossa

in 1598

frankly

admitted

that from

among

these

it is

only

natural

that

there are

some who are

of

hostile disposition and others who will flee when mal-

treated .43

This

statement,

with its

implications

that

ele-

ments

of

accommodation nd

rebellion

were

found

together

n

any group

of

slaves,

amounts to a

simple

recognition

of

the

slaves'

humanity.

Because

slavery

challenged

that basic

fact

and because

the

racist

ideology

of the

bourgeois

world

has

hardened

that

challenge

into

dogma,

there

has

arisen

the

inviduousnecessityof having to assert the humanityof the

black

man. The

search to

clarify

the record can

be

confused

f

one

accepts any

claims

that this

or

that

tribe

consistently

41

See

Edgar Love,

Negro

Resistance

to

Spanish

Rule

in Colonial

Mexico,

Journal

of

Negro History,

Vol.

LII,

April

1967;

and

David

Davidson,

Negro

Slave

Control and

Resistance

in Colonial

Mexico,

1519-1650,

Hispanic

American

Historical

Review,

Vol.

XLVI,

No.

3,

Aug.

1966.

42

A.G.I.,

Santa

F6

38,

Letter

from the

Governor,

28

March

1600.

43A.G.I.,

Santa F6 37, Letter from the Governor,22 Oct 1598.



20/20

AFRICANS ENSLAVED

IN THE NEW

WORLD

345

displayed

particular

syndromes

of

aggression,

submission,

melancholia,

or

laziness.

There is no doubt that theAfricanorigins of New World

slaves

can

be

conducted with more success

by

synthesizing

variety

of

information

ulled

from

both sides

of

the

Atlantic,

as

has been

attempted

here with reference

to

Upper

Guinea

and some

parts

of

Spanish

America. There

is

also

no

doubt

that

this

operation

has value in a

cultural sense. Understand-

ing

of

Afro-Brazilian culture

certainly

arises

from

knowl-

edge of the religious beliefs and practices on the former

Slave

Coast ,

and the

same

applies

to

the

Afro-Cuban

cultural

manifestationswhich

are

linked to the

Lucumis

or

Yorubas.

However,

the

similarity

of

African survivals

in

the

New

World

points

not

to tribal

peculiarities

but

to

the

essential

oneness of

African culture.

That culture

was

the

shield

which frustrated he efforts

f

Europeans

to dehuman-

ize

Africans

through

ervitude.

The slave

may

have

appeared

in a profit nd loss accountas an 'item', a 'thing', a piece of

'property',

but

he faced his

new situation as

an

African,

a

worker,

and a

man. At this

level of

perception,

it

is

quite

irrelevant to

enquire

fromwhich

tribe

or

region

a

particular

African

originated.

WALTER RODNEY

University

College,

Dar

es Salaam

Tanzania, East Africa

Upper Guinea and Origins of African Slave Trade Enslaved in the New World- by Waltner Rodney (1969)

Documents

Transcript of Upper Guinea and Origins of African Slave Trade Enslaved in the New World- by Waltner Rodney (1969)