The Origin Of Slavery In Africa

But I tell you; the world we live in today is far more civilized and somewhat peaceful than it ever had been since the beginning of time. As I had mentioned in my first article regarding this topic, the origin of slavery, not only in Africa but worldwide, is traceable as far back as the beginning of time.

Long before the 7th century AD, when the Trans-Saharan and East African Slave Trades became widely known, prehistoric slavery existed as a way of life in Africa. There were many legitimate ways one could possess slaves at that point in time. Slavery in Africa, among the black Africans those days wasn't a bad thing at all! 

Families were at liberty selling their own children to pay debts or purchase livestock during hard times. Of course, land wasn't purchased by then but rather communally allocated to families according to their need.

And that’s basically where the issue of owning a large number of slaves had originated from because land distribution to families in terms of their need for more land was carried out or simply determined by the number of workers any given family could put to work on the land. So in order to get more land, one or rather a family had to employ more workers or legally obtain more slaves!

And of course, in the African context, there was no difference between ordinary workers and slaves; they were both treated with respect to a point where they even felt like family members. Traditional African practices of slavery only changed drastically at the beginning of the 7th century when Arab Muslims started exploiting the black Africans by forcefully enslaving them. And such exploitation continued running from the 7th up to the 20th century, as Arab Muslims traded for black African slaves in West, Central, and East Africa, sending over hundred thousands of slaves each year to North Africa and far distant parts of Asia.

Nonetheless, the story changed again in the 15th century when European explorers and traders arrived in West Africa, finding a lucrative slavery business going on at every corner, therefore they followed suit and started using the well-refined slave-trade networks like everybody else. As a result, the trans-Saharan and East African slave trades became eclipsed by the Atlantic slave trade to the extent where people started forgetting how the story had started! And today only well taught historians and philosophers do still remember how the story of slavery in Africa had started!

And that’s why it hurts to people who know these things, seeing and hearing people like my big sister talking about nothing but the Atlantic slave trade! And not only that, but many people today when they think of slavery, they only picture the form in which it existed in the United States and nothing more! I really can’t remember hearing anybody talking bad things about the Brazilian or any other form of slavery but the American version. After all, there is absolutely nothing the American slave traders did that the British or Brazilians, not to mention the Arab Muslims themselves didn't do in terms of abusing the Africans or rather slaves! So abhorring the Americans as if they are the only ones representing Caucasian races is somewhat misguided if I may say so!  

(To be continued)… whenever I get a chance, after all, I don’t enjoy this topic very much! I am just doing it for the sake of helping people like my big sister, that’s all!

Wetlands Paradise: Caprivi, Namibia

Not only does Sambi Tours & Shuttle CC now shuttle tourists from the Mountain Kingdom to the Wetlands Paradise but we just completed opening up a branch in Katima Mulilo, Zambezi, Namibia! It took us a while transferring automobiles and various equipment from Windhoek to our new branch in Katima Mulilo, at last we’re now operational in Zambezi Region!

See, to us who were born in this region, it’s a blessing getting a chance to come back and setup a structure of any sort here! And in my case, I've this knack for imagining the Zambezi Region as a Garden of Eden frequently mentioned in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. I don’t know why I like visualizing the Zambezi Region as the Garden of Eden, but I sub-consciously do it as I had been doing it since I started hearing about the bible stories of Adam and Eve when I was just a little boy. I haven’t discussed this fantasy of mine with anybody yet, but I reckon I am not the only one dreaming such things about this region as the Garden of Eden.

But I guess that’s so because the region has been truly blessed with Africa’s most amazing exclusive and complex network of rivers, riverine forests, swamps, flood plains, and thick woodlands teeming with wildlife and birdlife. For instance, during these past few days that I've been here I saw thousands of elephants, buffalos, (not to mention hippos and crocodiles in the waters) and many other animals roaming the bushes freely without fear of any kind whatsoever. People and animals here know how to share life without hurting one another. It’s here where our peoples through tradition do believe that the earth owns the people; the people don’t own the earth, so the legacy human beings leave behind in that regard determines the future of the earth!

People in this region are backed up by traditions of their forefathers (Bantu Speaking Farmers) arising from as early as 3000 BC. And thanks to such traditions, people in this region are self-reliant when it comes to agriculture and various ways of not only traditional but modern living too!

Anyway, our being here has everything to do with Sambi Tours & Shuttle CC, a lucrative lawful business with enormous potential due to a high influx of tourists to Namibia. Zambezi Region is of course a small Namibian territory with a large number of tourism resorts that probably require a complete book to outline them all in one go! Briefly speaking, in the eastern part of Caprivi (Zambezi) you find lodges such as Impalila Island Lodge, Chobe River Lodge, Ntwala Island Lodge, Elephant Lodge, and Camp Chobe.

And in the central parts of Zambezi, Katima Mulilo district, you would be delighted to lodge at either Zambezi River Lodge (Protea Hotel) or indulge yourself at Caprivi River Lodge, Caprivi Houseboat Safari Lodge, Island View Lodge, Kalizo Lodge, Namwi Island Campsite & Self-catering, 3 Palms Bed & Breakfast, Fish Eagle’s Guesthouse, and countless other guesthouses all over Katima Mulilo. 

And in the west you would be treated like a king or queen at Lianshulu Bush Lodge, Mazambala Island Lodge, Namushasha Country Lodge, Susuwe Island Lodge, Nkasa Lupala Tented Lodge, Lianshulu Lodge, and Camp Kwando, to mention but a few. And surprisingly, there are times, when all the above mentioned lodges (region-wide) and guest houses are full to capacity, thanks to tourists vacating in the Zambezi! 

But guess what; all such tourists traveling and vacating in the region have got to be shuttled from one place to the other, and that’s where Sambi Tours & Shuttle do come in! We shuttle not only tourists in such basic context but everybody, local passengers and all sorts of foreigners included, and we do it with great inclination because we love our work. We wake up each morning with great anticipation for what the day holds up in store for us!

This is how our staff, particularly drivers do dress whenever on duty. I am really proud of a specialized service we render to our clients at Sambi Tours & Shuttle in the rest of Namibia. And for your information, it’s one of our company policies to shuttle clients privately in comfort without exhibiting their pictures on social networks. Even our drivers aren't supposed to be visibly publicized on social networks like this! I only did it because I am appearing in the picture, of course. But remember that such policy has got nothing to do with the law governing the tourism board of Namibia, it's only we at Sambi Tours & Shuttle who value the privacy of our clients!

Well, I’ll update you again whenever I can, but I wouldn't count on it if I were you! I am so busy here that at times I barely find time to eat my food nicely with time. 

See, I like spending up to two (2) hours eating my food slowly, but not here, there is no time for such luxuries, no time for playing games on the internet either! Anyway, keep well until next time, all right!!

Slavery And The Wages Of Slavery

Historians and philosophers of the world have been working continuously harder for the past forty years now to tell the story of how slavery had started and also how it ended in what’s briefly phrased as the rise and fall of slavery. As a philosopher myself, I made it my mission to read each and every article written on the subject and I am glad to say that indeed this matter of slavery has been finalized and amicably put to rest.

Unfortunately given what I know about how hurt my people in Africa are regarding this matter, even I have got to choose words carefully when writing anything pertaining to this topic because as far as the Africans are concerned, it isn't over yet! According to them, this isn't something you just shake hands on, saying it’s over; hence we all should just forgive one another and forget what had happened! 

Oh yes, both the sub-Saharan and Atlantic slavery that had run from 1441 to 1888 may be over but how do you put an end to the physical and mental sufferings of the descendants of the estimated 11 million enslaved Africans who were forced to cross the Atlantic Ocean to their New World destinations? You can’t just tell them to stop being poor and sick in the head and rather start living healthily like everybody else, can you? They are genetically sick from horrible past unpleasant experiences and there is absolutely nothing anybody can do to help them get better since it’s in their blood, it’s like a curse or something! It works involuntarily on their nerves and in their lives to the point where bad things just happen to them whether they like it or not!  Many of them have died under mysterious conditions and the lucky ones are serving life jail sentences for crimes they committed beyond their control due to the spell hovering over them arising from what had happened to their forefathers. 

Nonetheless, long story short, the wages of slavery is basically a curse which attacks the physical body and mind to a point where one under such a spell have got no control over his or her life. Therefore, the worst mistake anybody can make is telling such a person to grow up and start living a normal life like everybody else for Godssake!  Well, I have learnt a lot from my big sister about the symptoms of slavery illness and for that reason; I've made it my mission in life to engineer a solution to this problem, a solution that would most likely put this matter to rest once and for all! Of course, I don’t need to be reimbursed for such a solution because I engineered it for the common good of humanity in general. After all, it’s my people in Africa who are suffering from the wages of slavery illness, so getting reimbursed for creating a solution that would benefit all human beings on earth is the last thing on my mind. 

Evidently I wouldn't approve the idea that all Africans in Africa and those abroad should be reimbursed for what had happened to their forefathers with regards to suppression or rather slavery in particular! After all, what’s the point of compensating this generation while the next generation a century from now on would also demand to be reimbursed for the same thing? For that reason, if I were high up in a position to suggest or rather put forward my solution to this problem of slavery and its wages, I would demand that every given country on earth should have a therapeutic centre or two, where not only African folks, but everybody suffering from the wages of slavery would go to for a free mental treatment without being subjected to harmful medication as though they were really mentally gone! 

The war veterans have got such sanatoria in some countries, and so why is it that such facilities are not afforded the descendants of the people who had been made slaves during the modern times? Yet modern slavery is still going on to this day, which means that the victims and their relatives therefore need counsel which they generally can’t afford under normal conditions since each and every shrink in town needs to be paid upfront! (To be continued)… and please, in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment concerning supporting or opposing my views on this topic, I am really open to criticism if you like! 

Oh I nearly forgot to mention that I am going on a business mission to some place far away from Windhoek, so it’ll take me a while before I get a chance to write something pertaining to this subject. But thanks to a well-developed infrastructure in my country, Namibia, that regardless of wherever I go in the country, I’d still have access to the internet and mobile telephone communication, so feel free to engage me anytime you feel like chatting online or over mobile phone, okay!