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00:00:03,220 --> 00:00:06,620
Between the 15th
and the early 19th century,

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00:00:06,690 --> 00:00:09,790
Africa's kingdoms would witness
remarkable changes

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00:00:09,860 --> 00:00:13,600
in the religious, economic,
and cultural trajectory

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00:00:13,660 --> 00:00:15,300
of the continent.

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00:00:15,370 --> 00:00:17,330
By the early 16th century,

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00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,270
at least 3 African kingdoms
were directly connected

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to the royal courts of Europe,

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and even to the halls
of the Vatican.

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Europe's exploration
of the Americas

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would become one of the most
defining experiences

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in the continent's long history.

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This new world would become
synonymous with trade,

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and a crucial component
of trade would be

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he shipping across the Atlantic

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00:00:41,190 --> 00:00:43,830
of some 12.5 million Africans

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Powerful empires
would rise and fall,

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00:00:47,300 --> 00:00:50,370
all across the continent,
during this time of

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seismic global change.

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In the far north corner
of Angola,

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on a flat-topped mountain,
lies the city of Mbanza Kongo,

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the capital of Zaire province.

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Today, it's home
to 100,000 people.

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6 centuries ago,
this city was the capital

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of one of Africa's
greatest kingdoms.

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At the end of the 15th century,
the kingdom of Kongo was one of.

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The largest and most
powerful states.

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In the Southern half of Africa.

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From the capital, Mbanza Kongo,

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a densely settled
and well-administered city.

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Lying south of the Congo river,

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a king presided over
a highly stratified society.

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That covered some
50,000 square miles.

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At the heart of the city
stand the ruins of a building.

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Constructed in the middle
of the 16th century.

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It's one of the most important
architectural remains.

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In the history of sub-Saharan
African Christianity...

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A striking symbol
of the transformation.

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Of the religious beliefs
of this great African kingdom.

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It's the cathedral
of Sao Salvador.

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What did you think
when you first heard.

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There was an African cathedral.

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Before the 1600s?

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I couldn't believe it.

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Tell me about it.

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The cathedral was built
in 1549.

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And it's an incredible thing.

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Think about having
a cathedral to fulfill.

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The destiny of
Christianity in Africa.

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Do the people here
know about this history?

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Many of the reference say
the place was a temple.

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That connect
to the old religions.

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So that would make sense.

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That makes sense.

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The second tale
is always the king.

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Knew he wanted to be a Christian.

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And he decided to
build this monument,

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to honor this incredible
transformation.

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The adoption
of Roman Catholicism.

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By the king of Kongo in 1491.

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Not only changed the official
religion of the kingdom,

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but it inserted Kongo
into the very heart

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of European power.

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At the beginning
of the 17th century,

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a summary of world rulers
prepared in Florence

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for the education of
prince Cosimo de Medici.

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Listed the leaders
of the world's great kingdoms.

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Alongside the monarchs
of such great powers

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as England, France,
Japan, and China,

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was king Alvaro II,
the king of Kongo.

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The ruler of a powerful
African kingdom

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converts to Roman Catholicism
in 1491,

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sends his own ambassadors
to the royal court of Portugal.

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And to the Vatican,
and one of his successors,

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in Shakespeare's time,
is listed as one of

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the world's great rulers?

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How could every school child
not be taught this.

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About the history of the great
African continent?

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The Atlantic coast of Africa.

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Long a barrier
to contact and trade,

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these waters were about to be
transformed into a gateway.

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Early in the 15th century,

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Portuguese navigators
discovered how to use.

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The winds and currents
of the Atlantic.

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Not only to sail south,
but, for the first time,

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to return home,
north, to Europe.

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This remarkable
navigational breakthrough.

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Opened heretofore unknown lands
to the south,

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heralding the European
age of discovery,

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vastly expanding
Europe's understanding.

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Of the known world.

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In 1483, a ship dropped anchor
at the mouth of the Congo river.

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In what is today
the country of Angola.

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Its captain was the explorer
Diogo Cao,

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dispatched on a mission
by king Joao of Portugal.

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To seek out new lands,
luxury goods,

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and powerful allies.

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When Cao reached the shore,
he marked one of the most.

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Important encounters
in world history.

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By erecting a limestone pillar.

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How do you feel
when you see this?

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It's a major event
in global history.

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Cao was very fortunate
that he met.

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A very friendly welcome.

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Upon his arrival.

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And the king of Kongo
and his court.

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Were filled with optimism.

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About the relationship.

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Where both parties would benefit.

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From exchanges
that would be made.

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So let's make a deal.

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Yes.

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The Portuguese arrived
with gifts of.

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Silk, satin, and velvet.

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They were seeking
trading relationships

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with African kingdoms
that they assumed

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were rich in silver and gold.

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What did the king and his nobles
make of these visitors,

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and what would this
new friendship mean

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for the kingdom of Kongo?

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Over 100 miles inland,
at his capital of Mbanza Kongo,

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Nzinga Nkuwu, the Mwene Kongo,
or ruler,

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graciously received
the Portuguese visitors,

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keen to create
cultural and religious links.

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With his kingdom.

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Essentially when the Portuguese.

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Came to west central Africa,

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it was almost like
two continents.

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That didn't know about
each other's existence.

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Suddenly reaching
and meeting each other.

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It in fact allowed
the king of Kongo.

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To connect with
an outside power.

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It wasn't a local power, it was
an outside power which, in fact,

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meant that Kongo became
part of what was emerging,

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which was the Atlantic world.

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In addition to engaging
in cultural interchanges,

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the kingdom of Kongo
could now trade directly.

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With Europe for the first time,

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exchanging copper and ivory.

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As well as luxurious
raffia cloth,

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which soon became highly prized
throughout the courts of Europe.

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But for Kongo, the relationship
wasn't exclusively commercial.

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It allowed them to play
in the European political game.

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In a way that,
um, other countries.

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Really didn't have access to.

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It's not that they could
force anybody in Europe.

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To do anything they wanted
but they could...

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They, first of all, knew the
political geography of Europe.

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Much better than other
African rulers did.

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At the end of the 15th century,

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we know that
the Portuguese and Kongo.

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Had a significant relationship.

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By 1488, Kongo and Portuguese.

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Had exchanged ambassadors.

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The Portuguese were interested
in having the Kongolese.

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Give up their idols and other
fetishes, as they said,

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and, you know, become Christian.

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So in 1491, the king of Kongo,
Nzinga Nkuwu,

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converted to the catholic faith.

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Through this conversion,
the kingdom of Kongo.

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Entered an even bigger world
in its alliance.

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With a growing European power.

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The Portuguese wanted
to expand, to have prestige.

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It had been close to the Vatican.

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And had been given the world
of the Atlantic to expand.

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God, gold, and glory, the 3 gs.

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That propelled the Portuguese.

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To go into the Atlantic.

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But the religious dimension
was also important,

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because one of the main aims
was, in fact,

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to spread the catholic faith.

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Kongo's commitment
to their new religion.

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Would deepen further
when Nzinga Nkuwu.

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Was succeeded by his son Afonso.

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Afonso wrote that he fought
and won a battle of succession.

175
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Over anti-Christian forces
to take the throne.

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At the beginning
of the 16th century.

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He was very devout,
and he really was.

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Very much, um, transformed
and intrigued.

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He studied a lot.

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A Portuguese missionary noted.

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Afonso's extraordinary
faith and piety:

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"It seems to me from the way
he speaks he is not a man,

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"but an angel, sent by the lord
in this kingdom to convert it.

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For I assure you, it is
he who instructs us."

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It was Afonso who developed
the school system, for example,

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put masters, school masters,
in every province.

187
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And arranged for
an educational system,

188
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sent many, many people
to Europe to study.

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He addressed the king
in Portugal as his brother.

190
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He really wanted to have
an equal type of relationship.

191
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Where he would be seen in Africa
as a powerful Christian country.

192
00:10:02,180 --> 00:10:05,350
Christianity was at
the heart of Afonso's kingship,

193
00:10:05,420 --> 00:10:07,550
and so was its control.

194
00:10:07,620 --> 00:10:09,280
He made certain that
the faith was taught.

195
00:10:09,350 --> 00:10:11,550
Primarily by his own teachers,

196
00:10:11,620 --> 00:10:14,190
rather than by
European missionaries.

197
00:10:14,260 --> 00:10:16,960
He self-consciously
ensured that Christianity.

198
00:10:17,030 --> 00:10:18,890
Practiced in his kingdom.

199
00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,730
Had a distinctly
indigenous character.

200
00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,070
A mix of Roman catholic beliefs.

201
00:10:24,130 --> 00:10:28,040
Constructed on a foundation
of African spirituality.

202
00:10:29,370 --> 00:10:31,470
Kongo's craftsmen transformed.

203
00:10:31,540 --> 00:10:34,310
The iconography of
Roman Catholicism,

204
00:10:34,380 --> 00:10:36,280
making it their own.

205
00:10:36,350 --> 00:10:39,680
This was created
by a local brass caster,

206
00:10:39,750 --> 00:10:44,290
Kongo artist who
is interpreting Christ.

207
00:10:44,350 --> 00:10:46,150
In a Kongolese idiom.

208
00:10:46,220 --> 00:10:48,860
Yeah, a black Christ,
an African Christ.

209
00:10:48,930 --> 00:10:53,090
Initially, European prototypes
are used at the court,

210
00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:57,360
and eventually,
local brass casters are.

211
00:10:57,430 --> 00:11:02,840
Reimagining the forms in
their own local aesthetic.

212
00:11:02,910 --> 00:11:06,610
That's one of the most
powerful crucified Jesuses.

213
00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:08,140
That I've ever seen.

214
00:11:08,210 --> 00:11:09,980
It's so deeply moving.

215
00:11:10,050 --> 00:11:13,550
And the way that the
textile is emphasized,

216
00:11:13,620 --> 00:11:15,420
it reminds us of the textiles.

217
00:11:15,490 --> 00:11:16,920
That were so important.

218
00:11:16,990 --> 00:11:19,650
As part of the
artistic production.

219
00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:21,960
Of this great civilization.

220
00:11:22,020 --> 00:11:24,790
So even the loincloth
that protects Jesus.

221
00:11:24,860 --> 00:11:26,660
Is Kongolese.

222
00:11:26,730 --> 00:11:29,500
Not only is
Catholicism Kongolese,

223
00:11:29,570 --> 00:11:32,000
but Jesus is Kongolese as well.

224
00:11:32,070 --> 00:11:35,040
Afonso was devout,
and wanted his kingdom.

225
00:11:35,100 --> 00:11:38,670
To be formally recognized within
the catholic church's hierarchy.

226
00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:40,510
With its own bishop.

227
00:11:40,580 --> 00:11:44,110
Afonso's son Henrique,
educated in Portugal,

228
00:11:44,180 --> 00:11:47,050
was appointed bishop
by Giovanni de Medici,

229
00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:52,320
pope Leo X, in the year 1518.

230
00:11:52,390 --> 00:11:54,760
The kingdom of Kongo
joined Nubia.

231
00:11:54,820 --> 00:11:57,220
As the home of
an African bishop.

232
00:11:57,290 --> 00:12:00,430
It's not that he wanted
primarily his son.

233
00:12:00,500 --> 00:12:02,130
To go to heaven as a bishop.

234
00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:03,860
He wanted... it was a power move.

235
00:12:03,930 --> 00:12:05,870
Yeah. It's a power
and political move,

236
00:12:05,940 --> 00:12:08,840
to allow someone to have
power within the system.

237
00:12:08,910 --> 00:12:11,510
To mark the appointment
of his son as bishop,

238
00:12:11,570 --> 00:12:15,340
Afonso sent the pope
an extraordinary work of art.

239
00:12:15,410 --> 00:12:19,110
Not only is it beautiful,
it's meaningful.

240
00:12:19,180 --> 00:12:21,780
This is one of
the treasures of world art.

241
00:12:21,850 --> 00:12:23,480
It's one of the earliest works.

242
00:12:23,550 --> 00:12:26,150
By an African artist to wind up.

243
00:12:26,220 --> 00:12:29,960
In a great European
art collection.

244
00:12:30,030 --> 00:12:33,190
And it is appreciated
as something of.

245
00:12:33,260 --> 00:12:38,230
Exquisite elegance,
beauty, and preciousness.

246
00:12:38,300 --> 00:12:41,270
While this vibrant
religious and political alliance.

247
00:12:41,340 --> 00:12:45,270
Between Kongo, Portugal,
and the Vatican was deepening,

248
00:12:45,340 --> 00:12:49,310
a prosperous economic alliance
was also flourishing,

249
00:12:49,380 --> 00:12:51,650
and one commodity in particular.

250
00:12:51,710 --> 00:12:54,010
Would become a key
economic driver.

251
00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:59,190
In an emerging Atlantic
global economy: Sugar.

252
00:12:59,260 --> 00:13:02,190
In the early years of
the European renaissance,

253
00:13:02,260 --> 00:13:05,430
cane sugar sold,
pound for pound,

254
00:13:05,490 --> 00:13:10,260
for as much as the most exotic
spices imported from Asia.

255
00:13:10,330 --> 00:13:14,840
Cultivation first on Madeira,
then on Sao Tome and Principe,

256
00:13:14,900 --> 00:13:18,740
would make Portugal one of the
world's largest sugar producers.

257
00:13:18,810 --> 00:13:21,580
By the middle of
the 16th century.

258
00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,810
They already knew that
any tropical islands.

259
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,650
Was likely to be a place where
you could grow sugar cane.

260
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:31,490
And so they immediately
worked on making sugar cane.

261
00:13:31,550 --> 00:13:33,420
A production of that island.

262
00:13:33,490 --> 00:13:37,760
Already by 1500, they are
growing sugar cane on Sao Tome,

263
00:13:37,830 --> 00:13:40,160
and they're sending it
back to Europe.

264
00:13:40,230 --> 00:13:42,300
Sugar had been
cultivated by Europeans.

265
00:13:42,370 --> 00:13:44,670
For hundreds of years,
in the Levant,

266
00:13:44,730 --> 00:13:47,570
on Cyprus and Sicily, in Spain,

267
00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:49,870
and now in the mid-15th century,

268
00:13:49,940 --> 00:13:52,040
off the west coast of Africa.

269
00:13:52,110 --> 00:13:54,380
There was just one problem:

270
00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:56,310
Harvesting and processing
cane sugar

271
00:13:56,380 --> 00:13:58,250
was backbreaking work.

272
00:13:58,310 --> 00:14:00,920
To solve this,
planters turned initially.

273
00:14:00,980 --> 00:14:03,280
To European indentured servants,

274
00:14:03,350 --> 00:14:06,820
but ultimately the dominant
labor force in sugar cultivation.

275
00:14:06,890 --> 00:14:09,790
Would be black African slaves,

276
00:14:09,860 --> 00:14:12,590
and a long succession
of African kingdoms...

277
00:14:12,660 --> 00:14:15,200
Including king Afonso's Kongo...

278
00:14:15,260 --> 00:14:18,800
Would be willing partners
in this lucrative trade.

279
00:14:18,870 --> 00:14:22,540
Kongo wanted
to import goods from Europe.

280
00:14:22,610 --> 00:14:26,310
And in order to do that, they
had to have goods to export.

281
00:14:26,380 --> 00:14:31,910
Kongo exported ivory,
copper, um, rare animals.

282
00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:34,520
During the course of its
commercial relations with.

283
00:14:34,580 --> 00:14:36,420
Everybody that
visited their shores,

284
00:14:36,490 --> 00:14:39,190
but by value, by far
the largest contribution.

285
00:14:39,260 --> 00:14:41,760
That Kongo gave was in slaves.

286
00:14:41,820 --> 00:14:45,930
Slavery is as old
as civilization itself.

287
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,130
It played a key role
in African kingdoms.

288
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,530
And was certainly
an important component.

289
00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:53,800
Of the domestic economy
of the kingdom of Kongo.

290
00:14:53,870 --> 00:14:55,970
The enslavement
of other people...

291
00:14:56,040 --> 00:14:58,440
Enemies, captives in war...

292
00:14:58,510 --> 00:15:00,310
Was a crucial factor
in the expansion.

293
00:15:00,380 --> 00:15:02,610
Of the wealth of
the Kongo kingdom,

294
00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:06,480
and the Portuguese could
readily purchase these slaves.

295
00:15:06,550 --> 00:15:10,120
In Kongo's
already-existing markets.

296
00:15:10,190 --> 00:15:12,550
Kongo was still
an expanding country,

297
00:15:12,620 --> 00:15:15,690
it was conquering
neighboring areas,

298
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:17,690
and part of that
expansion involved.

299
00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:19,260
The enslavement of people.

300
00:15:19,330 --> 00:15:21,730
And their transport
back to Kongo.

301
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,300
Afonso was happy to sell
slaves to Portugal.

302
00:15:24,370 --> 00:15:26,530
It made great business sense.

303
00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,340
But he had very strict rules.

304
00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:32,710
About who exactly
could be enslaved and sold.

305
00:15:32,780 --> 00:15:34,110
There was this very strong idea.

306
00:15:34,180 --> 00:15:35,440
That the kings of Kongo.

307
00:15:35,510 --> 00:15:37,103
Could decide who was
a slave and who wasn't.

308
00:15:37,110 --> 00:15:38,943
There were procedures
for who could be enslaved.

309
00:15:38,950 --> 00:15:40,750
And generally speaking, it was.

310
00:15:40,820 --> 00:15:42,680
Outsiders or foreigners
that could be enslaved.

311
00:15:42,750 --> 00:15:44,520
Kongolese really couldn't be.

312
00:15:44,590 --> 00:15:47,760
So this was a very
protective relationship.

313
00:15:47,820 --> 00:15:49,520
They had with their own people.

314
00:15:49,590 --> 00:15:51,990
But Portugal was
ignoring the rules.

315
00:15:52,060 --> 00:15:56,000
Of who could and could not
be enslaved.

316
00:15:56,070 --> 00:15:59,000
Afonso was in danger
of being undermined.

317
00:15:59,070 --> 00:16:01,040
In a letter that he wrote
to the king of Portugal,

318
00:16:01,100 --> 00:16:03,140
he complained bitterly.

319
00:16:03,210 --> 00:16:06,470
Each day the traders
are kidnapping our people,

320
00:16:06,540 --> 00:16:10,140
children of this country,
sons of our nobles and vassals,

321
00:16:10,210 --> 00:16:12,550
even people of our own family.

322
00:16:12,620 --> 00:16:16,120
This corruption and depravity
are so widespread.

323
00:16:16,190 --> 00:16:20,320
That our land, he wrote,
is entirely depopulated.

324
00:16:20,390 --> 00:16:22,190
If you were going
to involve yourself.

325
00:16:22,260 --> 00:16:23,920
In international trade,

326
00:16:23,990 --> 00:16:26,760
you had to pay with slaves.

327
00:16:26,830 --> 00:16:28,630
So the choice that
the Kongolese had.

328
00:16:28,700 --> 00:16:31,700
Was to either withdraw
from the trade.

329
00:16:31,770 --> 00:16:35,470
Or continue the relations
and try to control it.

330
00:16:35,540 --> 00:16:37,910
But fundamental shifts
in global history.

331
00:16:37,970 --> 00:16:40,870
Would gradually change
the nature of the relationship.

332
00:16:40,940 --> 00:16:44,110
Between Africa
and the rest of the world.

333
00:16:44,180 --> 00:16:46,180
The trading relationship
that developed.

334
00:16:46,250 --> 00:16:49,550
Between Kongo and Portugal
was fundamentally shaped.

335
00:16:49,620 --> 00:16:52,250
By a discovery
thousands of miles away.

336
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:54,690
On the other side of the world.

337
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:56,860
A year after the king of Kongo.

338
00:16:56,930 --> 00:17:00,560
Converted to Roman Catholicism
in 1491,

339
00:17:00,630 --> 00:17:05,530
Christopher Columbus set foot on
an island he named Hispaniola.

340
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,600
The discovery of these
new lands across the ocean.

341
00:17:08,670 --> 00:17:11,440
Had a seismic impact
on world affairs.

342
00:17:11,510 --> 00:17:13,810
And ignited a race for riches.

343
00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,340
That would turn the world
upside down.

344
00:17:16,410 --> 00:17:18,310
The mastery of
the winds and currents.

345
00:17:18,380 --> 00:17:20,280
That had brought
the Portuguese south,

346
00:17:20,350 --> 00:17:22,980
to the west African coast,
also took

347
00:17:23,050 --> 00:17:26,490
Spanish and Portuguese ships
west, to a new world.

348
00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,360
On the other side
of the Atlantic.

349
00:17:29,430 --> 00:17:34,560
In 1500, the Portuguese landed
in what's today Brazil.

350
00:17:34,630 --> 00:17:38,870
Portugal was expanding
and its empire was growing.

351
00:17:38,930 --> 00:17:41,870
The world was experiencing
epochal change.

352
00:17:41,940 --> 00:17:44,810
A triangular Atlantic economy
would link

353
00:17:44,870 --> 00:17:47,640
Europe and its African
trading partners.

354
00:17:47,710 --> 00:17:50,110
With the new lands
in the Americas,

355
00:17:50,180 --> 00:17:52,110
which offered
enormous opportunities.

356
00:17:52,180 --> 00:17:56,250
For mining silver and gold,
for growing sugar and tobacco,

357
00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:58,920
and manufacturing rum.

358
00:17:58,990 --> 00:18:02,590
Demand for these products
would be seemingly insatiable,

359
00:18:02,660 --> 00:18:05,290
fueling the desire
to maximize profits.

360
00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:07,760
Through a large,
cheap labor force.

361
00:18:07,830 --> 00:18:12,730
The demand for labor,
large numbers of people to work.

362
00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:15,470
In the plantations
and the mines of the new world.

363
00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:17,200
Producing sugar,

364
00:18:17,270 --> 00:18:21,640
producing tobacco,
producing, cotton.

365
00:18:21,710 --> 00:18:25,450
The large demand for labor
was not fulfilled.

366
00:18:25,510 --> 00:18:27,980
Through the use
of the indigenous people.

367
00:18:28,050 --> 00:18:30,650
Kongo's admiration
for Portuguese culture.

368
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:33,720
Was expressed in their
embrace of Christianity.

369
00:18:33,790 --> 00:18:37,790
And desire to be part of the
community of Christian nations.

370
00:18:37,860 --> 00:18:40,030
Ironically,
the principal commodity.

371
00:18:40,100 --> 00:18:43,800
That Kongo possessed to pay
for its social engineering.

372
00:18:43,870 --> 00:18:45,570
Was slaves.

373
00:18:45,630 --> 00:18:48,700
In 1575, the Portuguese
did something.

374
00:18:48,770 --> 00:18:52,710
That no other European colonial
power had thought to do.

375
00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:55,110
They made a deal with
the king of Kongo.

376
00:18:55,180 --> 00:18:59,050
To create their own city,
which became the city of Luanda.

377
00:18:59,110 --> 00:19:00,710
Why was this important?

378
00:19:00,780 --> 00:19:02,580
Because they could
use this as a base.

379
00:19:02,650 --> 00:19:04,890
To capture Africans
whom they used.

380
00:19:04,950 --> 00:19:07,960
As slaves themselves in Luanda,

381
00:19:08,020 --> 00:19:12,790
but also to capture Africans
whom they sold across the ocean.

382
00:19:12,860 --> 00:19:15,230
In the transatlantic
slave trade.

383
00:19:15,300 --> 00:19:18,300
It was a brilliant
commercial move.

384
00:19:18,370 --> 00:19:20,170
More and more slaves
were channeled.

385
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,100
Through the port of Luanda,

386
00:19:22,170 --> 00:19:25,570
eventually leading to
an astonishing total number.

387
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:28,140
Of 1.4 million.

388
00:19:28,210 --> 00:19:30,580
They were hooked on a commodity.

389
00:19:30,650 --> 00:19:32,880
And if it meant having
a few more wars.

390
00:19:32,950 --> 00:19:36,580
To get a few more captives
to sell to the Portuguese,

391
00:19:36,650 --> 00:19:38,420
which turned out to be
a lot more rewards.

392
00:19:38,490 --> 00:19:40,390
And a lot more captives,
then that was fine.

393
00:19:40,460 --> 00:19:44,890
It was a trade that,
for the African kingdoms,

394
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,730
had tremendous importance
because of.

395
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,430
The ambition of
the African kings.

396
00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:56,200
To participate in the
commercial and diplomatic.

397
00:19:56,270 --> 00:19:59,040
And political network
of the Atlantic world.

398
00:19:59,110 --> 00:20:00,970
And the main currency.

399
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:02,510
That they had at their disposal.

400
00:20:02,580 --> 00:20:05,210
Was the enslaved labor.

401
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:07,380
The Portuguese came to Luanda.

402
00:20:07,450 --> 00:20:09,680
With the blessing of
the king of Kongo,

403
00:20:09,750 --> 00:20:13,890
entering into an alliance
with the kingdom of Ndongo.

404
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:19,430
That alliance didn't last,
and in 1579, the king of Ndongo.

405
00:20:19,500 --> 00:20:22,700
Attacked the Portuguese,
setting off a conflict.

406
00:20:22,770 --> 00:20:25,200
That would last
nearly a century.

407
00:20:25,270 --> 00:20:30,270
Those wars eventually produced
a vast quantity of slaves.

408
00:20:30,340 --> 00:20:32,840
And it was this
huge wave of slaves.

409
00:20:32,910 --> 00:20:36,140
That became available
through Portuguese, um,

410
00:20:36,210 --> 00:20:37,980
basically Portuguese conquests,

411
00:20:38,050 --> 00:20:40,350
Portuguese direct
military efforts in this area.

412
00:20:40,420 --> 00:20:44,220
That fired up
the Brazilian sugar industry.

413
00:20:44,290 --> 00:20:48,660
Ndongo had fought Portugal
to a standstill by 1600,

414
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,290
but the Portuguese brought up.

415
00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:52,160
Bands of fighters
from the south,

416
00:20:52,230 --> 00:20:56,030
the Imbangala, the ferocious
warriors and mercenaries.

417
00:20:56,100 --> 00:20:59,270
Purported by the Portuguese
to be cannibals.

418
00:20:59,340 --> 00:21:02,770
They helped the Portuguese to
win many battles against Ndongo.

419
00:21:04,470 --> 00:21:06,470
Out of this chaos would emerge.

420
00:21:06,540 --> 00:21:09,980
One of the most charismatic
and enduring characters.

421
00:21:10,050 --> 00:21:13,250
In all of African history.

422
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:17,120
A fearless warrior queen
and formidable politician.

423
00:21:17,190 --> 00:21:20,920
Who remains an icon
in Angola today.

424
00:21:20,990 --> 00:21:25,130
In her lifetime she ruled
over two powerful kingdoms...

425
00:21:25,190 --> 00:21:27,730
Ndongo and Matamba.

426
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:29,660
Her name was Njinga.

427
00:21:31,430 --> 00:21:34,530
In 1622, after several years of.

428
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,540
Fierce fighting
with the Portuguese,

429
00:21:36,610 --> 00:21:40,810
Njinga was dispatched by her
brother, the king Golumbunde,

430
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,910
to negotiate a peace settlement
with the Portuguese governor,

431
00:21:43,980 --> 00:21:46,280
but not to surrender.

432
00:21:46,350 --> 00:21:48,220
When Njinga arrived
at the meeting,

433
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,420
she wasn't accorded
the treatment she expected.

434
00:21:50,490 --> 00:21:53,720
As a representative of
an independent kingdom.

435
00:21:53,790 --> 00:21:57,160
What Njinga did next
has become the stuff of legend.

436
00:21:57,230 --> 00:22:01,030
A symbol of African
pride and resistance.

437
00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:04,630
In the face of attempts
at European domination.

438
00:22:04,700 --> 00:22:07,200
She arrives for her audience
with the governor.

439
00:22:07,270 --> 00:22:08,800
And he's sitting in.

440
00:22:08,870 --> 00:22:11,040
The Portuguese style
of velvet chair,

441
00:22:11,110 --> 00:22:14,980
and she enters the room
and sees that.

442
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,510
They had prepared
cushions and carpet for her.

443
00:22:17,580 --> 00:22:18,980
To sit on the ground.

444
00:22:19,050 --> 00:22:21,210
And at that point she looks over.

445
00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:22,880
At one of her attendants,

446
00:22:22,950 --> 00:22:25,020
who goes and crouches
on the floor.

447
00:22:25,090 --> 00:22:27,850
And Njinga sits on her,

448
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:29,690
the same height as the governor.

449
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:31,960
So she confronted
the governor eye to eye.

450
00:22:32,030 --> 00:22:34,090
Exactly, eye to eye.

451
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,360
By the end of
her trip to Luanda,

452
00:22:36,430 --> 00:22:40,400
Njinga had won significant
concessions from the Portuguese.

453
00:22:40,470 --> 00:22:44,540
In return, she agreed
to convert to Christianity.

454
00:22:44,610 --> 00:22:49,040
She had proven to be
a supremely able negotiator.

455
00:22:49,110 --> 00:22:50,540
She said,

456
00:22:50,610 --> 00:22:54,280
"how can you demand tribute
of someone who is free?

457
00:22:54,350 --> 00:22:55,680
You know, my state is free."

458
00:22:55,750 --> 00:22:58,120
And she was very persuasive.

459
00:22:58,190 --> 00:23:02,490
And she was able to get
the governor and the Portuguese.

460
00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,490
To agree to the terms
that they will remove.

461
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:07,590
The troops from Ndongo.

462
00:23:07,660 --> 00:23:11,160
Two years later, in 1624,

463
00:23:11,230 --> 00:23:13,300
Njinga's brother, the king...

464
00:23:13,370 --> 00:23:15,670
Unable to defeat
the Portuguese...

465
00:23:15,740 --> 00:23:19,210
By some accounts was poisoned.

466
00:23:19,270 --> 00:23:22,940
By other accounts,
he committed suicide.

467
00:23:23,010 --> 00:23:25,250
When the throne
suddenly became vacant,

468
00:23:25,310 --> 00:23:28,250
Njinga became one of
the contested successors.

469
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,720
And with the support of the army
and a few other key allies,

470
00:23:31,790 --> 00:23:35,020
not surprisingly,
she emerged victorious.

471
00:23:36,530 --> 00:23:38,690
Although the Portuguese
were impressed with Njinga.

472
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:42,760
As an ambassador, they didn't
want her to be the monarch.

473
00:23:42,830 --> 00:23:47,000
The Portuguese did not
want Njinga to be queen.

474
00:23:47,070 --> 00:23:50,840
Because they knew that
she was going to insist.

475
00:23:50,910 --> 00:23:54,510
On Ndongo being independent.

476
00:23:54,580 --> 00:23:57,810
Their argument was
that Njinga being a female.

477
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,050
Was not eligible to rule.

478
00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:03,950
The Portuguese backed
some of Njinga's subordinates,

479
00:24:04,020 --> 00:24:09,760
and she was ousted in a war
waged against her in 1626.

480
00:24:09,830 --> 00:24:12,160
But Njinga refused to fade away.

481
00:24:12,230 --> 00:24:19,200
From 1626 to 1657, she kept
fighting the Portuguese.

482
00:24:19,270 --> 00:24:21,300
Now deposed, Njinga conquered.

483
00:24:21,370 --> 00:24:24,400
The independent
kingdom of Matamba.

484
00:24:24,470 --> 00:24:28,070
As ruler of Matamba,
she began to assemble an army.

485
00:24:28,140 --> 00:24:31,950
And, pragmatically, joined
forces with her former enemy,

486
00:24:32,010 --> 00:24:36,120
the martial and reputedly
cannibalistic Imbangala.

487
00:24:36,180 --> 00:24:39,820
She had to be
strategically very astute.

488
00:24:39,890 --> 00:24:42,360
Even though she became
an Imbangala,

489
00:24:42,420 --> 00:24:46,290
she insisted that she never
actually consumed human flesh.

490
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,190
Or had joined in
many of the rituals.

491
00:24:48,260 --> 00:24:51,360
When the king of Kongo,
Garcia II,

492
00:24:51,430 --> 00:24:54,170
invited the Dutch
to invade Angola,

493
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,400
Njinga immediately contacted
the Dutch to join them.

494
00:24:57,470 --> 00:25:00,810
Both Garcia and Njinga wanted
the Portuguese out of Angola,

495
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:04,410
and saw the benefits
of an alliance with the Dutch.

496
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,010
So it's a time when
the Dutch are in Brazil.

497
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,780
And are trying to establish
a colony of their own there,

498
00:25:10,850 --> 00:25:13,620
and again, there is
no Brazil without Angola,

499
00:25:13,690 --> 00:25:16,390
so they need to seize Luanda.

500
00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:19,590
As the source of enslaved labor,

501
00:25:19,660 --> 00:25:22,660
and Njinga as well
as the king of Kongo.

502
00:25:22,730 --> 00:25:26,970
Really took the opportunity
to plot and ally themselves.

503
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,170
With the Dutch
against the Portuguese.

504
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:30,570
In the, you know, the enemies.

505
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:32,470
Of my enemies are my friend.

506
00:25:32,540 --> 00:25:34,340
The Portuguese
were pushed out of Luanda.

507
00:25:34,410 --> 00:25:36,440
By the Dutch in Kongo.

508
00:25:36,510 --> 00:25:38,310
The Dutch captured the city,

509
00:25:38,380 --> 00:25:40,950
but the Portuguese
retreated to inland forts.

510
00:25:41,020 --> 00:25:43,280
And kept the war going.

511
00:25:43,350 --> 00:25:45,650
The struggle was
now mostly between.

512
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,750
Njinga and the Portuguese.

513
00:25:47,820 --> 00:25:51,120
One of the misconceptions
about Njinga.

514
00:25:51,190 --> 00:25:52,960
Is that she was anti-colonial,

515
00:25:53,030 --> 00:25:55,260
meaning she didn't
want Europeans.

516
00:25:55,330 --> 00:25:58,300
To be on the African continent,

517
00:25:58,370 --> 00:26:01,640
but isn't it true that
she just didn't want them.

518
00:26:01,700 --> 00:26:03,840
Trying to capture her kingdom?

519
00:26:03,910 --> 00:26:06,610
She was not pushing away
European colonialism,

520
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:10,080
she was just trying
to control her territory.

521
00:26:10,150 --> 00:26:14,410
And control the means by which
she could remain queen.

522
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,780
In 1657,
Njinga and the Portuguese.

523
00:26:17,850 --> 00:26:19,890
Negotiated a truce.

524
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,860
After 30 years of war,

525
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,560
she had won back part of
her original kingdom.

526
00:26:25,630 --> 00:26:29,560
Now she was queen of Ndongo
and queen of Matamba.

527
00:26:29,630 --> 00:26:32,530
6 years later, at the age of 81,

528
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,200
Njinga... still a devout
Christian... died.

529
00:26:36,270 --> 00:26:40,240
I think she died having
really changed the region.

530
00:26:40,310 --> 00:26:44,310
And her claims to the throne
really created.

531
00:26:44,380 --> 00:26:49,520
A new creation myth for
the kingdom Ndongo and Matamba,

532
00:26:49,580 --> 00:26:52,450
and one testament of it
is after her.

533
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,220
For about the 100th year
after her death,

534
00:26:55,290 --> 00:26:58,320
the kingdom of Matamba
was ruled by women.

535
00:26:58,390 --> 00:27:01,530
The combination of
avarice, aggression, and warfare.

536
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,500
Would make Angola
the single largest.

537
00:27:03,570 --> 00:27:05,930
Source of slaves, by far,

538
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,540
in the history of
the transatlantic slave trade.

539
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:12,540
Far more slaves were
shipped to the new world.

540
00:27:12,610 --> 00:27:14,740
From west central Africa
than from.

541
00:27:14,810 --> 00:27:16,840
Any other part of the continent.

542
00:27:16,910 --> 00:27:22,120
That's 5.7 million people
over roughly 350 years.

543
00:27:22,180 --> 00:27:24,550
Most of those went
to south America.

544
00:27:24,620 --> 00:27:28,720
But about 24% of the ancestors
of the African American people.

545
00:27:28,790 --> 00:27:30,990
Came from this region, too.

546
00:27:31,060 --> 00:27:37,130
Incredibly, 2.8 million Africans
were shipped from Luanda alone.

547
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,170
If we add another 800,000 from
the nearby city of Benguela,

548
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:43,100
that means a quarter
of all slaves.

549
00:27:43,170 --> 00:27:45,240
Who crossed the Atlantic ocean.

550
00:27:45,310 --> 00:27:48,370
Started their journey
from what is today.

551
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,010
The country of Angola.

552
00:27:51,580 --> 00:27:55,220
All along Africa's
west and central Atlantic coast,

553
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:59,290
Europeans marked their presence
with coastal forts.

554
00:27:59,350 --> 00:28:01,920
These forts now became
commercial hubs.

555
00:28:01,990 --> 00:28:04,490
Where much of this
enormous and growing business.

556
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:08,190
Between Europeans and Africans
was conducted.

557
00:28:08,260 --> 00:28:10,230
With the Portuguese
and the Spanish,

558
00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:12,500
the Dutch, the British,
and the French.

559
00:28:12,570 --> 00:28:16,270
Now boasting colonies
of their own in the Americas,

560
00:28:16,340 --> 00:28:19,270
the demand for slaves
grew greater than ever.

561
00:28:20,940 --> 00:28:24,010
In the 18th century,
the transatlantic slave trade.

562
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,150
Reached fever pitch.

563
00:28:26,210 --> 00:28:29,480
Just over 50%
of all transactions.

564
00:28:29,550 --> 00:28:32,820
Occurred over the course
of this century alone.

565
00:28:32,890 --> 00:28:37,090
On average, an enormous
65,000 Africans a year.

566
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:39,390
Were being exported
from these shores,

567
00:28:39,460 --> 00:28:46,470
reaching a staggering peak of
108,000 in the year 1791.

568
00:28:46,540 --> 00:28:50,000
The port of Ouidah, in what
is today the country of Benin,

569
00:28:50,070 --> 00:28:53,040
was the busiest slave market
in west Africa.

570
00:28:53,110 --> 00:28:55,880
An estimated
half-million slaves were traded.

571
00:28:55,940 --> 00:29:00,050
From here across the Atlantic
during the 18th century.

572
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,850
That port belonged
to a small but strong kingdom.

573
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,820
That had emerged as one of
the most powerful states.

574
00:29:06,890 --> 00:29:10,260
Along the region nicknamed
"the slave coast."

575
00:29:10,330 --> 00:29:12,560
It was called Dahomey.

576
00:29:12,630 --> 00:29:17,300
Dahomey emerges
in the early 17th century.

577
00:29:17,370 --> 00:29:20,700
According to historians
who have worked on Dahomey,

578
00:29:20,770 --> 00:29:25,040
it functioned in its early years
as a mercenary group.

579
00:29:25,110 --> 00:29:27,740
And it hired itself out.

580
00:29:27,810 --> 00:29:31,010
To neighboring polities
who had disputes.

581
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,310
The accepted interpretation
was that,

582
00:29:34,380 --> 00:29:38,020
these inhabitants
of the Abomey plateau.

583
00:29:38,090 --> 00:29:39,920
Saw the flourishing
of Atlantic trade.

584
00:29:39,990 --> 00:29:42,520
And wanted to be part of it.

585
00:29:42,590 --> 00:29:45,330
And in order to be
part of this booming trade,

586
00:29:45,390 --> 00:29:49,200
this inland kingdom
had to expand.

587
00:29:49,260 --> 00:29:53,730
In the 1720s, led by
its fifth king, Agaja,

588
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,300
Dahomey fought to gain control.

589
00:29:56,370 --> 00:29:58,710
Of the vital ports
of the kingdoms of.

590
00:29:58,770 --> 00:30:00,710
Ouidah and Allada.

591
00:30:00,780 --> 00:30:02,940
He needed to have
a coastal position.

592
00:30:03,010 --> 00:30:05,710
The occupation of Ouidah
and Allada would give him that.

593
00:30:05,780 --> 00:30:09,420
Um, and so in that first period
you can imagine.

594
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,280
That the sort of
the flood of slaves.

595
00:30:11,350 --> 00:30:13,320
Is as a result of these
expansionist wars.

596
00:30:13,390 --> 00:30:14,820
It's difficult
to imagine a kingdom.

597
00:30:14,890 --> 00:30:17,960
More militaristic than Dahomey.

598
00:30:18,030 --> 00:30:21,290
Each king was given a mandate to
expand the reach of the kingdom.

599
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,030
And that meant going to war.

600
00:30:25,230 --> 00:30:26,470
And Agaja writes a letter.

601
00:30:26,530 --> 00:30:27,770
To the king of England,

602
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:29,500
and in this letter,
he's boastful.

603
00:30:29,570 --> 00:30:31,100
Among the things he says is,

604
00:30:31,170 --> 00:30:32,633
he talks about,
he's a great conqueror.

605
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,280
And he's taken over
209 kingdoms,

606
00:30:35,340 --> 00:30:37,210
and his father
did fewer than him.

607
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:39,510
And his grandfather
did even fewer than that.

608
00:30:39,580 --> 00:30:41,213
He also says, you know,
I've completely left off.

609
00:30:41,220 --> 00:30:43,150
The use of local, weapons,

610
00:30:43,220 --> 00:30:46,050
and I'm now a great
lover of firearms.

611
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,020
Throughout the 18th century,

612
00:30:48,090 --> 00:30:50,990
Dahomey's expansion
put it into conflict.

613
00:30:51,060 --> 00:30:52,730
With rival kingdoms.

614
00:30:52,790 --> 00:30:55,760
After the conquest
of Ouidah and Allada,

615
00:30:55,830 --> 00:30:58,630
her enemies were
Porto Novo to the east,

616
00:30:58,700 --> 00:31:02,240
great Popo to the west,
and Oyo to the north.

617
00:31:02,300 --> 00:31:03,940
Dahomey waged wars.

618
00:31:04,010 --> 00:31:05,763
When they won the wars,
there was a slave trade,

619
00:31:05,770 --> 00:31:07,690
when they lost the wars,
there was a slave trade.

620
00:31:07,740 --> 00:31:09,940
Because somebody bought
those slaves that were,

621
00:31:10,010 --> 00:31:12,980
Dahomeans that failed
to win, because,

622
00:31:13,050 --> 00:31:14,550
their... the opponents' armies.

623
00:31:14,620 --> 00:31:16,220
That they were
waging war against.

624
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,550
Were prepared to sell
slaves as well.

625
00:31:18,620 --> 00:31:21,720
Many European accounts
after the 1850s.

626
00:31:21,790 --> 00:31:25,760
Focused on Dahomey
as militaristic and violent,

627
00:31:25,830 --> 00:31:29,000
most notably for its
practice of human sacrifice.

628
00:31:29,060 --> 00:31:32,200
At a festival called
"the annual customs."

629
00:31:33,770 --> 00:31:37,570
But even as Dahomey engaged
in wars with its neighbors,

630
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,710
it also had a vibrant
artistic culture.

631
00:31:40,780 --> 00:31:44,710
The culture encompassed
a dynamic religion called vodun,

632
00:31:44,780 --> 00:31:46,810
which was transported
across the Atlantic.

633
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:48,720
By enslaved Africans.

634
00:31:48,780 --> 00:31:51,150
And transformed into vodou,

635
00:31:51,220 --> 00:31:53,750
long maligned in the west.

636
00:31:53,820 --> 00:31:56,390
The kingdom also had
a unique and distinctive.

637
00:31:56,460 --> 00:31:59,690
Canon of art and architecture.

638
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:04,030
At the heart of this city was
a vast complex of royal palaces.

639
00:32:04,100 --> 00:32:06,830
Every palace is
a special, construction.

640
00:32:06,900 --> 00:32:09,040
You have, it's
a big palace for one king,

641
00:32:09,100 --> 00:32:10,970
and then you have
all those palaces,

642
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,570
12 palaces, next to one another.

643
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:15,170
Very good for the architects.

644
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:16,540
In the kingdom,
and the builders?

645
00:32:16,610 --> 00:32:18,750
Yes, of course.
But the architects,

646
00:32:18,810 --> 00:32:20,710
the artists are a very important.

647
00:32:20,780 --> 00:32:23,550
Part of Dahomey of 18th century.

648
00:32:23,620 --> 00:32:25,520
Those artists were responsible.

649
00:32:25,590 --> 00:32:27,750
For the elaborate bas-reliefs.

650
00:32:27,820 --> 00:32:31,460
That adorn almost
every wall of these palaces.

651
00:32:31,530 --> 00:32:34,790
They're a record of Dahomey's
history, culture,

652
00:32:34,860 --> 00:32:36,230
and religious beliefs.

653
00:32:38,300 --> 00:32:41,400
Traditionally, artists fashioned
these reliefs from earth.

654
00:32:41,470 --> 00:32:44,640
Taken from termite mounds,
which had been waterproofed.

655
00:32:44,710 --> 00:32:47,040
By the insects' saliva.

656
00:32:47,110 --> 00:32:48,980
Each relief expresses its own.

657
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,080
Individual narrative
and symbolism:

658
00:32:52,150 --> 00:32:54,150
Monarchs are
depicted allegorically.

659
00:32:54,220 --> 00:32:55,820
As powerful animals.

660
00:32:58,050 --> 00:33:00,650
The king's throne was
built on a foundation.

661
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:02,990
Of severed heads
of vanquished foes.

662
00:33:04,630 --> 00:33:08,330
This royal art was intended
to underpin and reinforce.

663
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,100
The power of the state
and that of its rulers.

664
00:33:13,270 --> 00:33:17,470
The king used women as soldiers
to expand royal power,

665
00:33:17,540 --> 00:33:20,440
and struggles waged
with non-royal nobles,

666
00:33:20,510 --> 00:33:23,540
who controlled sections of
the army and administration.

667
00:33:23,610 --> 00:33:26,180
The use of women
was extraordinary.

668
00:33:26,250 --> 00:33:30,280
Kings of Dahomey would
deliberately choose wives.

669
00:33:30,350 --> 00:33:34,290
From areas that had recently
been incorporated.

670
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:39,130
So that by courtesy of
choosing a wife from that area,

671
00:33:39,190 --> 00:33:41,630
that area felt
vested in the state.

672
00:33:41,700 --> 00:33:43,960
Or in the kingdom of Dahomey.

673
00:33:44,030 --> 00:33:46,170
Dahomey also
practiced this thing.

674
00:33:46,230 --> 00:33:51,170
Where every political position
outside of the palace.

675
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:55,240
Was mirrored by a woman
inside the palace.

676
00:33:55,310 --> 00:33:58,410
She mediated your
access to the king.

677
00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:00,080
And it's called doubling, so.

678
00:34:00,150 --> 00:34:03,220
Every position was
doubled by a woman.

679
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:05,790
And it was a way
in which the king.

680
00:34:05,850 --> 00:34:08,750
Kept political officers at bay.

681
00:34:08,820 --> 00:34:11,120
And their ambitions in check.

682
00:34:11,190 --> 00:34:14,330
The back and forth
struggle between 4 kingdoms.

683
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,830
Over control of
the coast created.

684
00:34:16,900 --> 00:34:19,370
Tremendous regional instability,

685
00:34:19,430 --> 00:34:22,600
and many people were
taken as slaves.

686
00:34:22,670 --> 00:34:24,900
Amassing the means
to fight these wars.

687
00:34:24,970 --> 00:34:28,370
Was heavily dependent
upon the sale of slaves;

688
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:31,410
and the sale of slaves
could make African rulers.

689
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:33,010
Extremely wealthy.

690
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:34,380
There was a lot of ways.

691
00:34:34,450 --> 00:34:36,350
In which the African elites are.

692
00:34:36,420 --> 00:34:39,850
In many ways responsible
for, in fact,

693
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,260
exploiting their own people
and transforming.

694
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,160
Systems of dependency in Africa.

695
00:34:45,230 --> 00:34:48,060
To tie in with the demands
of the slave trade.

696
00:34:51,500 --> 00:34:54,330
Millions of human beings
were traded for a fraction.

697
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,700
Of what they might have produced
in their lifetime at home.

698
00:34:57,770 --> 00:35:00,910
Some of the fittest and ablest
of the African people.

699
00:35:00,980 --> 00:35:03,580
Were working
thousands of miles away.

700
00:35:03,650 --> 00:35:05,410
Creating the wealth
of plantation owners.

701
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:07,150
In the new world.

702
00:35:07,220 --> 00:35:09,350
The slave trade
robbed the continent.

703
00:35:09,420 --> 00:35:13,420
Of its most valuable resource...
Its people.

704
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:18,220
The skills of these Africans.

705
00:35:18,290 --> 00:35:19,730
Were highly valued
in the new world.

706
00:35:19,790 --> 00:35:21,390
I mean, in the Carolinas,
for example,

707
00:35:21,460 --> 00:35:24,200
it was a skill
of rice cultivation.

708
00:35:24,270 --> 00:35:26,130
Um, in other parts
of the new world.

709
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:31,270
It was the skill of making
implements, of making weapons,

710
00:35:31,340 --> 00:35:33,140
um, the skill of being able.

711
00:35:33,210 --> 00:35:35,540
To use herbs, for example,
to heal people.

712
00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:43,720
Those Africans
brought with them, you know,

713
00:35:43,790 --> 00:35:45,650
religious values,
they brought with them.

714
00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:48,090
Notions of community,
notions of kinship.

715
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,620
So enslaved Africans
maintained their humanity.

716
00:35:51,690 --> 00:35:54,690
Even despite the fact
that they became.

717
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,130
Units of commodity in the trade.

718
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:58,800
And that's what
you have to look at,

719
00:35:58,870 --> 00:36:01,330
that human beings survive.

720
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,600
The slave trade's impact
affected both.

721
00:36:03,670 --> 00:36:07,140
The size and structure
of the African population,

722
00:36:07,210 --> 00:36:10,240
because many buyers
initially sought adult males.

723
00:36:10,310 --> 00:36:13,810
For the arduous labor
in the new world.

724
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:17,350
Whether it's male or female,
it has an economic impact.

725
00:36:17,420 --> 00:36:20,020
If you're left with
your youngest and your eldest.

726
00:36:20,090 --> 00:36:23,890
Members of society,
you're left with a huge gap.

727
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,060
The capture
and deportation of so many more.

728
00:36:27,130 --> 00:36:30,930
Adult males than females
left an imbalance.

729
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,500
That sometimes reached
two to one,

730
00:36:33,570 --> 00:36:36,270
a phenomenon acutely
and painfully captured.

731
00:36:36,340 --> 00:36:39,940
In this 19th-century work
from the Yombo people.

732
00:36:40,010 --> 00:36:43,010
Located in today's
Republic of Congo.

733
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:45,850
What does this sculpture tell
us about the position of women.

734
00:36:45,910 --> 00:36:48,950
In Kongolese society at this
point in its evolution?

735
00:36:49,020 --> 00:36:51,020
By the 19th century,

736
00:36:51,090 --> 00:36:53,350
women are having to shoulder.

737
00:36:53,420 --> 00:36:56,620
Increased responsibilities
in Kongo society.

738
00:36:56,690 --> 00:36:59,830
The young male labor force.

739
00:36:59,890 --> 00:37:02,360
Has been radically diminished.

740
00:37:02,430 --> 00:37:04,300
Because of slavery.
The slave trade.

741
00:37:04,370 --> 00:37:05,730
The Atlantic slave trade.

742
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,730
It's about
the heightened importance.

743
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:13,770
That women are taking on
as caretakers of society.

744
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:15,610
Resistance to the slave trade.

745
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,340
Ran from the state
to the individual.

746
00:37:18,410 --> 00:37:23,350
Some states, such as Benin,
only participated sporadically.

747
00:37:23,420 --> 00:37:26,090
Most people were
enslaved during warfare,

748
00:37:26,150 --> 00:37:29,490
others by bandits
or by judicial order.

749
00:37:32,590 --> 00:37:35,030
People often fled to safe places.

750
00:37:35,100 --> 00:37:38,100
Either fortified or protected
by difficult terrain.

751
00:37:41,740 --> 00:37:43,770
In northern Ghana, for example,

752
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,070
among the Kasana people,

753
00:37:47,140 --> 00:37:50,540
people adopted very serious
and very effective.

754
00:37:50,610 --> 00:37:51,780
Forms of resistance.

755
00:37:51,850 --> 00:37:53,380
People took to the hills.

756
00:37:53,450 --> 00:37:55,980
They carved out spaces
in the hills.

757
00:37:56,050 --> 00:37:57,920
Where they could go and hide.

758
00:37:57,990 --> 00:38:00,790
From the depredations
of the slave raiders.

759
00:38:02,420 --> 00:38:04,820
This is Ganvie on lake Nokoue.

760
00:38:04,890 --> 00:38:07,030
In modern-day Benin.

761
00:38:07,100 --> 00:38:09,130
The Tofinu people
who lived here,

762
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,700
fishermen for the king
of Porto Novo,

763
00:38:11,770 --> 00:38:14,670
used the swampy land around
the shores of their lagoons.

764
00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:16,970
As a natural fortress,

765
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,070
an ideal protection
against attacks.

766
00:38:21,140 --> 00:38:23,240
The coast in that
particular part of Africa.

767
00:38:23,310 --> 00:38:25,950
Is characterized by having
a lagoon system.

768
00:38:26,010 --> 00:38:28,280
That runs parallel to the coast,

769
00:38:28,350 --> 00:38:32,280
so you have, swampy lands
and islands and so on.

770
00:38:32,350 --> 00:38:34,350
Ganvie's diverse population.

771
00:38:34,420 --> 00:38:38,090
Included Tofinu slaves
but also refugees.

772
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,830
Fleeing the wars waged between
Dahomey and Porto Novo.

773
00:38:41,900 --> 00:38:44,100
For control of the lagoon region.

774
00:38:44,170 --> 00:38:48,770
After the fall of Allada
in 1724.

775
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,900
Even when people from
rival kingdoms settled here,

776
00:38:51,970 --> 00:38:54,040
they found ways to work together.

777
00:38:54,110 --> 00:38:56,340
To defend themselves
from capture.

778
00:38:56,410 --> 00:38:58,610
Using the topography, they were.

779
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:02,820
Able to resist enslavement.

780
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,750
In west Africa...
Secret societies.

781
00:39:05,820 --> 00:39:08,720
In some places, children,
women's organizations,

782
00:39:08,790 --> 00:39:11,590
these were all turned into
what we can call today.

783
00:39:11,660 --> 00:39:13,230
Early warning systems.

784
00:39:13,290 --> 00:39:16,060
They had a system of
notifying people,

785
00:39:16,130 --> 00:39:20,270
of sounding the alarm whenever
they were under attack.

786
00:39:20,330 --> 00:39:22,670
A fight against
injustice and exploitation.

787
00:39:22,740 --> 00:39:24,570
Would trigger
enormous social change.

788
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:26,670
Throughout west Africa.

789
00:39:26,740 --> 00:39:29,010
A holy war would give rise
to what would become.

790
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:32,880
One of the largest and most
culturally vibrant empires.

791
00:39:32,950 --> 00:39:37,050
The Sokoto caliphate.

792
00:39:38,650 --> 00:39:41,120
As the 18th century
drew to a close,

793
00:39:41,190 --> 00:39:44,690
far inland a revolution
was stirring.

794
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:49,300
The driving force behind it
would be powerful new ideas.

795
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,800
It was sparked by the dream
of a young Muslim cleric.

796
00:39:52,870 --> 00:39:55,670
Called Usman Dan Fodio.

797
00:39:55,740 --> 00:39:59,470
Dan Fodio was a teacher
in one of the royal households.

798
00:39:59,540 --> 00:40:01,810
In what is today modern Nigeria.

799
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:05,380
This royal household
was one of 7 kingdoms.

800
00:40:05,450 --> 00:40:07,980
That together formed hausaland.

801
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:11,750
In the last decade
of the 18th century,

802
00:40:11,820 --> 00:40:14,090
one of these kingdoms, Gobir,

803
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,520
found itself vulnerable
to attack from within,

804
00:40:17,590 --> 00:40:21,030
in response to the religious
practices of the royal family.

805
00:40:26,330 --> 00:40:29,600
Usman Dan Fodio was close
to the centers of royal power,

806
00:40:29,670 --> 00:40:32,770
but there were things
about the exercise of power.

807
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,110
That he found
really problematic.

808
00:40:35,180 --> 00:40:38,540
And I think that there was
a certain amount of, of,

809
00:40:38,610 --> 00:40:41,080
alcohol consumption
and womanizing that, that,

810
00:40:41,150 --> 00:40:44,880
that any kings, you know,
frankly, tend, tend towards.

811
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,620
But one of the major
issues in his time.

812
00:40:51,690 --> 00:40:56,930
Is that increasingly, Muslims
are being traded as slaves.

813
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,570
And Islamic law
forbids, specifically,

814
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,170
Muslims enslaving other Muslims.

815
00:41:03,240 --> 00:41:07,770
Um, and this had
become a major problem.

816
00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:11,010
Since the time of the rise
of the Atlantic slave trade.

817
00:41:12,650 --> 00:41:15,650
Fired by religious zeal,
Dan Fodio began.

818
00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:17,680
Denouncing the rulers of Gobir.

819
00:41:21,490 --> 00:41:23,420
What happens is
he begins preaching,

820
00:41:23,490 --> 00:41:25,220
and he begins preaching against.

821
00:41:25,290 --> 00:41:27,330
All kinds of injustice
in the society,

822
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,460
especially this problem of
Muslims enslaving other Muslims.

823
00:41:30,530 --> 00:41:33,970
And all of the people
who have been victimized.

824
00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,670
By this increasingly predatory
regime of the Hausa states.

825
00:41:37,740 --> 00:41:40,010
Start to gather around
usman Dan Fodio.

826
00:41:40,070 --> 00:41:44,280
Which then makes the rulers
worry about him that much more.

827
00:41:44,350 --> 00:41:46,380
Dan Fodio's preaching eventually.

828
00:41:46,450 --> 00:41:49,920
Brought him into conflict
with one of his former pupils,

829
00:41:49,980 --> 00:41:53,290
the king of Gobir,
who objected to Dan Fodio.

830
00:41:53,350 --> 00:41:56,320
Encouraging his followers
to arm themselves.

831
00:41:56,390 --> 00:42:02,330
In 1801, Dan Fodio was exiled
to the rural village of Degel.

832
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,700
Where his preaching would soon
turn into armed conflict.

833
00:42:05,770 --> 00:42:07,500
The last straw is that.

834
00:42:07,570 --> 00:42:09,900
There's a skirmish between
the rulers of Gobir.

835
00:42:09,970 --> 00:42:12,540
And, Dan Fodio's men.

836
00:42:12,610 --> 00:42:16,440
And 300 of his soldiers
were taken captive.

837
00:42:17,910 --> 00:42:19,550
Now, these weren't
just ordinary soldiers,

838
00:42:19,610 --> 00:42:21,610
these were literate scholars,

839
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:23,920
thought of as
the exemplars of piety.

840
00:42:23,990 --> 00:42:26,420
And instead of being ransomed,

841
00:42:26,490 --> 00:42:27,620
they were sold as slaves.

842
00:42:29,820 --> 00:42:32,560
And that's when
usman Dan Fodio says,

843
00:42:32,630 --> 00:42:34,523
that's it, we ain't got
nothing to talk about no more,

844
00:42:34,530 --> 00:42:36,030
we got to fight.

845
00:42:36,100 --> 00:42:38,460
One night, a great Sufi mystic.

846
00:42:38,530 --> 00:42:41,230
Appeared in Dan Fodio's dreams,

847
00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:44,340
and this is how he
described the encounter.

848
00:42:44,410 --> 00:42:46,810
"He addressed me as
imam of the saints.

849
00:42:46,870 --> 00:42:49,110
"And commanded me
to do what is approved.

850
00:42:49,180 --> 00:42:51,580
"And forbade me to do
what is disapproved.

851
00:42:51,650 --> 00:42:53,980
"And he girded me
with the sword of truth.

852
00:42:54,050 --> 00:42:57,720
To unshackle it against
the enemies of god."

853
00:42:57,790 --> 00:43:00,850
He was given explicit
permission to fight.

854
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,020
And he... wasn't going
to take that action.

855
00:43:04,090 --> 00:43:08,590
Until he felt he had some kind
of divine permission to do so.

856
00:43:08,660 --> 00:43:12,700
Between 1801 and 1808,
Dan Fodio and his soldiers.

857
00:43:12,770 --> 00:43:15,630
Would conquer all
the Hausa city-states,

858
00:43:15,700 --> 00:43:19,070
and from this they would
create a new state.

859
00:43:19,140 --> 00:43:22,810
Dan Fodio, now titled
Amir Al-mu'minin,

860
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:24,610
the commander of the faithful,

861
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:26,750
executed the king of Gobir.

862
00:43:26,810 --> 00:43:30,580
And established a new
center of power at Sokoto.

863
00:43:30,650 --> 00:43:33,190
The Sokoto caliphate
had been born.

864
00:43:33,250 --> 00:43:34,820
The Hausa country
had never been united.

865
00:43:34,890 --> 00:43:36,960
Under a single political ruler.

866
00:43:37,020 --> 00:43:39,930
And all of a sudden, not just
the whole of the Hausa country.

867
00:43:39,990 --> 00:43:41,690
But a good chunk
of neighboring areas.

868
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:43,480
Were also brought into
the Sokoto caliphate,

869
00:43:43,530 --> 00:43:45,530
which was one of the largest
in terms of.

870
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,630
Population and surface area,

871
00:43:47,700 --> 00:43:50,840
um, political unit,
ever created in Africa.

872
00:43:50,910 --> 00:43:52,640
Complete and total revolution.

873
00:43:52,710 --> 00:43:54,940
Up becomes down,
down becomes up.

874
00:43:55,010 --> 00:43:56,610
And one of the main reasons.

875
00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,750
Why the revolution is
effective so quickly.

876
00:43:59,810 --> 00:44:02,580
Is that usman Dan Fodio
offers freedom.

877
00:44:02,650 --> 00:44:04,480
To the slaves of his enemies.

878
00:44:04,550 --> 00:44:06,750
Dan Fodio had drawn
on a longer west African.

879
00:44:06,820 --> 00:44:08,850
Tradition of revolution,

880
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,890
questioning state oppression,
the slave trade, and injustice,

881
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,830
such as the jihadi revolution
in Futa Toro,

882
00:44:16,900 --> 00:44:20,200
led by his contemporary,
Abd Al-qadir,

883
00:44:20,270 --> 00:44:24,240
which started in 1776,
the same year as.

884
00:44:24,310 --> 00:44:26,810
The American declaration
of independence.

885
00:44:26,870 --> 00:44:29,310
At its height,
the Sokoto caliphate.

886
00:44:29,380 --> 00:44:32,440
Was one of the most powerful
empires in Africa.

887
00:44:32,510 --> 00:44:35,450
Its government, based on
strict Islamic principles.

888
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:38,420
Of morality and justice,
would shape the politics.

889
00:44:38,490 --> 00:44:41,990
Of the entire region
right to this day.

890
00:44:42,060 --> 00:44:44,320
Sokoto was a new kind of state:

891
00:44:44,390 --> 00:44:46,460
In the past,
scholars had served as.

892
00:44:46,530 --> 00:44:48,590
Counselors to kings.

893
00:44:48,660 --> 00:44:52,600
But now the scholars themselves
were running things.

894
00:44:52,670 --> 00:44:54,430
One of the major outcomes.

895
00:44:54,500 --> 00:44:56,640
Is that African languages
now become.

896
00:44:56,700 --> 00:44:59,170
Languages for
scholarly production.

897
00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:02,640
That opens the world of Islamic
thought and Islamic scholarship.

898
00:45:02,710 --> 00:45:04,380
To new constituents.

899
00:45:04,450 --> 00:45:08,680
Here in sokoto today,
these handwritten manuscripts.

900
00:45:08,750 --> 00:45:11,350
Are still cherished
as a direct link.

901
00:45:11,420 --> 00:45:14,250
To the spiritual message
of the caliphate.

902
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:18,260
And the teachings of
usman Dan Fodio himself.

903
00:45:18,330 --> 00:45:26,330
So ordinary people benefited
from that kind of scholarship,

904
00:45:27,900 --> 00:45:32,910
because the scholarship
was not confined.

905
00:45:32,970 --> 00:45:36,140
In the use of
Arabic language only.

906
00:45:36,210 --> 00:45:42,550
In fact, they translated
most of their works.

907
00:45:42,620 --> 00:45:45,150
Into the local languages.

908
00:45:45,220 --> 00:45:50,220
Fulfulde, Hausa,
which are the two pro...

909
00:45:50,290 --> 00:45:55,330
Predominant languages
in this part of Africa.

910
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,260
So everybody benefited.

911
00:45:58,330 --> 00:46:03,200
In fact, even today,
you hear some of their works.

912
00:46:03,270 --> 00:46:07,170
Being sung in mosques
and the public gatherings.

913
00:46:07,240 --> 00:46:09,940
So as a result, many people
got their education.

914
00:46:10,010 --> 00:46:13,410
Through that kind of system.

915
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:17,350
Dan Fodio's revolution was
social as well as political...

916
00:46:17,420 --> 00:46:22,690
Not just a jihad of the sword,
but also of the heart.

917
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:26,790
When sheik usman
Dan Fodio started his jihad,

918
00:46:26,860 --> 00:46:32,630
he met women in abject poverty,
with illiteracy.

919
00:46:32,700 --> 00:46:36,470
He believed that women
should be well taught.

920
00:46:36,540 --> 00:46:39,100
And should be emancipated.

921
00:46:39,170 --> 00:46:43,540
So he started teaching his
children, his family members,

922
00:46:43,610 --> 00:46:45,110
and people in the community.

923
00:46:45,180 --> 00:46:46,750
One of the most revered people.

924
00:46:46,810 --> 00:46:49,150
To emerge from
Dan Fodio's revolution.

925
00:46:49,220 --> 00:46:52,520
Was not a warrior but a poet.

926
00:46:52,590 --> 00:46:55,220
She was
usman Dan Fodio's daughter.

927
00:46:55,290 --> 00:46:58,490
Her name was Nana Asma'u.

928
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,430
Her life and works are
still celebrated today.

929
00:47:01,500 --> 00:47:05,000
Asma'u was a very
brilliant person,

930
00:47:05,070 --> 00:47:08,230
so she, her father taught her.

931
00:47:08,300 --> 00:47:13,040
And other members of her family
were very erudite scholars,

932
00:47:13,110 --> 00:47:14,340
they taught her.

933
00:47:14,410 --> 00:47:16,710
She learnt the Koran,

934
00:47:16,780 --> 00:47:19,480
she learnt
Islamic jurisprudence,

935
00:47:19,550 --> 00:47:22,680
she learnt
the prophetic tradition.

936
00:47:22,750 --> 00:47:27,590
She also learnt areas
of mathematics, languages,

937
00:47:27,660 --> 00:47:30,490
politics, and what have you.

938
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:35,290
And by the time she was married
at the age of 14,

939
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:38,900
she was also married
to a learned scholar,

940
00:47:38,970 --> 00:47:41,630
Gidado Dan Laima,

941
00:47:41,700 --> 00:47:46,140
who continued to teach her,
and by the time she was.

942
00:47:46,210 --> 00:47:49,910
Less than 20 years,
she had started teaching.

943
00:47:49,980 --> 00:47:52,440
Children and women.

944
00:47:52,510 --> 00:47:54,680
The scale of the sokoto empire.

945
00:47:54,750 --> 00:47:56,920
Gave it a huge
trading advantage.

946
00:47:56,980 --> 00:48:01,150
The size of its internal market
alone boosted textile production.

947
00:48:01,220 --> 00:48:05,120
And contributed to a dramatic
increase in the kola nut trade,

948
00:48:05,190 --> 00:48:07,960
one of the stimulants
allowed by Islam.

949
00:48:08,030 --> 00:48:10,530
Every aspect of trade
was booming,

950
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:13,030
including the trade in people.

951
00:48:13,100 --> 00:48:15,500
Only non-Muslims
could be enslaved,

952
00:48:15,570 --> 00:48:18,770
and slaves could convert
to Islam and then be freed.

953
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:21,770
But still, some two million
human beings.

954
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,040
Were kept by the sokoto
caliphate as slaves,

955
00:48:25,110 --> 00:48:27,380
mostly working in the fields.

956
00:48:27,450 --> 00:48:30,280
In fact, sokoto had
the most slaves.

957
00:48:30,350 --> 00:48:33,750
Of any state
in the whole of Africa.

958
00:48:37,590 --> 00:48:39,860
This is one of
the great ironies of history,

959
00:48:39,930 --> 00:48:41,730
is that a war that
begins, in part,

960
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:43,630
to prevent the enslavement
of Muslims.

961
00:48:43,700 --> 00:48:45,660
Ends up leading to
probably more enslavement.

962
00:48:45,730 --> 00:48:49,030
Than what had come prior to it.

963
00:48:49,100 --> 00:48:50,970
And even usman Dan Fodio himself.

964
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:52,940
Warned against
the way that he saw.

965
00:48:53,010 --> 00:48:54,740
His revolution turning,

966
00:48:54,810 --> 00:48:56,433
when he was too old to be able
to do anything about it.

967
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:58,210
He said that
when we enter a town.

968
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:00,350
And we enslave free people,
know that.

969
00:49:00,410 --> 00:49:01,850
The fire will enslave us.

970
00:49:03,980 --> 00:49:07,020
Dan Fodio's holy war
of the late 18th century.

971
00:49:07,090 --> 00:49:10,820
Established a caliphate
that still exists to this day.

972
00:49:10,890 --> 00:49:14,230
It would also inspire holy wars
elsewhere in west Africa.

973
00:49:14,290 --> 00:49:16,730
In the wake of sokoto,
there would be the rise.

974
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:20,900
Of Islamic empires of
Massina and Toccoleur.

975
00:49:20,970 --> 00:49:23,970
This was a time of
revolution globally.

976
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:27,110
The American revolution,
the French revolution,

977
00:49:27,170 --> 00:49:29,340
and the Haitian revolution...

978
00:49:29,410 --> 00:49:32,680
All reactions against
tyranny and inequality,

979
00:49:32,750 --> 00:49:35,750
leading to new
definitions of justice,

980
00:49:35,820 --> 00:49:40,590
and Africa would
be no different.

981
00:49:40,650 --> 00:49:43,890
The Republic of Haiti
and the sokoto caliphate.

982
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:48,590
Were established in
the same year... 1804.

983
00:49:48,660 --> 00:49:52,130
From the 15th century onwards,
the Atlantic ocean,

984
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:55,330
once a formidable barrier
to trade and travel,

985
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:58,100
became a great highway,
directly connecting.

986
00:49:58,170 --> 00:50:02,810
The west coast of Africa with
Europe and with the Americas.

987
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:04,780
Of all the changes
that followed,

988
00:50:04,850 --> 00:50:08,850
perhaps the most profound was
the transatlantic slave trade.

989
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:13,790
Unprecedented in scale,
lasting almost 350 years,

990
00:50:13,850 --> 00:50:18,820
the slave trade tore
12.5 million human beings,

991
00:50:18,890 --> 00:50:21,930
ranging from young children
to aging adults,

992
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,300
away from their families
and from their homelands.

993
00:50:25,370 --> 00:50:27,900
Some kingdoms were
devastated by the trade.

994
00:50:27,970 --> 00:50:29,900
Others profited from it.

995
00:50:29,970 --> 00:50:33,670
And still others rose
in direct opposition to it.

996
00:50:33,740 --> 00:50:36,540
The human cost of
the slave trade was horrific.

997
00:50:36,610 --> 00:50:39,410
And its effects can still
be felt to this day.

998
00:50:40,950 --> 00:50:43,750
Even king Garcia II of Kongo.

999
00:50:43,820 --> 00:50:48,450
Had foreshadowed these concerns
as early as 1643:

1000
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:52,690
"Nothing is more injurious to
men than ambition and pride.

1001
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,260
"In place of gold,
silver, and other things.

1002
00:50:55,330 --> 00:50:57,930
"Which serve as money
in other places,

1003
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,230
"the trade and money are pieces,

1004
00:51:00,300 --> 00:51:04,140
which are not gold or cloth,
but creatures."

1005
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:07,340
In spite of the slave trade,
but also because of it,

1006
00:51:07,410 --> 00:51:11,040
African kingdoms would
continue to rise and fall.

1007
00:51:11,110 --> 00:51:13,980
Over the course of
a dynamic 19th century,

1008
00:51:14,050 --> 00:51:15,850
Africans would witness
the rise of.

1009
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:17,980
One of the most famous warriors.

1010
00:51:18,050 --> 00:51:21,150
In all of the history
of the continent.

1011
00:51:21,220 --> 00:51:24,360
A global scramble
for unprecedented riches.

1012
00:51:24,420 --> 00:51:26,530
Would engulf the continent,

1013
00:51:26,590 --> 00:51:28,290
and one battle would become both.

1014
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:29,900
Something of
a last stand against

1015
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,300
European colonial powers,

1016
00:51:32,370 --> 00:51:35,400
and yet a beacon of hope
for all Africans.

1017
00:51:35,470 --> 00:51:39,370
That a change
inevitably would come.