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African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame

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There has long been silence on the issue of slavery and the Atlantic Slave trade: author Anne Bailey experienced this silence growing up in Jamaica, and as an adult became determined to break this silence, first researching the topic, than interviewing chiefs and elders in Ghana. African Voices Of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond The Silence And The Shame focuses on the Anlo Ewe community in Ghana to examine the impact of slavery and slave traders, showing how the trade became unpredictable and moved from the control of Africans to the control of outsiders. Oral narratives reveal why Africans began selling others into transatlantic slavery, providing a hard-hitting alternative history.

For those seeking an in depth look into our holocaust, this is an excellent book. In many books on the subject, they tend to separate different aspects until the reader gets the idea that Africans didn't resist and made it fairly easy for Europe to gain their economical power. By the time I finished, I had the same emotions and thoughts as I did when I watched movies like Mississippi Burning, Rosewood and Roots. If this book doesn't empower you, you probably need to visit Ghana's Elmina dungeon and see it for yourself.

This book is quite enlightening in the history of the African slave trade. Contrary to what one might expect from the title and reviews, the author does not solely rely on oral stories from African elders. The stories that the author quotes, though, are always interesting. Especially, the Africans involvement with the slavery.

Of course, a story is just that, a story. As with many long told stories, there will be many aspects of truth and nontruth. That is not to say that any of the legends told were lies. They will contain versions of events as told by people who were not witness to the event. It is like the child's party game of "telephone." You start with a story at one end of the line and watch how it changes by the time it reaches the last person. Changes are inevitable, although, the basic premise may be intact.

Still, the author provides a useful addition to the literature. So often, the African slave trade discussion is limited to what occurred in America. This book provides stories and facts of the rudimentary aspects of the slave trade such as the problems with shippers obtaining insurance, and the changes in ships designs.

The book informed me on other aspects of the slave trade that I had not known. For example, the international outlawing of the slave transportation did not result in a lessening, but a sharp increase in Atlantic transportation of slaves. Also, the profits arising from slave trading after abolishing were far above what I would have expected. The author too was clearly stunned. That said, the major flaw in this book is that it is so dryly written. Her method of presenting the material is as if one were listening to a dictation. An odd presentation for such an emotional and significant topic.

African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame