The Forgotten History of African Slavery in China

Areo Magazine ^ | 3/19/2021 | PJ Lim

[Titus-Maximus]

In an essay for the New York Times 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones argues that the United States was “founded as a Slavocracy” and that racist ideology was the country’s “original sin.” The 1619 Project’s educational curriculum develops this premise further by drawing a direct link between slavery and the policies, laws and culture of present day America. The death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests strengthened this narrative and led to a flurry of actions. Statues were removed and enquiry commissions set up to expose institutions’ historic links to slavery. Some activists have even argued that policing originates in the enslavement of black people and the police must therefore be abolished. /.../

Slavery was a brutal system that killed and tortured millions of Africans and left devastating psychological scars on future generations. Yet, the 1619 Project seems to be underpinned by an assumption of American exceptionalism: the allusion to “original sin” suggests that the US is uniquely culpable. This isbecause all discussions of the slave trade start with European involvement in Africa. Hence, the UN’s International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade “pays tribute to the millions of Africans forcibly removed from their homelands over a 400-year period, starting in 1501.”

But this approach neglects the historical evidence that Africans were transported off the continent as slaves long before the formation of the early modern western states. More than a thousand years ago, over the course of several centuries, the Chinese empire was part of a slave network whose ships traversed the Indian and Pacific oceans to deliver human cargo from Africa to its shores. This interaction with African slaves solidified the link between dark skin and inferiority in the Chinese mind.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Titus-Maximus. Sounds like white supremacy to me. /rimshot

[himno hero]

Ewe never mentioned the trans sahara or red sea slave trades.
These slave routes predate Christ

[himno hero]

Mansa Musa is one.

[himno hero]

Given that the majority of the slaves went to Central and South America, countries like Brazil and Venezuela should be in on the let’s bail out African deficiencies.

[Savage Beast]

"the Communist Party has intensified its efforts to be the only legitimate source of Chinese history. It is very risky for historians to produce or disseminate scholarship that challenges the approved line"

No wonder that American leftists/Democrats adore the Chinese Communist Party.

[A_perfect_lady]

I had no idea there were African slaves in China. None whatsover. Never even crossed my mind.