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Upper Guinea and the Significance of the Origins of Africans Enslaved in the New WorldAuthor(s): Walter RodneySource: The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), pp. 327-345Published by: Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2716728.
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8/10/2019 Upper Guinea and Origins of African Slave Trade Enslaved in the New World- by Waltner Rodney (1969)
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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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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).
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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