Study reveals records of 166 slave ship voyages from CMR

It is a gross understatement to argue that the central African country, Cameroon was insignificant in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. On the contrary, the territory which was demarcated Cameroon in the 1884 European Scramble for Africa was a hotbed for the enslavement, capture, and transport of human beings of various African ethnic origins into mainly the Americas and the Caribbean, and other points in Africa and Europe as well.

Excerpt: Cameroon, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and Bimbia the Apertura: Research Findings of 166 Slave Ship Voyages And Their Disembarkations* By Dr. Lisa Aubrey Arizona State University, USA University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon exposingbimbia@gmail.com July 28, 2014.

It is a gross understatement to argue that the central African country of Cameroon was insignificant in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Quite on the contrary, the territory which was demarcated Cameroon in the 1884 European Scramble for Africa was a hotbed for the enslavement, capture, and transport of human beings of various African ethnic origins into mainly the Americas and the Caribbean, and other points in Africa and Europe as well. The Transatlantic Slave Trade on the Cameroon coast raged from the mid-17th century to the late 19th century.

What the data reveals from researching various secondary sources, but from mainly primary sources, is that several European countries plied the Cameroon coast in a roving trade for human beings in exchange for petty goods secured by European merchants from Europe and Asia.

That is, thousands from ethnic groups of the Cameroon territory were traded for whiskey, beads, cloth and clothing, guns, gun powder, iron bars, brandy, jars, basins, writing implements, cowries, ornaments and figurines, and other petty goods.

Those European countries, in a melee of slave ships that were both government sanctioned and privately owned, included the Netherlands, Britain, Spain (sometimes under the guise of Uruguay), Portugal (sometimes under the guise of Brazil), France, and the United States of America.

What the data from my research also tells us is that some Africans lost their lives resisting their capture, and that the European slave traders in some instances particularly feared African women. Some slave ship captains and crews referred to African women as “riotous” as they would use any methods and means necessary to resist, including pelting with rocks, fish, sand and anything else within their reach. The women like men, would also physically attack European enslavers.

Moreover, in some instances, Africans, under attack, would seize slave ships as a way to resist capture, enslavement, and transport to foreign lands...

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