Women In East African Slave Trade

However, although the slave trade had been increasing, the economic changeover proved relatively simple. Rubber would take the place of slaves, with cloves providing additional assistance. In addition, the slave trade would take a toll on Africa and the potential of how productive they could’ve been. Labor was exported for a fraction of its value: slaves tended to be young, and most productive members of society. “Thus, Atlantic Africa experienced no significant economic “development” during the era of the slave trade, for the exception of a few indigenous economic benefiting from the involvement in the transatlantic system.” The clampdown of the slave trade and the progressing shift to exporting natural resources in Africa, integrated the
While family life and the status of women remained relatively the same in the southern and western zones of Africa, women in eastern Africa generally enjoyed a higher economic and cultural status. While growing communities granted some degree of freedom for women from men control, however, “prostitution and beer-brewing were the most common fates for women who had left their rural homes. Elsewhere, while the cash-crop economy brought commercial opportunities for both men and women, most of these went to men; women engaged in some causal labor, but their roles often confined to domestic work, such as cultivating food crops, and rearing children, especially in areas where the men were involved in labor migration.” All in all, legal systems under European control shows that women were at a disadvantage, because men, especially elite men, had much more advantages/opportunities than women, and benefited off of women’s unpaid
However, the economic impact Colonial rule had on Africa, held very negative results. The infrastructure that was created was to exploit the natural resources of the continent. This would stall industrial and technological development for Africa. The Slave trade would have devastating effects on Atlantic Africa; there can be little doubt that trade stunted economic growth and diversification, as well as demographic growth, with population levels at least remaining the same, if not declining, as a result of the regular export of people. The impact of European colonialism of Africa happened for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was economic. Before colonial rule, Africa was increasingly adapting and advancing economically. Though Colonial rule help progress economic development in some places, many others had not, which effected the natural process of African development. Had European powers never interfered with African development, its development would be completely different and many of the problems that affect it today would not