African Resistance
Link to an essay by scholar/author Sylviane A. Diouf - part of an online project of the Schomberg Center for Research In Black Culture, New York Public Library
INTRODUCTION
Africans started to fight the transatlantic slave trade as soon as it began. Their struggles were multifaceted and covered four continents over four centuries. Still, they have often been underestimated, overlooked, or forgotten. African resistance was reported in European sources only when it concerned attacks on slave ships and company barracoons, but acts of resistance also took place far from the coast and thus escaped the slavers’ attention. To discover them, oral history, archaeology, and autobiographies and biographies of African victims of the slave trade have to be probed. Taken together, these various sources offer a detailed image of the varied strategies Africans used to defend themselves from and mount attacks against the slave trade.
www.sylvianediouf.com
A project of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project was established on October 10, 2004 to apply historical insight to contemporary dynamics to help oppressed peoples exercise their right to self-determination. Our logo is "NEA ONNIM," an Adinkra symbol of knowledge, life-long education and the continued quest for knowledge.
