This painting by Alphonse Levy of a slave coffle in Western Sudan is indicative of just how complex the interdependence between people became as a result. The three groups of people involved in this picture are Sub-Saharan African slaves, Arabian soldiers (left and right), and Europeans, which although not pictured are the most influential group in why this picture, and its content, came to be.
First, although descended from inhabitants of the Middle East, the Arab-African soldiers are capturing other Africans, showing how fractal and cutthroat the political situation was in Africa at the time; groups of people did not care about others outside their own, much as is the case today, where the geographical lines drawn up by European powers do not show where the allegiance of Africa's people lie. There is not a nation in Africa in which all its inhabitants identify as part of the same social group. You can see the women traversing harsh landscapes topless, with a rope around their necks and children at their side, which is probably one of the most humiliating experiences a woman can endure, coupled with what else these soldiers did that isn't pictured.
The Arab soldiers, on the left and right of the picture, show a great deal of information about the trade. In terms of character, the Arabs are no better than the Europeans who packed slaves into ships as tightly as canned sardines. These were men of despicable character and without mercy, sympathy or any sign of morality.
One of the important, yet subtle components in this image are the rifles the Arabs are holding. They are evidence these Arabs had not only contacted Europeans, but had previously conducted business with them and were provided the means to continue their business with an increased level of efficiency that firearms provisioned. It cannot directly be proven in the image that these slaves were in fact sold to Europeans, but the information we can glean leads us to believe that was the case. It is very important to understand that Europeans at this time were greatly affecting the lives of two other groups of people in the heart of Africa without being present. This shows the incredible power and magnitude to which Europe's imperial nations influenced Africa.
Last, to fully understand this image, we must look at why it was created, and was so because of simple marketing. Europe needed to sell this course of action as a viable economic process to its citizens. This is done twofold: by painting the Arabs wearing white which is no coincidence and by making the slaves' faces blurry and likened to those of primates, to dehumanize them as the slave trade did comprehensively throughout its history.
One aspect of this image that I find very interesting is the artist's decision to leave out any sort of depiction of Europeans. To me this is a way of showing slavery as something that one group of African people did to another without holding Europeans responsible for the huge part they played in it. From this image you would never guess that it was Europeans persuading the Arab soldiers to go out and collect slaves for them.
ReplyDeleteThis image shows the blatant reality through which Africans were taken as slaves by other Africans, before and after colonial establishment along the West African coast. I do not believe the two guards in the image to be Arab, yes perhaps of Arab descent, even though it is most likely of the Sudan region slave trade. Sudan's connection to the Arabic world dates back to before the common era, especially the early common era when under Egyptian rule. Africans had enslaved other Africans for hundreds of years prior to European connections. West African commerce centered on slave trade with Egypt, as well as the Mediterranean and India(1). Levy's painting is ultimately a realistic (European)insight, to slave trade in Western Africa. Additionally, I agree that the image portrays the women slaves as hopeless and dehumanized. The guns embed power into the image that the Europeans had over other Africans when dealing with enslavement practices.
ReplyDelete(1) Tignor, Robert. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart. New York, W.W. Norotn & Company, Inc. 2008.
This is a very interesting (and well-informed) conversation here. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would ask, Jack, is what information you have on the book this image was published in. I wonder if the author was intending to depict this in a way that comforts or confronts the reader. You seem to claim that this was meant to let the reader off the hook, but it may be that it was an abolitionist image. Would be good to look into the provenance of the image.