West African Dependence on the Slave Trade
Osei Bonsu was king of the Asante (also written Ashanti or Ashantee) state in West Africa from about 1801 to 1824. Under his rule, the Asante state expanded and solidified the sophisticated bureaucratic structure inaugurated by his predecessors in the late 1700s. The Asante export economy — based historically on the sale of gold, ivory, and slaves — flourished after initial contact with Europeans. His comments, presented here, were recorded by a British trader named Joseph shortly after the British abolition of the slave trade. They indicate both the profound dependence of many African states on the European slave trade and the complex relationships fostered through that system.
“Now,” said the king, after a pause, “I have another palaver [topic of discussion], and you must help me to talk it. A long time ago the great king [the king of England] liked plenty of trade, more than now; then many ships came, and they bought ivory, gold, and slaves; but now he will not let the ships come as before, and the people buy gold and ivory only. This is what I have in my head, so now tell me truly, like a friend, why does the king do so?” “His majesty’s question,” I replied, “was connected with a great palaver, which my instructions did not authorize me to discuss. I had nothing to say regarding the slave trade.” “I know that too,” retorted the king; “because, if my master liked that trade, you would have told me so before. I only want to hear what you think as a friend: this is not like the other palavers.” I was confessedly at a loss for an argument that might pass as a satisfactory reason, and the sequel proved that my doubts were not groundless. The king did not deem it plausible, that this obnoxious traffic should have been abolished from motives of humanity alone; neither would he admit that it lessened the number either of domestic or foreign wars.
Taking up one of my observations, he remarked, “The white men who go to council with your master, and pray to the great God for him, do not understand my country, or they would not say the slave trade was bad. But if they think it bad now, why did they think it good before? Is not your law an old law, the same as the Crammo [Muslim] law? Do you not both serve the same God, only you have different fashions and customs? Crammos are strong people in fetische,1 and they say the law is good, because the great God made the book; so they buy slaves, and teach them good things, which they knew not before. This makes everybody love the Crammos, and they go everywhere up and down, and the people give them food when they want it. Then these men come all the way from the great water [the Niger River], and from Manding, and Dagomba, and Killinga; they stop and trade for slaves, and then go home. If the great king would like to restore this trade, it would be good for the white men and for me too, because Ashantee is a country for war, and the people are strong; so if you talk that palaver for me properly, in the white country, if you go there, I will give you plenty of gold, and I will make you richer than all the white men.”
David Robinson and Douglas Smith, Sources of the African Past: Case Studies of Five Nineteenth-
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