 Production of copper, salt, dried fish, and textiles dominated the economic trade in the Central African region.During the 16th and 17th centuries slave traders began to raid the region as part of the expansion of the Saharan and Nile River slave routes.Their captives were enslaved and shipped to the Mediterranean coast, Europe, Arabia, the Western Hemisphere, or to the slave ports and factories along the West and North Africa or South along the Ubanqui and Congo rivers.