1.5 pages 400 words

In our first Discussion we will discuss the manner in which faith, conflict, and commerce can drive major changes across continents. We will begin with two primary sources presented in your text book reading. They are copied here as a reminder:

1. Muslim Reform in Songhai
Textbook Publisher’s Introduction: Around 1500 Askia Muhammad al-Turi, the first Muslim Songhai ruler, wrote to the North African Muslim theologian Muhammad al-Maghili (d. 1504) to ask about proper Muslim practices. In these excerpts from al-Turi’s seventh question, we glimpse the new convert’s zeal for conformity to traditional religious norms, as well as the king’s desire to better the social order and his concern for justice. The answers from al-Maliki reflect the puritanical “official line” of the conservative ulama who did not want to allow syncretism to emerge among newly converted groups.

FROM ASKIA MUHAMMAD AL-TURI’S SEVENTH QUESTION
Among the people [of the Songhay Empire], there are some who claim knowledge of the supernatural through sand divining and the like, or through the disposition of the stars …[while] some assert that they can write (talismans) to bring good fortune … or to ward off bad fortune.… Some defraud in weights and measures.…
One of their evil practices is the free mixing of men and women in the markets and streets and the failure of women to veil themselves … [while] among the people of Djenné [Jenne] it is an established custom for a girl not to cover any part of her body as long as she remains a virgin … and all the most beautiful girls walk about naked.…
So give us legal ruling concerning these people and their ilk, and may God Most High reward you!
FROM MUHAMMAD AL-MAGHILI’S ANSWER
The answer—and God it is who directs to the right course—is that everything you have mentioned concerning people’s behavior in some parts of this country is gross error. It is the bounden duty of the commander of the Muslims and all other believers who have the power to change every one of these evil practices.
As for any who claims knowledge of the supernatural in the ways you have mentioned … he is a liar and an unbeliever.… Such people must be forced to renounce it by the sword. Then whoever renounces such deeds should be left in peace, but whoever persists should be killed with the sword as an unbeliever; his body should not be washed or shrouded, and he should not be buried in a Muslim graveyard.…
As for defrauding in weights and measures it is forbidden (haram) according to the Qur’an, the Sunna and the consensus of opinion of the learned men of the Muslim community. It is the bounden duty of the commander of the Muslims to appoint a trustworthy man in charge of the markets, and to safeguard people’s means of subsistence. He should standardize all the scales in each province.… Similarly, all measures both large and small must be rectified so that they conform to a uniform standard.…
Now, what you mentioned about the free mixing of men and women and leaving the pudenda uncovered is one of the greatest abominations. The commander of the Muslims must exert himself to prevent all these things.… He should appoint trustworthy men to watch over this by day and night, in secret and in the open. This is not to be considered as spying on the Muslims; it is only a way of caring for them and curbing evildoers, especially when corruption becomes widespread in the land as it has done in Timbuktu and Djenné.…
Source: Basil Davidson (ed.), The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, The Universal Library), pp. 86-88. Copyright © 1964 by Basil Davidson. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
2. Affonso I of Kongo Writes to the King of Portugal
Textbook publisher’s introduction: In 1526 Affonso, the Christian king of Kongo, wrote to the Portuguese monarch ostensibly to complain about the effects of slaving on Kongo’s people and economy. But the real issue was that the Portuguese were circumventing Affonso’s royal monopoly on the inland slave trade. One of the insidious effects of the massive demand of the Atlantic slave trade was the increased engagement in it of African monarchs, chieftains, and merchants.

Sir, Your Highness [of Portugal] should know how our Kingdom is being lost in so many ways that it is convenient to provide for the necessary remedy, since this is caused by the excessive freedom given by your factors and officials to the men and merchants who are allowed to come to this Kingdom to set up shops with goods and many things which have been prohibited by us, and which they spread throughout our Kingdoms and Domains in such an abundance that many of our vassals, whom we had in obedience, do not comply because they have the things in greater abundance than we ourselves; and it was with these things that we had them content and subjected under our vassalage and jurisdiction, so it is doing a great harm not only to the service of God, but the security and peace of our Kingdoms and State as well.
And we cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land and the sons of our noblemen and vassals and our relatives, because the thieves and men of bad conscience grab them wishing to have the things and wares of this Kingdom which they are ambitious of; they grab them and get them to be sold; and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated, and Your Highness should not agree with this nor accept it as in your service. And to avoid it we need from those [your] Kingdoms no more than some priests and a few people to teach in schools, and no other goods except wine and flour for the holy sacrament. That is why we beg of Your Highness to help and assist us in this matter, commanding your factors that they should not send here either merchants or wares, because it is our will that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them [original emphasis].
Concerning what is referred above, again we beg of Your Highness to agree with it, since otherwise we cannot … remedy such an obvious damage. Pray Our Lord in His mercy to have Your Highness under His guard and let you do for ever the things of His service. I kiss your hands many times.…
Trans. J. O. Hunwick, reprinted in Basil Davidson, ed., The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, The Universal Library), pp. 191–193. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd. Copyright © 1964 by Basil Davidson.
3. A Slave Trader Describes the Atlantic Passage
Textbook Publisher’s Introduction: During 1693 and 1694, Captain Thomas Phillips carried slaves from Africa to Barbados on the ship Hannibal. The financial backer of the voyage was the Royal African Company of London, which held an English crown monopoly on slave-trading. Phillips sailed to the west coast of Africa, where he purchased the Africans who were sold into slavery by an African king. Then he set sail westward.

Having bought my complement of 700 slaves, 480 men and 220 women, and finish’d all my business at Whidaw [on the Gold Coast of Africa], I took my leave of the old king and his cappasheirs [attendants], and parted, with many affectionate expressions on both sides, being forced to promise him that I would return again the next year, with several things he desired me to bring from England…. I set sail the 27th of July in the morning, accompany’d with the East-India Merchant, who had bought 650 slaves, for the Island of St. Thomas … from which we took our departure on August 25th and set sail for Barbadoes.
We spent in our passage from St. Thomas to Barbadoes two months eleven days, from the 25th of August to the 4th of November following: in which time there happened such sickness and mortality among my poor men and Negroes. Of the first we buried 14, and of the last 320, which was a great detriment to our voyage, the Royal African Company losing ten pounds by every slave that died, and the owners of the ship ten pounds ten shillings, being the freight agreed on to be paid by the charter-party for every Negro delivered alive ashore to the African Company’s agents at Barbadoes…. The loss in all amounted to near 6500 pounds sterling.
The distemper which my men as well as the blacks mostly died of was the white flux [i.e., mucous diarrhea], which was so violent and inveterate that no medicine would in the least check it, so that when any of our men were seized with it, we esteemed him a dead man, as he generally proved….
The Negroes are so incident to [subject to] the small-pox that few ships that carry them escape without it, and sometimes it makes vast havoc and destruction among them. But tho’ we had 100 at a time sick of it, and that it went thro’ the ship, yet we lost not above a dozen by it. All the assistance we gave the diseased was only as much water as they desir’d to drink, and some palm-oil to annoint their sores, and they would generally recover without any other helps but what kind nature gave them….
But what the smallpox spar’d, the flux swept off, to our great regret, after all our pains and care to give them their messes in due order and season, keeping their lodgings as clean and sweet as possible, and enduring so much misery and stench so long among a parcel of creatures nastier than swine, and after all our expectations to be defeated by their mortality….
No gold-finders can endure so much noisome slavery as they do who carry Negroes; for those have some respite and satisfaction, but we endure twice the misery; and yet by their mortality our voyages are ruin’d, and we pine and fret ourselves to death, and take so much pains to so little purpose.
Source: From Thomas Phillips, “Journal,” A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 6, ed. by Awnsham and John Churchill (London, 1746).
In document 1: What are the problems and corresponding solutions described in the letters? Which problem did al-Maghili find most serious? Why? Which do you think would have been most serious? Why?
In document 2: How did the presence of Portuguese merchants and European goods upset the social and political situation in Kongo? How were Affonso’s subjects tempted into the slave trade? How did Affonso wish to change the relationship of his people to Portugal? Was the king more worried about human rights or his economic losses?
Compare and contrast these two African Kingdoms and their interactions with the Spanish and Portuguese. What are some of the changes occurring on the continent of Africa and what is driving those changes?
In document 3: How did the changes occurring in Africa, Portugal and Spain expand to influence more of the world? Who are the various people described in this document who in one way or another were involved in or profited from the slave trade? What dangers did the Africans face on the voyage? What contemporary attitudes could have led this captain to treat and think of his human cargo simply as goods to be transported? What are the grounds of his self-pity for the difficulties he met?