Title: Slavery of Africans by Africans
Headings: Slavery of Africans by Africans

Content: Wars between African tribes were not fought to kill, but to take prisoners who could be exchanged with Arab slave-traders for imported goods. It has been estimated that 25% of the slaves taken out of Africa ended up in Muslim lands. Even more important, this centuries-old trade had rooted the institution in the African economy and had established the general pattern of that trade." [ 25]
Zayde Antrim has also pointed out that African slavery was in existence well before the arrival of the Europeans. "Not only was slavery an established institution in West Africa before European traders arrived, but Africans were also involved in a trans-Saharan trade in slaves along these routes. African rulers and merchants were thus able to tap into preexisting methods and networks of enslavement to supply European demand for slaves. Enslavement was most often a byproduct of local warfare, kidnapping, or the manipulation of religious and judicial institutions. Military, political, and religious authority within West Africa determined who controlled access to the Atlantic slave trade. And some African elites, such as those in the Dahomey and Ashanti empires, took advantage of this control and used it to their profit by enslaving and selling other Africans to European traders." [ 26]
Hugh Thomas in his book on the history of Slavery, The Slave Trade, has detailed the African involvement in the production of victims for slavery.