18th century – 19th century
Central Africa and the Zambezi basin
The nineteenth-century expansion of slave trading and ivory commerce incorporated much of Central Africa into the capitalist world economy. Coastal, inland, and foreign merchants intensified commercial networks, while conquest, raiding, and the acquisition of firearms transformed political authority and produced extensive rural dislocation. Captives were exported to Indian Ocean, Atlantic, and Middle Eastern markets, and increasingly used as coerced labor within Central African societies.
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The Story
During the nineteenth century, commercial penetration from the East African coast drew most of Central Africa into the capitalist world economy. The slave trade was particularly important north of the Zambezi River, where captives were sent to plantation economies in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, the Middle East, Brazil, and Cuba. Ivory remained a parallel and increasingly valuable export, linking inland societies to markets whose principal centers of decision-making lay outside Africa.
Existing Bisa, Yao, and Chikunda networks already connected the interior with Kilwa, Mozambique Island, and Quelimane. Their merchants initially emphasized ivory, while captives were carried as porters and sold in smaller numbers. Rising demand for labor and ivory encouraged these groups to expand their commercial spheres: Yao merchants entered the Lake Nyasa and Shire regions, Chikunda groups extended their contacts toward the Luangwa valley and present-day Zimbabwe, and Bisa traders intensified operations between the Shire and Luapula valleys.
After 1840, competition among merchants increasingly transformed commerce into raiding and conquest. Afro-Portuguese and Afro-Goan warlords, Chikunda subordinates, Yao merchant-chiefs, Arab and Swahili traders, and the Yeke leader Msiri established or supported conquest states and political enclaves. These regimes used European weapons acquired through the gun-slave cycle, expanded their frontiers by coercion, and treated new territories as sources of captives and ivory.
The effects on indigenous aristocracies varied. In the Bemba kingdom, relations with Arab and Swahili traders strengthened the ruling class because imported cloth and other goods helped rulers recruit followers and reinforce ties with subordinate chiefs. From about 1860 to 1880, Bemba forces used this strengthened position to conquer much of contemporary north-eastern Zambia. Elsewhere, foreign merchants undermined established authority, intervened in succession disputes, or exploited rivalries among local chiefs.
The Lunda kingdom of Kazembe illustrates the corrosive effects of commercial intervention. Arab and Swahili merchants bypassed the royal trade monopoly and built local influence within the kingdom. In 1872 they intervened directly in Lunda politics, helping arrange the assassination of Kazembe Muonga Sunkutu and the selection of a more compliant successor. Chikunda and Swahili incursions similarly weakened Undi’s position and contributed to the kingdom’s decline by 1880.
In the southern Zambezi region, slave trading remained more limited because population densities were lower, Shona states possessed gold and ivory for trade, and powerful armies resisted many raids. The Gaza Nguni participated in the international trade after 1830, but British naval blockades affecting Lourenço Marques and Inhambane after 1850 made maritime trafficking increasingly difficult. Within a decade, Gaza rulers and merchants had largely stopped exporting captives overseas and instead used them internally.
Raiding destroyed fields and villages and forced survivors into inaccessible or less productive areas. The extract describes Yao attacks against the Manganja in the 1860s, Chikunda raids against Chewa, Tonga, and Nsenga communities, and Arab-Swahili attacks around Lake Malawi. In extreme cases, whole districts were depopulated, while recurring famine encouraged the exchange of slaves for food and prevented the recovery of rural production.
As international demand for slaves declined during the second half of the century, captives were increasingly redirected into local production. Gaza, Makua, Lozi, Gwemba, Makonde, and Chikunda societies used enslaved labor, while Lozi aristocrats and landlords employed slaves to dig canals and ditches for agricultural expansion. The extract also links the slave trade to epidemics, including smallpox and cholera, which devastated populations exposed to diseases carried from coastal communities.
18th century – 19th century
Central Africa and the Zambezi basin
The nineteenth-century expansion of slave trading and ivory commerce incorporated much of Central Africa into the capitalist world economy. Coastal, inland, and foreign merchants intensified commercial networks, while conquest, raiding, and the acquisition of firearms transformed political authority and produced extensive rural dislocation. Captives were exported to Indian Ocean, Atlantic, and Middle Eastern markets, and increasingly used as coerced labor within Central African societies.
Continue exploring
The Story
During the nineteenth century, commercial penetration from the East African coast drew most of Central Africa into the capitalist world economy. The slave trade was particularly important north of the Zambezi River, where captives were sent to plantation economies in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, the Middle East, Brazil, and Cuba. Ivory remained a parallel and increasingly valuable export, linking inland societies to markets whose principal centers of decision-making lay outside Africa.
Existing Bisa, Yao, and Chikunda networks already connected the interior with Kilwa, Mozambique Island, and Quelimane. Their merchants initially emphasized ivory, while captives were carried as porters and sold in smaller numbers. Rising demand for labor and ivory encouraged these groups to expand their commercial spheres: Yao merchants entered the Lake Nyasa and Shire regions, Chikunda groups extended their contacts toward the Luangwa valley and present-day Zimbabwe, and Bisa traders intensified operations between the Shire and Luapula valleys.
After 1840, competition among merchants increasingly transformed commerce into raiding and conquest. Afro-Portuguese and Afro-Goan warlords, Chikunda subordinates, Yao merchant-chiefs, Arab and Swahili traders, and the Yeke leader Msiri established or supported conquest states and political enclaves. These regimes used European weapons acquired through the gun-slave cycle, expanded their frontiers by coercion, and treated new territories as sources of captives and ivory.
The effects on indigenous aristocracies varied. In the Bemba kingdom, relations with Arab and Swahili traders strengthened the ruling class because imported cloth and other goods helped rulers recruit followers and reinforce ties with subordinate chiefs. From about 1860 to 1880, Bemba forces used this strengthened position to conquer much of contemporary north-eastern Zambia. Elsewhere, foreign merchants undermined established authority, intervened in succession disputes, or exploited rivalries among local chiefs.
The Lunda kingdom of Kazembe illustrates the corrosive effects of commercial intervention. Arab and Swahili merchants bypassed the royal trade monopoly and built local influence within the kingdom. In 1872 they intervened directly in Lunda politics, helping arrange the assassination of Kazembe Muonga Sunkutu and the selection of a more compliant successor. Chikunda and Swahili incursions similarly weakened Undi’s position and contributed to the kingdom’s decline by 1880.
In the southern Zambezi region, slave trading remained more limited because population densities were lower, Shona states possessed gold and ivory for trade, and powerful armies resisted many raids. The Gaza Nguni participated in the international trade after 1830, but British naval blockades affecting Lourenço Marques and Inhambane after 1850 made maritime trafficking increasingly difficult. Within a decade, Gaza rulers and merchants had largely stopped exporting captives overseas and instead used them internally.
Raiding destroyed fields and villages and forced survivors into inaccessible or less productive areas. The extract describes Yao attacks against the Manganja in the 1860s, Chikunda raids against Chewa, Tonga, and Nsenga communities, and Arab-Swahili attacks around Lake Malawi. In extreme cases, whole districts were depopulated, while recurring famine encouraged the exchange of slaves for food and prevented the recovery of rural production.
As international demand for slaves declined during the second half of the century, captives were increasingly redirected into local production. Gaza, Makua, Lozi, Gwemba, Makonde, and Chikunda societies used enslaved labor, while Lozi aristocrats and landlords employed slaves to dig canals and ditches for agricultural expansion. The extract also links the slave trade to epidemics, including smallpox and cholera, which devastated populations exposed to diseases carried from coastal communities.