Impacts today

Impacts of slavery on Africa

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So what are the impacts that we see on Africa today? There's the historical impacts slavery had on Africa now, the impact back then, and of course the way Africa is shaped today is also partly due to slavery.

Prior to European contact, Africa had its own borders, traditions, and so forth. Their own tribal boundaries basically kept their people at peace, but when the Europeans came in, they created their own colonies in their 'scramble for Africa'. The land was divided regardless of the history the different groups had with each other, and they all had to live under the rule of the imperial powers. Many native people were captured to become slaves, causing massive depopulation, and more boundaries were set as some European powers gave African societies guns to capture even more slaves. Thousands of people were shipped away or died during their journey to the 'New World', and Africa's culture, population numbers and infrastructure was damaged greatly.
The Europeans' sudden arrival and equally sudden retreat shook the country's foundation, and it's still visible.

Because of these new borders and weapons in Africa, there is much civil unrest today. Civil wars are tearing at the country, and more people are dying due to AIDS rather than the war. Yet the media does not place their focus on Africa, and the suffering continues.

If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.(source)

Slavery has destroyed a massive part of Africa's history, and the current poverty, disease and the fact that they're a Third World country is because of it. They haven't been given compensation, and the West hasn't truly acknowledged what it has done. Neither has it accepted responsibility for the consequences - and yet it still buys materials cheaply from Africa, and doesn't pay attention to the wars, economic crises, and illnesses these people have to suffer through. African languages are being lost, and there is so much genocide going on under the public eye, but because of Africa's history of fighting, suffering and suppression, everyone seems to have gotten used to it.
This is perhaps the most horrifying legacy of slavery; that the damage today is considered fairly normal by the majority of the crowd.
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