African Royalties sold as slaves
(From the finest of the world’s documentaries)
The Atlantic slave trade was a tragic event that most certainly stunted the development and growthgrowth of West and Central Africa. Due to the unequal exchange of goods for human life we speak frequently about the horrors of slavery. But sometimes we miss just how chaotic it was for West and Central African kingdoms. At one moment you can be an elite in your community, and the next,you become enslaved.
African history all links to patron Afro graphics and hopefully merchandise or in a description box below the Congo empire gives us direct insight into just how chaotic the Atlantic slave trade was.
One king named in Ben Bland Zynga and his dealings with the Portuguese sought to put an end to the slave trade altogether because he realized that they weren’t just enslaving African enemies of Congo they were enslaving his own ethnic group and to his horror his own royal family members and them in Zynga had this to say in a letter to a Portuguese king.
Each day the traders are kidnapping our people children of this country sons of our nobles and vassals even people of our own family.
This corruption and depravity are so widespread that our land is entirely depopulated.
We need in this kingdom only priest and schoolteachers and no merchandise unless it is wine and flour from Mass. It is our wish that this kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves.
Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your subjects have brought into our domains to satisfy this inordinate appetite. They seize many of our black free subjects. They sell them after having taken these prisoners secretly or at night.
As soon as the captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red hot iron. The enslavement of African royalty not only happened in the Congo empire but all over West and Central Africa up.
So let’s sell the stories of five African royals who were taken in the Atlantic slave trade. Our first African Royal is
1. Prince Abdirahman Ibrahim
I’ve been sorry Rahman sorry was a Fulani Prince from the foothill Geelong region of modern day Guinea West Africa. His father Al mommy Ibrahima sorry was a ruler of the footage a line in 1776 where his son lived and studied. Abdul Rahman was very intelligent and a well learned African who spoke four different languages and could read and write in Arabic. After he finished his studies at Timbuktu, he joined his father’s army and his father making him the head of a 2000 man army whose mission was to protect the coast and strengthen their economic interests in the region.
It was during one of Abdi Rahman’s military campaigns that he was captured and sold into slavery. He was sold to the British who brought him to Mississippi where he labored on the cotton plantation of Thomas Foster for about 40 years. Abdurahman used his knowledge to write a letter to his relatives in Africa. A Dutch man named Andrew Marshall was kind enough to send the letter to the U.S. senator at the time. Thomas Reed of Mississippi Thomas Reed gave the letter to the U.S. consulate in Morocco because the U.S. government assumed Rahman was more. after the Sultan of Morocco read the letter, He asks President Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay to release Rahman and a few years later Prince Abdurahman was released. Unfortunately Prince Rahman could not return immediately to Africa as he had made a family in America and he fought to free his children as he could not free all of his children.
He instead decided to return to Africa going to Liberia.
2. Princess Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye
Princess Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye was a princess of the will of people in modern day Senegal. At the tender age of 13 she was captured and sent to Cuba where she was unfortunately purchased by Zephyr Nyi Kingsley a slave trader and plantation owner of the Spanish colony of Florida. During this time her region was in constant warfare and slave raids were a great threat to everyone in the region. Her life is interesting because she went from Princess to slave to slave owner and eventually a central figure in a free black community. At the age of 18 she was officially freed apparently but that did not stop her from having responsibilities on the plantation in east Florida. Over time she managed a large plantation and became the personal owner of twelve slaves herself. Her new family defended their territory from invading Americans and was awarded a land grant by the Spanish government. She later died in Jacksonville Florida at 77 years of age.
3. William Ansha Sessarakoo
William Ansha Sessarakoo was a son of Fante chief John Kiran t who was a leader of the honorable government in southern Ghana.
Ironically his father was a chief official in supplying enslaved Africans to the Europeans. over time European powers became interested in gaining access to the wealth of a number.
William Ansha’s father wanted his son to get educated in England and more importantly build relationships. The man entrusted to send William on to England instead betrayed John currency and sent his son William to Barbados as a slave. Years later a fancy trader happened to see on sale in Barbados and quickly alerted John karate of his son’s fate currency petition the British to free Ansa and the Royal African Company and the English joint stock company operating the slave trade. Liberated Ansa and transported him to England and in England, Ansa was received as a prince and gained the respect of London’s high society.
4. king Takyi of Ghana
King Takyi was a ruler or chief of the fancy people in central Ghana. He can be considered a sort of warrior king as he had frequent military encounters with his enemies.
The Ashanti he himself sold some of his rivals the Ashanti and others into slavery as war captives to the British. Like others on this list ironically he himself became enslaved once he lost the battle. King Takyi was taken to Jamaica where he conspired with Queen Annie of Jamaica to take over the island in a war with the British in 1760. Chief Tuckey and his men started a revolt at their local plantation killing the owners and finding a lot of early success.
Many slaves joined in Kentucky’s rebellion. However Kentucky was later hunted and killed and the rebellion was eventually put down.
5. Ganga Zumbo
Ganga Zumbo was the first leader of a massive runaway slave settlement in Brazil. Zuma wasn’t enslaved. Africans who escaped bondage on a sugar plantation and eventually rose to the position of highest authority literally creating his own kingdom in Brazil. This tremendous achievement gave him the title Ganga Zuma meaning great lord.
Ganga was said to be African royalty as he was a son of a princess from the Congo empire during warfare with the Portuguese. Reportedly the battle of whether he was captured as a prisoner of war and sent off to Brazil Ganga helps a former ruling communities of former enslaved Africans in Brazil which later formed into a well kingdom in which he became king.
By the 60s and 70s Ganga Zuma had a palace , three wives guards, ministers and devoted subjects at his royal compound called McCorkle. The compound consisted of fifteen hundred houses which houses family guards and officials all of which were considered royalty. It’s so fitting that a royal of the Congo empire would continue his elevated lineage by literally creating an empire of his own. Under the worst conditions possible. That is indeed legendary.