>Black people sold other black people to white people. Slavery was banned in the major kingdoms in Africa, the slave trading minority were empowered, funded, a

>Black people sold other black people to white people. Slavery was banned in the major kingdoms in Africa, the slave trading minority were empowered, funded, and armed by foreigner traders. They were able to take control of a large portion of the continent this way. Just like opium trading was banned in China, the drug trading minority were empowered, funded, and armed by foreigner traders...etc Much of the 'slavery' in Africa was actually mislabeled, it is better described as 'human adoption'. These so called slaves lived and ate in the same house as 'owners', had wives/children (sometimes more than the 'owner'), were not forced to work, and would intermarry with the adoptive family freely. Many rose to prominence and wielded tremendous power/influence in the families/communities/tribes they were adopted into. This form of 'adoption' (which includes adults) is still common in war torn countries in Africa where families are broken apart and family members lost prematurely. In America, the modern day equivalent would be going to a homeless tent city, moving some of the individuals into your home and sharing resources. Chattel slavery was considered abhorrent and only arrived in certain parts of the continent after a certain point. There were also POWs that were treated poorly and initially they were the people sold to foreign traders... preferable to leaving enemies of a tribe in jail, which posed a security risk and caused many other problems. "The black people sold black people" line is popular in the US because it sidesteps the details and on some level freed slave owners and their descendants from moral/social burden and guilt. This retort was/is also useful in denying the case for reparations when African Americans raised/raise it.