“African kings were running a booming enterprise of selling their own people into slavery. It was also customary that defeated people became slaves. “
I think if they won’t sold into slavery, they were killed. Anybody know if this true?
Africa has a looonnngg history of tribal warfare, with the losers either enslaved or killed. Much like the Middle East and the classical world, come to think of it. Julius Caesar was perhaps the greatest slave raider of all time, with perhaps 1M slaves sold just from Gaul.
To be fair, however, the presence of a market on the African coast for slaves encouraged slave raiding and inter-tribal warfare far inland. Also chiefs and kings selling off political opponents, criminals, inconvenient relatives, unpopular people, etc.