Some things to point out again

a world-speech between Sudanese and Mediterranean Africa

This shows the significance of these far of these contacts. Concerning the slave trade John Newton said that the far greater part of the wars in Africa were due to the European slave trade

Perry Noble:

http://books.google.com/books?pg=RA1-PA9&id=GIkAAAAAMAAJ#v=onepage&q=&f=false

“Of the group of Negro languages centering upon Lake Chad, the Hausa has become the most popular, and has traveled farthest.

Through large districts on both sides of the Binwe and Niger rivers it is invaluable as the circulating medium of thought. In extent of usefulness it surpasses all other single languages in inner Africa. It serves not only as the mother-tongue of fifteen millions of Negroes, but as a lingua franca between Sudanese tribes of difierent tongues, and even as a world-speech between Sudanese and Mediterranean Africa, It is remarkable for simplicity, elegance and wealth of vocabulary. It ranks among man’s imperial languages—the Latin of Central Sudan—magnificent, rich and sonorous, beautiful and facile in grammatical structure; exhibiting a harmony in its word-forms, and a symphonal symmetry that few tongnes can equal.”

“Medieval West Africa: Views From Arab Scholars and Merchants”

http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-West-Africa-Scholars-Merchants/dp/155876304X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241409685&sr=8-1

Yaqut 12th century page 40

“The king of Zafun is stronger than the veiled people of the Maghreb and more versed in the art of kingship. The veiled people acknowledge his superiority over them, obey him and resort to him in all important matters of government. One year the king, on his way to the pilgrimage, came to the Maghreb to pay a visit to the commander of the Muslims, the veiled king of the Maghreb, of the tribe of Lamtuna. The Commander of the Muslims met him on foot, wheras the king of Zafun did not dismount for him. He was tall, of deep black complexion and veiled.”

The slave trade was due to economic manipulation by the European powers. This was made possible because of modern banking

International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa By Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda

http://books.google.com/books?id=R44VRnNCzAYC&pg=RA1-PA398#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Through contact with the Islamic world to the north and east, Kano and the rest of Hausaland already were influenced indirectly by the wider world, indcluding the western world. Kano had served as a center of the slave trade from long before this time, but served mostly north Africa. The demand for slaves to fill the needs of European colonies in the New World, led Kano more deeply into the slave trade early in the seventeenth century. The Hausa themselves never dealt directly with European slavers. Rather, they would go on raiding expeditions to the south, then trade their captives to other peoples south and west of them, who would trade with Europeans on the coast.

John Newton On the slave trade read pages 227-252

http://books.google.com/books?id=OjI3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA245#v=onepage&q=&f=false

“But slaves are the staple article of the traffic; and though a considerable number may have been born near the sea, I believe the bulk of them are brought from far. I have reason to think that some travel more than a thousand miles, before they reach the sea-coast. Whether there may be convicts amongst these like, wise, or what proportion they may bear to those who are taken prisoners in war, it is impossible to know….

I verily believe, that the far greater part of the wars, in Africa, would cease, if the Europeans would cease to tempt them, by offering goods for slaves. And though they do not bring legions into the field, their wars are bloody. I believe, the captives reserved for sale are fewer than the slain.

I have not sufficient data to warrant calculation but, I suppose, not less than one hundred thousand slaves are exported, annually, from all parts of Africa, and that more than one-half of these are exported in English bottoms.

If but an equal number are killed in war, and if many of these wars are kindled by the incentive of selling their prisoners ; what an annual accumulation of blood must there be, crying against the nations of Europe concerned in this trade, and particularly against our own!”

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