Traced back to the 17th to 19th centuries, the British colonised most parts of Africa, including my country, Nigeria, through missionary expansion, which aimed to introduce Christianity to the world. The sole purpose of Christianity during those early days was for evangelism and winning lost souls to Christ. They wanted to show the world beyond their country about Christ, until they came to Africa and saw everything was different. These people were not really exposed and had a different racial colour with less intelligence.
The British colonised Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and several other countries. Honestly, each time history talks about them according to written documents, they will describe them as slave masters, because they enjoyed selling off slaves, but the deeper truth about this that was not written, which I understood, is that it was the kings and monarchical leaders who were selling their people. The British don't come with armies, they are even mostly welcomed privately by the kings and queens. All they did was negotiate terms with our leaders, and they never forced people, but our leaders did. Growing up made me understand that we sold our selfs to the British. Back then, in history, there were written documents of slave traders who were also black. All they did was sell people to collect cuts, mirrors, and even clothes or guns.
The British back then were more like businessmen, they saw the use of gold and other opportunities, they negotiated with our leaders, and they also saw we had many resources that we didn't even know the use of. Hence, they took this opportunity and used it, but what I was really against was the illegal treatment and slaes of slaves. This seems so unfair. Each time I get to read about the story, I know the way we feel things back in that century is different from the way we feel things now. Still, they should never have treated a slave badly.
I have little knowledge about the slavery system, but I was very certain that we sold ourselves to them, because we were very populated back then, regardless of how weaponised they are, we could have fought back, but we didn't, which automatically means we were okay with it, or we had ruthless black leaders back then. I hardly know about other countries, but I know for sure we sold ourselves to them, because it is hard to believe a white man from outside came to rule us ruthlessly, especially when his country or townspeople are not even close by. I feel the written history has so many hidden facts that were not discussed; instead, they wrote it against these white people. I know personally the white people also had their own thing but it was not like the way it is written
So many written documents about slavery that speak against the British are not real. Yes, they were slave masters, but our leaders and influential people in Africa then sold poor families to them just for mirrors, gold cups and chains also. So I believe slavery has been in Africa before the colonisation, the British saw it and they felt comfortable with slaves doing all their work and making things easier for them, who would say no when you have someone that can feed your horse and water your plants. The only problem I had with the British was racial discrimination back then, which still happens to date.
This is my entry to Hivelearners weekly prompt, week 187 episode 2
Thank you for reading my post
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