Traditional African Modes of Education Their Relevance i.docx

Traditional African Modes of Education: Their Relevance in the
Modern World
Author(s): Michael Omolewa
Source: International Review of Education / Internationale
Zeitschrift für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education,
Vol. 53, No. 5/6, Quality
Education in Africa: Challenges and Prospects (Nov., 2007), pp.
593-612
Published by: Springer
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International Review of Education (2007) 53:593-612 ?
Springer 2007
DOI 10.1007/s 11159-007-9060-1
TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MODES OF EDUCATION:
THEIR RELEVANCE IN THE MODERN WORLD
MICHAEL OMOLEWA
Abstract - This article explores the characteristics, goals,
modes of transmission,
teaching and learning strategies of indigenous African
education, in which the pursuit of
excellence and quality has always been an important aim.
Informal and vocational
training constitute the core of indigenous education in Africa.
Under this traditional
system, each person in the community is practically trained and
prepared for his/her role
in society. It is a holistic system, in which story telling,
proverbs and myths also play an
important role. The author suggests the adoption of some of the
elements of this system
into modern-day educational practice as a strategy for
improving quality.

R?sum? - MODES AFRICAINS TRADITIONNELS
D'?DUCATION: LEUR
PERTINENCE DANS LE MONDE MODERNE - Cette
contribution explore les
caract?ristiques, les objectifs, les modes de transmission,
l'enseignement et les strat?gies
d'apprentissage de l'?ducation africaine indig?ne, au sein
desquelles la poursuite de
l'excellence et de la qualit? a toujours ?t? un but important.
Dans ce syst?me tradi
tionnel, chaque personne dans la communaut? est pratiquement
form?e et pr?par?e ?
son r?le dans la soci?t?. Il s'agit d'un syst?me holistique dans
lequel les contes, les
proverbes et les mythes jouent ?galement un r?le important.
L'article sugg?re l'adoption
de certains de leurs ?l?ments dans la pratique ?ducative
moderne.
Zusammenfassung - TRADITIONELLE AFRIKANISCHE
BILDUNGSFORMEN
UND IHRE RELEVANZ F?R DIE MODERNE WELT - Dieser
Beitrag erforscht
die Besonderheiten, Ziele und ?bermittlungswege sowie die
Lehr- und Lernstrategien
der indigenen afrikanischen Erziehung und Bildung, in der das
Streben nach Qualit?t
und nach hervorragenden Leistungen seit jeher eine wichtige
Rolle spielt. In diesem
traditionellen System wird jede Person der Gemeinschaft
speziell f?r seine/ihre Rolle in
der Gesellschaft ausgebildet. Es ist ein holistisches System, in
dem Sprichw?rter,
Mythen und erz?hlte Geschichten eine gro?e Rolle spielen. Der
Artikel setzt sich f?r die
?bernahme einiger ihrer Elemente in die heutige Bildungspraxis

ein.
Resumen - MODOS DE EDUCACI?N TRADICIONAL
AFRICANA: SU RELE
VANCIA EN EL MUNDO MODERNO - Esta contribuci?n
explora las caracter?st
icas, los objetivos, los modos de transmisi?n y las estrategias
de ense?anza y aprendizaje
de la educaci?n aut?ctona africana, que siempre ha perseguido
la excelencia y la calidad
como uno de sus objetivos importantes. Bajo este sistema
tradicional, toda persona de la
comunidad ha recibido una ense?anza pr?ctica y una
preparaci?n para desempe?ar su
papel en la sociedad. Es un sistema hol?stico en el que tambi?n
juegan un papel im
portante las narraciones, los proverbios y los mitos. Este
trabajo sugiere la adopci?n de
algunos de sus elementos en las pr?cticas de ense?anza de
nuestros tiempos modernos.
2017 22:04:37 UTC
594 Michael Omolewa
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Background
Traditional African education is an integral part of the culture
and history
of a local community, which is stored in various forms and
transmitted
through various modes. Such modes include language, music,
dance, oral
tradition, proverbs, myths, stories, culture and religion.
Traditional African
education, which is passed from one generation to another, is
usually by
word of mouth and cultural rituals, and has to some extent been
the basis
for sustainable development in agriculture, food preparation,
health care,

conservation and other sectors for many centuries. This mode
of education
has by and large been used as a way of acquiring lifelong
learning.
Contrary to the widespread belief held by early foreign
observers in Afri
ca that Africa was a dark continent before their arrival, the
continent had
already reached a high level of educational development, which
had evolved
over time. The coming of European (Western) education from
the late 15th
century onwards disrupted the traditional system and brought
the formal
school system at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels, the
learning of
European languages, literature, history, philosophy, as well as
the science
subjects, including mathematics, biology, physics and
chemistry.
The Christian missionaries were later supported by the colonial
adminis
tration in using the new educational system as a means of
cultivating the
mind of the Africans to accept European values and practices.
The African
response to this development was influenced by the reward
system and the
incentives provided by the acquisition of the new educational
provision.
However, even during the initial period of Western education,
Africans
continued to appreciate the basic values of traditional

education, which
emphasised the inclusion of all, and the pursuit of excellence.
They therefore
rejected all the attempts to "adapt" the educational system and
provide what
was perceived as an inferior type of education.
2017 22:04:37 UTC
Traditional African Modes of Education 595
With the attainment of political independence, various
countries in Africa
continued with the indigenous practice of inculcating moral and
ethical val
ues in the learners and making education respond to the
communal and
social needs of the society, the development of a more
appropriate, problem
solving educational curriculum and the promotion of lifelong
education.
However, efforts to Africanise the curriculum in the 1960s
following the
independence euphoria did not yield lasting benefits to the
people of Africa.
This is particularly true of the efforts made towards
establishing Education
for Self-reliance in Tanzania, Authenticity in Zaire, African
renaissance in
South Africa, and the whole movement of Africanisation of the
curriculum
in several countries, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana,

Ethiopia, Nige
ria, Guinea, Cape Verde, and so on. There is therefore the need
to revisit the
issue of Africanising the curriculum with a view to ensuring
the contextuali
sation of learning which occurs where the content of the
curriculum, and the
methods and materials associated with it, are related directly to
the experi
ence and environment of the learner.
Characteristics of traditional African education
There is no doubt that Africans who live on or outside the
continent are
undergoing profound transformations and so are their
knowledge systems
and practices changing. Their ways of knowing continue to be
transformed
by diversity in colonial experience, religion, customs and
languages and pen
etration by outside forces including current globalisation
efforts. In spite of
this situation, it is still important and pertinent to revisit these
characteristics
in order to show how indigenous knowledge not only preserves
the past but
can also be vital through its enduring processes to ensure a
sustainable
future for the African people.
Although Africans do not have the same and equal educational
experience
in traditional ways of knowing, it would not be out of place to
describe the

basic characteristic of traditional education in Africa as that
which is inti
mately integrated with the social, cultural, political,
occupational, artistic,
religious, and recreational life of the people. It is usually
stored in people's
memories and activities and is expressed in stories, songs,
folklore, proverbs,
dances, myths, cultural values, beliefs, rituals, community
laws, local
language and taxonomy, agricultural practices, equipment,
materials, plant
species, and animal breeds (Grenier 1998, p. 2).
Traditional African education is always used as the information
base for
the community, which facilitates communication and decision-
making. An
important aspect of traditional African education is the
acquisition of
knowledge where everyone is taught different things like the
identification of
various gods, the planting seasons, good soil and harvest
methods, herbs
and fishing methods.
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596 Michael Omolewa
Traditional African education is usually generated within the

communi
ties. It is based on practical common sense, on teachings and
experience and
it is holistic - it cannot be compartmentalised and cannot be
separated from
the people who are involved in it because essentially, it is a
way of life.
In traditional African education, efforts are made to ensure that
every
person develops a set of skills. In the process, provision is
made for learning
and training centres for the apprenticeship system during which
the appren
tice is introduced into the craft and skill of the chosen
profession. There is
provision for graduation and certification of competence on the
completion
of the apprenticeship. However, the end of apprenticeship does
not signify
the end of learning. Indeed continuing education through
observation, self
improvement and search for wisdom is a life-long process. The
apprentice
does not, however, just learn the skill of the master. He or she
also learns
obedience, patience and industry. He or she learns how to
respect the master
and the senior apprentices and pays dearly for failure to
conform. Through
a system of taboos and sanctions, every member of the society
appreciates
the danger of failing to conform.
Traditional African education uses the age grade system in
which those

about the same age are brought together to share
responsibilities, work
together and to be introduced to activities that will not be
burdensome for
their grade. The entry to each grade involves initiation during
which the
initiated person is made to appreciate the degree of
responsibility, account
ability and privileges of the process into which he or she is
being initiated.
In Africa, learning is not expected to end in the grave. The
Yoruba for
instance believe that learning continues after death. In the
warning, m'ajokun
m'aje ekolo, ohun ti won ba n je l'orun ni ki o ma a ba won je,
(do not eat
worms or millipedes, but carefully adopt the practices in your
new abode),
the Yoruba encourage the dead to cultivate the values and abide
by the
practices of those beyond the grave (Omolewa 2007). This is a
unique devel
opment in the educational practices of societies, which
emphasise the dura
tion of learning only from the cradle to the grave.
Goals of traditional education in Africa
The major goal of traditional education in Africa is to produce
a complete
individual, a lifelong learner who is cultured, respectful,
integrated, sensitive
and responsive to the needs of the family and neighbours
(Niki?ma 2009;

Omolewa 2007). It is aimed at inculcating attitudes and values
capable of
integrating the individual into the wider society (Majasan 1967;
Fafunwa
1974; Fajana 1978). The ultimate objective is to produce a
person guided by
wisdom. The product is thus expected to be confident in spite
of circum
stances that emerge. The personal satisfaction derived from this
is expected
to serve as a buffer against all temptations and trials. African
traditional
education is focussed on the attainment of quality education,
with centres of
2017 22:04:37 UTC
excellence that are recognised and profoundly appreciated by
the stakehold
ers of the educational systems.
For centuries, traditional education has provided Africa's tribal
peoples
with practical solutions to the problems of a fluctuating
climate. As an
example, the Maasai pastoralists of northern Tanzania and
southern Kenya
traditionally know where to find water, and green shrubs that
can be fed to

young calves, even during long periods of drought. Likewise,
in Ethiopia,
often regarded as inevitably dependent on Western aid, the
threat of famine
was overcome by local expertise, as Worede (in Seabrook
1993) explains.
Traditional African education encourages the acquisition and
sharing of
knowledge in diverse forms. For example, the Maasai and
Barabaig alike of
northern Tanzania have developed and maintained traditional
knowledge
and practices for the management and conservation of the
biological
resources on which they depend. Their knowledge and practices
are empiri
cal, based on continuous observation and their close attachment
to and utter
dependence on natural resources. The knowledge is stored in
cultural and
religious beliefs, taboos, folklore or myths as much as in the
individuals'
practical experience.
Knowledge is imparted in youth through a phased childhood
and adoles
cence. This contributes to a stock of knowledge in human and
animal
health, in agricultural meteorology and in land use. A
combination of cul
tural, empirical and hierarchical methods ensures the
safeguarding and fur
ther development of knowledge as well as the effectiveness of
existing
practices. By favouring utilitarian to hierarchical or theoretical

concepts,
knowledge is much more easily shared. In essence, traditional
African educa
tional systems are often application-oriented.
The children of the farmer or of the nomadic herdsman learn
the business
of producing food crops or of keeping cattle from their parents.
Similarly,
the artisan, the craftsman or the drummer teaches his offspring,
although he
may also take in apprentices who are not members of his
family. There is
therefore little or no problem about access to the acquisition of
most kinds
of available knowledge, skills or training, even though
specialist educational
institutions exist. These include those for initiating adolescents
into puberty
and quasi-religious cults, as well as into the various age grades
of those soci
eties in which such grades exist. Finally, there are periodic
conferences in
which practitioners like traditional doctors (like the Yoruba
babalawo or the
Bantu mganga) diviners, master craftsmen, and members of
esoteric guilds,
meet to exchange ideas.
Modes of traditional African education
Traditional African education is passed from one generation to
another by
learning through various modes, which include language,

music, dance, oral
tradition, proverbs, myths, stories, culture, religion and elders.
Others
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598 Michael Omolewa
include learning through specialists, specific names, the
holistic approach,
integrating theory and practice and traditional African science
and technol
ogy. Let us now briefly describe how each mode operates to
foster learning
amongst participants.
Learning through language
Language is an important element in the training of the child,
and no one is
considered adequately trained without considerable mastery of
the use of
language for effective communication. Using the mother
tongue, learners are
usually introduced very early to the system of manipulating
figures involving
counting, adding and subtracting.
Learning through music and dance
Music and dance are fundamental to the African ways of life.
They are

introduced to equip the learners with the ability to function
effectively in
other areas of learning such as language acquisition, speech
therapy, literacy,
numeracy, and other related themes. They are given to learners
to enjoy,
thus providing them with an artistic outlet and a way to relax.
Learners
often anticipate the music and dance sessions with excitement
because crea
tivity and choice are usually encouraged and nurtured. Through
carefully
planned music and dance programmes, learning takes place
during initiation,
festivities, the age-grade system, home education and
community education
where everyone is encouraged to learn the norms and values of
the society
(Omolewa 1983).
Oral tradition using proverbs, myths and stories
The most significant information gathering exercise for the
traditional
African mode of education is the oral tradition, namely, the
collective
testimonies and recollections of the past inherited from earlier
generations,
and transmitted in various forms of verbal testimonies. Oral
tradition
continues to be a reservoir of inexhaustible wisdom where
Africans learn
about their origin, history, culture and religion, about the
meaning and
reality of life, about morals, norms and survival techniques.

Orally transmitted information inherited from past generations
may be
shared in both structured and unstructured contexts. It
constitutes a major
resource, which has been classified by many different scholars.
Because most
African societies have oral, non-literary traditions, they have
succeeded in
developing complicated and beautiful webs of eyewitness
account, idioms,
legends, folklore, stories, proverbs and myths for all
conceivable circum
stances (Fasokun 2005; Oguejiofor 2006).
In Africa, proverbs are embellishments of speech. They are
symbols of
communication, and in many cases, they form sub-languages of
their own.
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The language of proverbs gives vent to a whole perspective on
the world,
and thus constitutes a means of tapping into societies' view of
reality. Prov
erbs are spurs to knowledge, wisdom and morality. They can be
prognostic
and can challenge assumptions in order to inspire further
reflection. They
serve as a warning in all areas of human activities or relations.

They criti
cise, praise, advice and teach. In Africa, proverbs cover every
aspect of hu
man endeavour and human relations, and thus there is hardly
any African
imbued to any measure with the culture of his or her people
who has not a
good stock of proverbs for ready application, though, like in all
things,
expertise and refinement in their use vary widely.
Proverbs are rich sources of African wisdom and philosophy.
Africans use
proverbs extensively. These are usually expressed not only in
words but also
in the language of the drums and the sound of the horns blown
by the atten
dants of chiefs (Fasokun 2005). Proverbs convey how to treat
people with
respect, dignity, empathy and kindness. They enshrine wisdom,
beliefs and
the accumulated experiences of past and present generations. In
most Afri
can traditional cultures, the use of proverbs is a common
feature of African
religion. The "entire worldview of the people" is "rooted within
proverbs
and wise sayings", and many of these "proverbs govern
religious and social
behaviour" (Thomas 2005, p. 109).
A myth is a vehicle conveying a certain fact or a certain basic
truth about
man's experiences in his encounter with the created order and
with regard to
man's relation to the supra-sensible world. Myths seek to

explain what
brought about the present uncomfortable order and to indicate
that man is
destined to overcome the present discomfort. Structurally a
myth is timeless,
peopled by extra-ordinary figures and enjoys general
acceptance in the cul
ture in which it originates.
Myths provide the cultural and social history of the African
people. They
tell how some things came into being, and talk of supernatural
beings. They
are the stories of a people's origin and religion. They are
stories, the product
of fertile imagination, sometimes simple, often containing
profound truths.
Myths are not meant to be taken too literally. However, most of
them
express serious beliefs about human beings, eternity and God
(Parrinder
1967). Myths serve as a language depicting truths or realities
for which
history does not provide a full explanation (Mbiti 1991). They
are the way a
society expresses its traditions, heritage and worldview in its
own language.
Myths provide the fuel that maintains the systems which govern
African
societies (Thomas 2005).
The purpose of mythology is more than explanatory. Koech
(1977,
p. 118) explains the purposes of African mythology in context
as follows:

(1) African mythology acts as a socializing agent. It is used to
nourish and
continue the traditions of the elders or ancestors. The morals,
the norms,
conventions, customs, and manners are part of the myth.
2017 22:04:37 UTC
600 Michael Omolewa
(2) Education is another function of the myth - teaching people,
especially
the youngsters, the meaning of the universe and those things
which
belong to it.
(3) The myth provides emotional and psychological easement
by pointing
toward the redeeming features in what appears to be a bad
situation.
(4) The African myth is entertainment, and may become a part
of drama,
art, and of skill. The African mythologist, or his students,
seeks to
employ all forms of theatrical skill and to put to use every
faculty in his
delivery.
The story is a primary form of oral tradition used in conveying
culture, experience, values, knowledge and wisdom (Fasokun

2005). The
stories inculcate values and the advantages of "correct"
attitudes of
honesty, integrity, accountability and transparency in everyday
dealings.
Traditionally, Africans have revered good stories and
storytellers. Smith
(1940, pp. 64-83) has described the uses of stories as educative
devices in
traditional African societies. Stories are used not only to amuse
and
express feelings, but also to teach ideal forms of behaviour and
morality.
Children learn by listening to their elders, imitating or
"emulating" them.
These stories are usually handed down from one generation to
the next;
their main concern is to induct the youth into the moral,
philosophical,
and cultural values of the community.
Learning through culture
Culture is everything that characterises a society such as
language, techno
logical artefacts, skills, knowledge, beliefs, art, morals,
attitudes, ideas,
behaviour, laws, traditions, customs and values (Mair 1972;
Maquet 1997;
Lawton 1975; Coombs 1985). It is a basis of identity
(Magagula and Mazi
buko 2007), which largely determines how people view reality
(The African
Symposium 2004). It functions as a lens of perception,
influencing how peo
ple view themselves and their environment. For example,

African cultural
concepts of immortality have influenced attitudes to family size
and popula
tion growth. Many Africans believe that no person is really
dead for as long
as the person's blood flows in the veins of the living. It is
therefore rational
to maximise one's genetic legacy by having many children.
It is important to note that culture in traditional Africa can be
seen as a
spring of motivation, standard of judgement, basis of
stratification, means of
communication, patterns of production and consumption
(Nduka 1964).
Traditional African education is therefore stored in culture in
various forms,
such as traditions, customs, folk stories, folk songs, folk
dramas, legends,
proverbs, myths, etc. The use of these various forms of cultural
items as
resources in teaching and learning can be very effective in
bringing tradi
tional African education alive for the learners. It allows them
to conceptual
ise places and issues not only in the local area but also beyond
their
2017 22:04:37 UTC

immediate experience. Learners who are already familiar with
some aspects
of traditional cultures usually find it interesting to learn more
about it
through these cultural forms. It also enables active
participation as teachers
involve learners in collecting folk stories, folk songs, legends,
proverbs, etc.,
that are retold in their community.
Use of these cultural items in schools as resources or tools for
environ
mental education can be very effective in bringing the
environment alive for
the learners. Learners are already familiar with their culture
and, therefore,
they would find it interesting to learn about the environment
through these
cultural forms. It would enable the teachers to get the learners'
active partic
ipation in teaching about the environment as teachers could ask
pupils to
collect folk stories, folk songs, legends, proverbs, etc. existing
in the commu
nity which have potential value for environmental education.
Learning through religion
Because the African has remained incurably "religious", the
young child is
introduced very early on to the spiritual world of the ancestors
and the
Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe. Music, dance and
art are
expressions of religion and a celebration of creation. The fear
of God is

carefully taught and everyone is encouraged to recognise the
presence and
continuing activity of the Supreme Being who is considered
always there to
monitor one's activities, motives and intentions. To ignore that
presence is
considered a crime against one's self and the wider society that
has activities
related to His celebration.
In Nigeria, the Yoruba describe a well-educated person as an
omoluwabi,
i.e., one that has been shaped in the image of the Creator
Himself, and can
therefore be trusted and fully appreciated as dependable and
sensitive to the
needs of others. Thus, for example, young men and women are
taught good
morals and the resolve to flee from such crimes as theft,
adultery, use of foul
language and violence.
Learning from elders
African traditional education encourages everyone to respect
elders, to
accept the values sanctioned by the ancestors, to be honest and
dedicated
and to be loyal. Traditional leaders, because of their moral and
religious
authority, can influence their communities in achieving
development goals
that necessitate behavioural change. In most African cultures,
the elderly are
accorded a great deal of respect. African culture teaches that,
to gain long

life, to be wise, to be blessed and protected, one must respect
not only the
elders of one's own family but also those of the society. In
general, older
people are addressed using a title of respect and not by their
ordinary
names. The child is taught social courtesies. He/she learns how
to greet
people with appropriate gestures, to show respect, to establish
good relation
2017 22:04:37 UTC
602 Michael Omolewa
ships and to thank someone for a good deed. Children are
encouraged to
express their appreciation and respect by giving gifts.
In a non-literate society, accumulated knowledge and wisdom
is stored in
the heads of the adult members of the society. As Ki-Zerbo
(1990) argued,
when an old African passes away, it is a whole library which
disappears.
Parents, older relatives and others play a very important part in
the lifelong
learning process of the individual. Wherever possible, however,
the focus is
on learning within the home environment. This helps to close
the "genera
tion gaps" that so often result from formal education. Rather

than despising
older relatives for their illiteracy, learners are expected to
recognise the
elders as holders of valuable knowledge, and to acknowledge
their contribu
tions at the back of the completed workbook. In addition to
their role in
teaching, community elders are also included in the assessment
process.
Everyone is taught the value of respect for elders and reverence
for old
age. For example the practice amongst the Mossi of Burkina
Faso, which is
typical of African communities, demands that elders be
addressed in the
plural tense. The entire community is expected to learn how to
behave
towards one another. The society is also encouraged to pay
special attention
to strangers and visitors whom they are to welcome warmly
with open
hands, and whose immediate needs are to be met until they
have been fully
integrated into their new society. The African learns always to
be inclusive
and believes in the saying "the more the merrier" because the
human race
began with a single family. Failure to produce a well-rounded,
complete
gentle man or gentle woman is considered a shortcoming of the
home, and
such a deficit is ascribed to the Nigerian home in the Yoruba
statement a lai
le ko He, i.e., one without a home training.

Learning through specialists
There are specialists who teach various skills. Some homes
specialise in
specific professions. The ay an, for example represents a
family of drummers
in Yorubaland. Amongst the Igbo, there are the traditional
medical practi
tioners, the Ime Ogwu, known as the Babalawo amongst the
Yoruba. There
are those who specialise in divination while in Edo State of
Nigeria, some
families are known for surgical work and the healing of
compound fractures,
the Igba efe. Other prominent specialists in traditional African
education are
gold and ironsmiths, skin workers, weavers, wood workers,
spirit mediums,
specialists in medicine, witchcraft practitioners, psychiatrists,
healers, circum
cisers, musicians, storytellers, historians, etc. These specialised
teachers are
so much involved with their particular subject that it is not just
a profession
or a means for economic survival; it is an integral part of their
lives and the
lives of their clans. Teaching takes place during a long process
of apprentice
ship during which the learner submits himself and devotes his
service
completely to the teacher. There is supposed to be a mutual
trust and
understanding between the teacher and the learner. The
knowledge handed

2017 22:04:37 UTC
down by non-specialised and specialised teachers is normally
relevant and
appropriate to the learner. The learning process here happens
by doing,
living and experiencing the subject matter. As such, it seems to
be more
natural and thus less boring. Both the learner and instructor
have a direct
interest in the success of the process.
Learning through specific names
Africans learn also through specific names, which often reflect
the babies'
circumstances at the time of birth. These include ancestral,
spirit, proverbial,
birth-related and special names.
Ancestral names are those names that are given to newborn
babies in
recognition and remembrance of the boldness, wisdom and
status of a long
departed ancestor. Both the living and the dead constitute the
extended fam
ily. The ancestors are the invisible protectors of the living
descendants who
usually guard, direct and exercise a disciplinary influence over
the family
affairs, traditional ethics and social relationships of the

community they had
left behind. In most African communities, children are named
after the
ancestors and heroes of their community. In Nigeria, the
Yoruba name,
Onipede, which means a child born after the death of an
important person in
the family, is an example of an ancestral name.
Spirit names are names of deities and objects; the sadistic
mischief of
some wandering spirits usually highlighted by the name of the
bearer. This is
marked by a discussion of "superstitious" beliefs and the
significance and
effect of ethnic facial marks. In Nigeria, the Yoruba may call
on the god,
Ogun, in troubled times and when a child is conceived as a
consequence of
Ogun's mediation, he may be called Ogunwale which means
Ogun has come
back home. In addition, believers of the Sango deity amongst
the Yoruba
may express gratitude to him by naming their child
Sangobunmi - meaning
"given to me by Sango". The parents may have appealed to
Sango for the
birth of the child and the spirit of Sango graciously obliged.
Proverbial names usually confirm the fact that anything that is
authenti
cally African is underscored by a proverb or an adage. This is
borne out by
some African personal names and the response they generate.
They are also

names that allude to a story about the family. The structure of
the indige
nous names enables us to learn something about the language
and literature
of the society. In Nigeria, the Yoruba name 'Mosebolatari
which means "I
think my wealth has finished" belongs to the category of
proverbial names.
Birth-related names include names of twins and their siblings;
names
based on the days of the week and names delineating the rank
of the fami
lies' children. Names such as Kofi (born on a Friday in Akan,
Ghana), Kwasi
(born on a Sunday in Akan, Ghana), all refer to the day when
the child was
born.
Special names are names that do not fall readily into any of the
above
categories - geographical names; titular names; occupational
names. Special
2017 22:04:37 UTC
604 Michael Omolewa
names from Uganda include Kabiito (born while foreigners are
visiting),
Kamuhanda (born on the way to the hospital). In Nigeria, the
Yoruba have

special names like Yetunde, Yewande and Iyabo meaning "the
'mother' has
come back" (this usually means a female child was born after
an elderly
woman in the family recently died).
Learning through a holistic approach
Traditional education is not compartmentalised into disciplines
but highly
integrated (Omolewa 1981). "Every occasion and happening
may be used to
teach one lesson or another. The holistic approach to traditional
African
education preaches the doctrine of multiple learning"
(Omolewa 1981,
p. 21). Odora (1994, p. 84) illustrates this vividly with what
happens
amongst the Acholi of Uganda, where "in teaching a child how
to build a
house, the child would simultaneously learn about the
selection, strategic
location, soil types, grass types, wood types including their
resistance to
ants, etc. The girl learning to cook would learn simultaneously
serving, vege
table types, preparatory procedures, the general welfare system,
fuel wood
types, etc."
The holistic approach as a strategy for teaching and learning is
valid
because the learner is liberated from the authoritarianism of the
teacher, the
curriculum and the institution. The learner, through this
approach is free to

develop self-discipline, engage in self-directed learning and
self-fulfilment.
Learners share their personal experiences and views relating to
the themes of
the discourse - history, culture, environment and health. They
are encour
aged to build self-esteem and to ensure that new information is
placed in a
familiar context. Ideas are exchanged in an environment of
open-mindedness
and willingness to listen, with an emphasis on what the
different ethnic,
religious and national groups can learn from one another
(Dzobo 1975,
pp. 85-86).
Learning by integrating theory and practice
Learning by integrating theory and practice addresses
interdisciplinary explo
rations of how traditional Africans know what they want to
know with
regard to modes of inquiry in the arts, humanities, social
sciences and
sciences and their application in their day-to-day lives. It
addresses how
people learn from the past and identifies current approaches for
critical
thinking in their respective endeavours. It gives learners the
opportunity to
assess their learning, and reflect upon that learning in
relationship to current
and future practice, and toward the development of their future
careers.
Learners have to complete some practical tasks such as

medicinal plant
identification, construction of a material object relevant to
his/her ethnic
group, performance of a traditional song, performance of a
dance and/or
drum routine, and preparation of a local dish. In addition, they
should
2017 22:04:37 UTC
explain their cultural significance. These tasks must be carried
out to the
satisfaction of community elders.
Learning through traditional African science and technology
Africa has a relatively rich body of related science and
technologies. This is
embodied in the continent's cultural and ecological diversities
and has been
used by the African people for thousands of years to solve
specific develop
mental and environmental problems. Traditional education and
technologies
play major roles in biodiversity conservation, sustainable use
and prospect
ing. In addition, their contributions to increasing food
production, fighting
HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and stemming environmental

degradation are
considerable.
African leaders have recognised and stressed the importance of
protecting
and promoting traditional education and technologies to solve
specific prob
lems and improve the continent's economies. Paragraphs 140
and 141 of the
New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
framework document
are devoted to the protection and promotion of traditional
education and
related technological innovations. Paragraph 140 states:
"Culture is an inte
gral part of development efforts of the continent. Consequently,
Africans
protect and effectively utilise traditional education to share this
knowledge
for their benefits".
In Africa, there exists traditional indigenous knowledge related
to the
health of humans and animals. In Uganda, for instance,
traditional healers
and herbal plant remedies play an important role in the health
of millions of
people. Africa as a whole has a long and impressive list of
medicinal plants
based on local knowledge. African health practitioners are
devoted to teach
ing individuals how to improve their physical, mental and
spiritual health
through traditional knowledge. Seldom documented, African
traditional

knowledge in health care is passed orally from generation to
generation.
The African Traditional "Herbal Research Clinic" is a modern
clinic
facility located in Bukoto in Uganda. It was created to establish
a model
space, whereby traditional herbal practitioners and healers can
upgrade and
update their skills through training and certification and learn
to respond to
common and uncommon diseases using African healing
methods and tradi
tions in a modern clinical environment. Their knowledge has
been passed on
by oral tradition.
In Kenya, there exists traditional indigenous knowledge related
to the
organic farming movement, which actively engages several
groups including
non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These include the
Kenya Institute
of Organic Farming (KIOF), Manor House Agricultural Centre
(MHAC),
the Association for Better Land Husbandry (ABLH), the
Sustainable
Agriculture Community Development Programme (SACDEP)
and the
Kenya Organic Farmers Association (KOFA). These
organisations have
formed networks that provide training and information to
numerous allied
2017 22:04:37 UTC

606 Michael Omolewa
grassroots groups but some are also involved in production,
processing and
marketing. To some extent, these NGOs have established
geographic
domains where they advocate organic agriculture in their
respective part of
the country (Kenya Institute of Organic Farming [KIOF] 1990;
Kenya
Organic Farmers Association [KOFA] 2002).
Organic agriculture in Kenya, which calls on old ways of
farming to help
inform new kinds of agriculture, has contributed immensely to
the under
standing of traditional ways of knowing and the conflictual
nature of its
co-existence with colonial or subjugated knowledge systems.
This practice of
farming prohibits the use of manufactured chemical inputs to
crop and live
stock production in favour of naturally occurring products and
biological
processes. By far the bulk of organic farmers' knowledge is
orally transmit
ted, through workshop presentations, mentoring programmes,
farm tours,
kitchen-table meetings and one-on-one conversations.
Using African traditional modes of education to contextualise
teaching

and learning in today's classrooms
There is the need for contextualisation of teaching and learning
to strength
en and develop the links between the learning environments of
school, home
and community. This can be achieved by building on the
learner's experience
from outside the school and providing additional experience
within the
school programme. This process is enhanced using the different
African
traditional modes of education, which allow learners to
integrate their own
learning experiences with the school programme. Agriculture,
health and
indigenous science and technology may act as a unifying theme
in order to
achieve this.
Curriculum planners therefore need to understand and
appreciate varia
tions in "local knowledge" by identifying unifying themes,
which can
provide a direct link to the experience of most, if not all of the
learners in a
particular area, and can be readily adapted through
participative processes
to fit each local situation. Examples of countries where an
integrated
approach to curriculum development has been carried out in
Africa and
which in some cases have involved the contextualisation of
teaching and
learning, include Cameroon, Ethiopia and Zambia.

In Cameroon, Bude (1985) observes that primary schools in the
Anglo
phone region have, since the 1960s, attempted to use the local
environment
for the development of cognitive abilities, and also as the
animation centre
for community development. In addition to using locally
relevant experience,
schools have also forged and developed strong links with their
local commu
nities by supplying various services, for example agricultural
advice to
farmers.
In Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Institute of Curriculum Development
and
Research (ICDR) described the development and trial of the
"general
2017 22:04:37 UTC
polytechnic curriculum" in 70 pilot primary schools (ICDR
1993). The use
of local, agricultural examples to facilitate learning in
mathematics provides
an illustration of this. This innovation, however, is no longer in
operation
under present government policy. In another development in
Ethiopia there
is the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) where learners

are made to
see the world holistically, thus making meaning of their
surroundings
through appropriate connections (PEAP 1996). Learning takes
place through
the introduction of new information that meets the prior
knowledge and
experiences of the learners. Learners come to school with
knowledge from
their homes, friends, environments, radio, etc. This knowledge
is not neces
sarily broken up into maths, mother tongue, natural science,
social studies,
etc. They come with knowledge and experiences that have
meaning to them.
Chelu and Mbulwe (1994) describe the Self-Help Action Plan
for Educa
tion (SHAPE) in Zambia. One of the main aims of the
programme is to
improve the quality and relevance of education. The
programme has tried to
improve and strengthen certain types of learning relating
science, mathematics
and languages more to the local environment; developing a
wider variety of
skills, e.g. literacy, numeracy as well as practical problem-
solving skills, etc.
Learners are made to develop individual potentialities, e.g.
initiative, respon
sibility, creativity; developing positive attitudes, e.g. towards
work, local cul
tural traditions, preservation of natural resources; developing a
healthy
balance of learning and working to suit individual interests and
future needs

in order to achieve quality and relevance.
The examples of contextualisation for teaching and learning
described
above have implications for the school curriculum. The school
will need to
contribute towards deepening or fostering the apprehension of
the cultural
environment by endorsing its values for the socialisation
process and thus by
integrating cultural manifestations into the learning contents
(Bude 1985).
Eisemon (1989) is of the view that the content of agricultural
instruction and
its articulation with instruction in modern science is
particularly important.
Also important is connecting instruction in modern science and
modern agri
culture to indigenous knowledge systems, building upon the
knowledge and
skills learners possess from social experience. Duit (1991)
opines that, since
learning is an active construction process and can only take
place based on
previously acquired knowledge, learning has to do with
constructing similari
ties between the new and the already known.
Riedmiller and Mades (1991) are of the opinion that the
handling of regu
lar school subjects should be localised, by relating the topics of
the separate
subject syllabi to the local environment. In this way, the
subject is the point
of origin; the environment then functions as a teaching aid to

illustrate aca
demic themes and to serve as a practical ground for applying
the acquired
knowledge and skills. In order to accomplish the art of utilising
experience
as a means of contextualising in teaching and learning, there is
the need to
find ways of supporting teachers, both materially and
psychologically, to
2017 22:04:37 UTC
608 Michael Omolewa
enable and encourage them to develop new strategies and
approaches that
will facilitate the use of contextualisation in the classroom.
Conclusion
In conclusion, perhaps the best way to preserve traditional
education would
be to integrate it into the school curriculum. In teaching any
school subject
therefore, it is wise to start with the knowledge about the local
area, which
students are familiar with, and then gradually move to the
knowledge about
regional, national and global environments. This essentially
follows the
philosophy of embarking on teaching and learning "from the
known to the

unknown", which could be adopted if education is to be
effective. In most
societies, indigenous people have developed enormous volumes
of knowledge
over the centuries about different subject matters especially in
the areas of
informal and vocational training, which constitute the core of
indigenous
education in Africa. Under this traditional system, each person
in the com
munity is practically trained and prepared for his/her role in
society. It is a
holistic system, in which story telling, proverbs and myths also
play an
important role.
There is the need for the adoption of some of the elements of
this system
into modern-day educational practice as a strategy for
improving quality.
For example, it has been established that the indigenous
community is a rich
source of storytellers. Indigenous stories are therefore a
culturally and envi
ronmentally rich resource for teaching. To this end, schools
could devise the
strategies of using stories as teaching methods and categorising
them accord
ing to a range of themes in different subject areas. In doing
this, different
schools would need to consult and work together with
indigenous people
(local elders, parents, nurses, doctors, monks, nuns, priests and
other mem
bers of the community) by inviting them as guest storytellers or
co-teachers

to class to tell their stories - or to sing, act, dance, perform
puppetry, etc.
while developing the curriculum. This would encourage
learners to learn
from them and to appreciate and respect their knowledge. Such
a relation
ship between young and older generations could help to
mitigate the genera
tion gap and help develop intergenerational harmony. The
integration of
traditional education into school curriculum would thus enable
schools to
act as agencies for transferring the culture of the society from
one generation
to the next and to explore the benefits of linking the learning
process more
closely to learners' everyday experience in order to help them
to make better
sense of what they learn.
While the integration of indigenous knowledge into formal
education
offers many advantages, attempts to do so may encounter
difficulties and
challenges like the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) of South
Africa, which
stipulates the knowledge, skills, values and/or attitudes that an
individual is
expected to demonstrate in a given learning situation at the end
of each
2017 22:04:37 UTC

learning process. The teacher's role might have to change from
being a
transmitter of knowledge to a mediator and facilitator of
learning. The
expectation for the student would need to change from a
passive receiver of
knowledge to an autonomous learner, reflective thinker and
problem solver,
who is actively involved in his/her own learning and
construction of knowl
edge. Indigenous knowledge which is increasingly disappearing
with the
death of older people who are the bearers of such knowledge
needs to be
collected, documented and made readily available for teachers.
It must be emphasised at this juncture that the author is aware
that the
politics of curriculum development are complex and few
African governments
have taken the trouble to overcome sectarian (religious) or
ethnic conflicts
that hamper such curriculum enterprises. However, for many
African govern
ments, this issue is better left alone than confronted despite its
advantages.
Whatever position may be canvassed by African governments
on this impor
tant issue, we cannot run away, out of convenience, from
addressing the adop
tion of some of the elements of the indigenous system into
modern-day

educational practice as a strategy for improving quality. This
should be tack
led in a creative manner especially in this increasingly
globalised world with its
threat to cultural identities. We should seek to understand it,
expand our
views and practices, and not just discount it in favour of what
we have always
done before. African governments may have to take the
important subject at
the policy level, especially at this time when there is a call for
an African
renaissance and sustainable development. African people
should not be intimi
dated by the argument about the complexity of this challenge
but must
confront the subject as a priority for survival in this
increasingly global world.
Acknowledgement
I wish to thank Professor Thomas Fasokun for his invaluable
assistance,
and the anonymous reviewers of the early draft of this article,
for their con
tribution to this final version.
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The author
Michael Omolewa, currently Ambassador and Permanent
Delegate of Nigeria
to UNESCO, in Paris, is Professor of the History of Adult
Education, and
formerly Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of
Ibadan,
Nigeria, and Life Patron of the History of Education Society of
Nigeria. He
received his education at the Department of History of the
University of
Ibadan, the Institute of Historical Research, University of
London, the Faculty
of Education, King's College London, and the Faculty of
Education, the
University of British Columbia, Canada. He has published in
the Journal of
Educational Administration and History, the British Journal of
Educational
Studies, the International Journal of African Historical Studies,
the Paedagogika
Hist?rica: the International Journal of the History of Education,
the West
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612 Michael Omolewa
African Journal of Education, the Journal of the Historical
Society of Nigeria,
the Journal of African American History, and in this Journal.
Contact Address: Nigerian Permanent Delegation to UNESCO,
1 rue
Miollis, Paris 75015, France. E-mail: [email protected]
2017 22:04:37 UTC
Contents[593]59459559659759859960060160260360460560660
7608609610611612Issue Table of ContentsInternational Review
of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für
Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education,
Vol. 53, No. 5/6, Quality Education in Africa: Challenges and
Prospects (Nov., 2007), pp. A1-A6, 473-723Front
MatterIntroduction: Quality Education in Africa: International
Commitments, Local Challenges and Responses [pp. 473-
483]Education Quality: The Disabilities of Aid [pp. 485-
507]Language of Instruction and Student Performance: New
Insights from Research in Tanzania and South Africa [pp. 509-
530]Pedagogical Renewal for Quality Universal Primary
Education: Overview of Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa [pp. 531-
553]Réformes des programmes scolaires et acquisitions á l'école
primaire en Afrique: Mythes et réalités [pp. 555-575]Integrating
Western and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: The Basis for
Effective Science Education in South Africa? [pp. 577-
591]Traditional African Modes of Education: Their Relevance
in the Modern World [pp. 593-612]Décentralisation de
l'éducation en Afrique francophone de l'Ouest: Réalités et défis
au niveau local [pp. 613-638]Whose Reality Counts? Local

Educators as Researchers on the Quality of Primary Education
[pp. 639-663]Qualité de l'éducation en Afrique: Le rôle
potentiel des TIC [pp. 665-686]The Challenge of Increasing
Access and Improving Quality: An Analysis of Universal
Primary Education Interventions in Kenya and Tanzania since
the 1970s [pp. 687-699]Parental and Community Participation
in Improving Educational Quality in Africa: Current Practices
and Future Possibilities [pp. 701-708]Transforming School
Supervision into a Tool for Quality Improvement [pp. 709-
714]Promoting Quality Education in Refugee Contexts:
Supporting Teacher Development in Northern Ethiopia [pp. 715-
723]Back Matter
The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades
Author(s): Nathan Nunn
Source: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 123, No. 1
(Feb., 2008), pp. 139-176
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098896
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to The Quarterly Journal of Economics
2017 22:05:44 UTC
THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF AFRICA'S SLAVE
TRADES*
Nathan Nunn
Can part of Africa's current underdevelopment be explained by
its slave
trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping
records and histori
cal documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates
of the number
of slaves exported from each country during Africa's slave
trades. I find a robust
negative relationship between the number of slaves exported
from a country and
current economic performance. To better understand if the
relationship is causal,
I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave
trades and use in
strumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the
slave trades had an

adverse effect on economic development.
I. INTRODUCTION
Africa's economic performance in the second half of the twen
tieth century has been poor. One, often informal, explanation
for
Africa's underdevelopment is its history of extraction,
character
ized by two events: the slave trades and colonialism. Bairoch
(1993, p. 8) writes that "there is no doubt that a large number
of negative structural features of the process of economic under
development have historical roots going back to European col
onization." Manning (1990, p. 124) echoes Bairoch but focuses
on the slave trades, writing, "Slavery was corruption: it
involved
theft, bribery, and exercise of brute force as well as ruses.
Slavery
thus may be seen as one source of precolonial origins for
modern
corruption."
Recent empirical studies suggest that Africa's history can
explain part of its current underdevelopment. These studies fo
cus on the link between countries' colonial experience and cur
rent economic development (Grier 1999; Englebert 2000a,
2000b;
* A previous version of this paper was circulated under the title
"Slavery, Insti
tutional Development, and Long-Run Growth in Africa." I am
grateful to the editor,
Edward Glaeser, and three anonymous referees for comments
that substantially
improved this paper. I also thank Daron Acemoglu, Robert
Bates, Albert Berry,

Loren Brandt, Jon Cohen, Bill Easterly, Stanley Engerman,
Azim Essaji, Joseph
Inikori, Martin Klein, Pat Manning, Ted Miguel, Jim Robinson,
Aloysius Siow, Ken
Sokoloff, Dan Trefler, Chris Udry, Jeffrey Williamson, and
seminar participants
at the University of British Columbia, the University of
California Los Angeles,
the University of California San Diego, Harvard University, the
University of
Michigan, New York University, Pennsylvania State
University, the University of
Rochester, the University of Southern California, the
University of Toronto, York
University, the CIFAR, the SED Conference, the CEA
Meetings, the SSHA Meet
ings, the ITAM Summer Camp in Macroeconomics, the IEHC,
the NBER, and the
WGAPE meetings for valuable comments and suggestions. I
thank Maira Avila
and Ken Jackson for excellent research assistance.
? 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2008
139
2017 22:05:44 UTC

140 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001, 2002; Bertocchi and
Canova 2002; Lange 2004). However, the other important event
in Africa's history, its slave trades, has yet to be examined
empir
ically. There are reasons to expect that the slave trades may
have
been at least as important as official colonial rule for Africa's
de
velopment. For a period of nearly 500 years, from 1400 to
1900, the
African continent simultaneously experienced four slave trades.
By comparison, official colonial rule lasted from 1885 to about
1960, a total of approximately 75 years.
This paper provides the first empirical examination of the im
portance of Africa's slave trades in shaping subsequent
economic
development. In doing this, I construct measures of the number
of slaves exported from each country in Africa in each century
be
tween 1400 and 1900. The estimates are constructed by combin
ing data from ship records on the number of slaves shipped
from
each African port or region with data from a variety of histori
cal documents that report the ethnic identities of slaves that
were
shipped from Africa. I find a robust negative relationship
between
the number of slaves exported from each country and
subsequent
economic performance. The African countries that are the
poorest
today are the ones from which the most slaves were taken.

This finding cannot be taken as conclusive evidence that the
slave trades caused differences in subsequent economic develop
ment. An alternative explanation that is just as plausible is that
countries that were initially the most economically and socially
underdeveloped selected into the slave trades, and these
countries
continue to be the most underdeveloped today. In other words,
the
slave trades may be correlated with unobserved country charac
teristics, resulting in biased estimates of the effect of the slave
trades on economic development.
I pursue a number of strategies to better understand the rea
son behind the relationship between slave exports and current
economic performance. First, I review the evidence from
African
historians on the nature of selection into the slave trades. I also
use historic data on pre-slave trade population densities to
exam
ine whether it was the less developed parts of Africa that
selected
into the slave trades. Both sources of evidence show that it was
actually the most developed areas of Africa that tended to
select
into the slave trades. I discuss the reason behind this seemingly
paradoxical relationship in detail. Second, I use instruments to
estimate the causal effect of the slave trades on subsequent eco
nomic development. The instruments are the sailing distances
2017 22:05:44 UTC

THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF AFRICA'S SLAVE TRADES
141
from each country to the nearest locations of demand for slave
labor in each of the four slave trades. Like the OLS
coefficients,
the IV coefficients are negative and significant, suggesting that
increased extraction during the slave trades caused worse subse
quent economic performance.
I then explore the precise channel of causality underlying the
relationship between slave exports and economic development.
Using historical evidence as a guide, I examine whether the pro
curement of slaves through internal warfare, raiding, and
kidnap
ping resulted in subsequent state collapse and ethnic fractional
ization. I find that the data are consistent with these channels.
These findings complement the research of Engerman and
Sokoloff (1997, 2002), which shows that slavery in the New
World
resulted in the evolution of institutions that were not conducive
to economic growth.1 My results show that not only was the
use of
slaves detrimental for a society, but the production of slaves,
which
occurred through domestic warfare, raiding, and kidnapping,
also
had negative impacts on subsequent development.
The paper is structured as follows. In the following section, I
provide a description of Africa's slave trades, providing a
detailed
historical overview of the manner in which slaves were
procured
and the resulting adverse effects. In Section III, I describe the

construction of the slave export figures. Section IV documents
the correlations that exist in the data, and Section V turns to
the issue of causality. In Section VI, guided by the historical
evi
dence, I examine the potential channels of causality. Section
VII
concludes.
II. Historical Background
Between 1400 and 1900, the African continent experienced
four simultaneous slave trades. The largest and most well-
known
is the trans-Atlantic slave trade where, beginning in the
fifteenth
century, slaves were shipped from West Africa, West-Central
Africa, and Eastern Africa to the European colonies in the New
World. The three other slave trades?the trans-Saharan, Red
Sea,
and Indian Ocean slave trades?were much older and pre-dated
the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During the trans-Saharan slave
trade, slaves were taken from south of the Saharan desert to
1. Also see Lagerlof (2005) and Mitchener and McLean (2003)
for related
evidence.
2017 22:05:44 UTC
Northern Africa. In the Red Sea slave trade, slaves were taken

from inland of the Red Sea and shipped to the Middle East and
India. In the Indian Ocean slave trade, slaves were taken from
Eastern Africa and shipped either to the Middle East and India
or to plantation islands in the Indian Ocean.
A number of characteristics of Africa's slave trades make
them distinct from previous slave trades. First, the total volume
of slaves traded was unprecedented. During the trans-Atlantic
slave trade alone, approximately 12 million slaves were
exported
from Africa. Another 6 million were exported in the other three
slave trades. These figures do not include those who were
killed
during the raids or those who died on their journey to the coast.
The total effect of the slave trades, according to calculations by
Patrick Manning (1990, p. 171), was that by 1850 Africa's
popula
tion was only half of what it would have been had the slave
trades
not taken place.
Africa's slave trades were also unique because, unlike pre
vious slave trades, individuals of the same or similar
ethnicities
enslaved one another. This had particularly detrimental conse
quences, including social and ethnic fragmentation, political in
stability and a weakening of states, and the corruption of
judicial
institutions.
The most common manner in which slaves were taken was
through villages or states raiding one another (Northrup 1978;
Lovejoy 1994). Where groups of villages had previously
developed
into larger-scale village federations, relations between the
villages

tended to turn hostile (e.g., Azevedo 1982; Inikori 2000;
Hubbell
2001). As a result, ties between villages were weakened, which
in
turn impeded the formation of larger communities and broader
ethnic identities. Kusimba (2004, p. 66) writes that "insecurity
confined people within ethnic boundaries constructing spheres
of
interaction." Because of this process, the slave trades may be
an
important factor explaining Africa's high level of ethnic
fraction
alization today. This is significant for economic development
given
the established relationship between ethnic fractionalization
and
long-term economic growth (Easterly and Levine 1997).
Because of the environment of uncertainty and insecurity
at the time, individuals required weapons, such as iron knives,
spears, swords or firearms, to defend themselves. These
weapons
could be obtained from Europeans in exchange for slaves, who
were often obtained through local kidnappings. This further
perpetuated the slave trade and the insecurity that it caused,
2017 22:05:44 UTC
143
which in turn further increased the need to enslave others to

protect oneself (Mahadi 1992; Hawthorne 1999, pp. 108-109).
Historians have named this vicious cycle the "gun-slave cycle"
(e.g., Lovejoy 2000) or the "iron-slave cycle" (e.g., Hawthorne
2003). The result of this vicious cycle was not only that
communi
ties raided other communities for slaves, but also that members
of
a community raided and kidnapped others within the
community.
Well-documented examples come from the Balanta of modern
day
Guinea-Bissau, the Minyanka of modern day Mali (Klein
2001),
and the Makua, Chikunda, and Yao of East Central Africa
(Alpers
1969, pp. 413-414,1975, p. 225; Isaacman 1989, pp. 191-
192,196).
Generally, the consequence of internal conflict was increased
political instability and in many cases the collapse of preexist
ing forms of government (Lovejoy 2000, pp. 68-70). In
sixteenth
century northern Senegambia, the Portuguese slave trade was a
key factor leading to the eventual disintegration of the Joloff
Con
federation, which was replaced by the much smaller kingdoms
of
Waalo, Kajoor, Baol, Siin, and Saalum. Further south, in south
ern Senegambia, the same pattern is observed. Prior to the
slave
trades, complex state systems were in the process of evolving.
However, this evolution stagnated soon after the arrival of the
Portuguese in the 15th century (Barry 1998, pp. 36-59). Simi
lar patterns of instability have also been documented in East

ern Africa (e.g., Isaacman [1989]; Mbajedwe [2000]). In the
late
19th century, the slave trades resulted in the disintegration of
the
Shambaa kingdom, the Gweno kingdom, and the Pare states in
East Africa's Pangani valley (Kimambo 1989, p. 247;
Mbajedwe
2000, pp. 341-342).
The most dramatic example may be the Kongo kingdom of
West-Central Africa. As early as 1514, the kidnapping of lo
cal Kongo citizens for sale to the Portuguese had become ram
pant, threatening social order and the King's authority. In 1526,
Affonso, king of Kongo, wrote to Portugal complaining that
"there
are many traders in all corners of the country. They bring ruin
to
the country. Every day people are enslaved and kidnapped,
even
nobles, even members of the king's own family" (Vansina 1966,
p. 52). This break-down of law and order was partly
responsible
for the weakening and eventual fall of the once powerful state
(Inikori 2003). For many of the other Bantu-speaking
ethnicities,
stable states also existed in earlier periods, but by the time the
slave trades were brought to an end, few ancient states
remained
(Colson 1969, pp. 36-37).
2017 22:05:44 UTC

Preexisting governance structures were generally replaced by
small bands of slave raiders, controlled by an established ruler
or
warlord. However, these bands were generally unable to
develop
into large, stable states. Colson (1969, p. 35) writes that "both
the bands and the new states they created retained an air of
improvisation. Few band leaders were able to hand power to a
legitimate successor. Even where a band leader had become the
ruler of a state, succession remained a problem. Leadership was
a personal role, rather than an established office."
The slave trades also contributed to political instability by
causing the corruption of previously established legal
structures.
In many cases, it became common to obtain slaves by falsely ac
cusing others of witchcraft or other crimes (Koelle 1854;
Northrup
1978; Lovejoy 2000). Klein (2001, p. 59) writes that
"communities
began enslaving their own. Judicial penalties that formerly had
taken the form of beatings, payment of compensation or exile,
for example, were now converted to enslavement." Often,
leaders
themselves supported or even instigated this abuse of the judi
cial system (Mahadi 1992; Hawthorne 1999, 2003; Klein 2001).
To protect themselves and their communities from being
raided,
leaders often chose to pay slaves as tribute, which were often
obtained through the judicial system. Hawthorne (1999, 2003)
provides detailed studies of this process among the Cassanga of
modern day Guinea Bissau. The chief of the Cassanga used the
"red water ordeal" to procure slaves and their possessions.
Those

accused of a crime were forced to drink a poisonous red liquid.
If
they vomited, then they were judged to be guilty. If they did
not
vomit, they were deemed not guilty. However, for those that
did
not vomit this usually brought death by poisoning. Their posses
sions were then seized and their family members were sold into
slavery.
Evidence from research showing a relationship between a
country's history of state development and subsequent
economic
performance suggests that these effects of the slave trades may
be
important for current economic development (Bockstette,
Chanda,
and Putterman 2002; Chanda and Putterman 2005). Others have
argued that Africa's underdevelopment is a direct result of state
failure, which stems from Africa's weak and unstable
precolonial
political structures (Herbst 1997, 2000). Because Africa's slave
trades were an important factor affecting political
underdevelop
ment, they may be a central reason behind Africa's weak states
today.
2017 22:05:44 UTC
145

III. Slave Export Data
Because I am interested in examining the effects of the slave
trades that resulted because of the procurement of slaves, my
measure of interest is the total number of slaves taken from
each country during the four slave trades between 1400 and
1900.2
I use two types of data to construct the slave export esti
mates. The first are data that report the total number of slaves
exported from each port or region in Africa. I refer to these as
ship
ping data. For the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the data are from
the updated version of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
constructed by Eltis et al. (1999). The database records informa
tion for 34,584 voyages from 1514 to 1866. The shipping data
are
originally from various documents and records located around
the world. Because, in most European ports, merchants were re
quired to register their ships and declare the volume and value
of
goods transported for each ship and voyage, typically, there
exists
a number of different registers and documents. In the database,
77% of the trans-Atlantic slave voyages after 1700 have
shipping
information from more than one source; the average number of
sources for each voyage is six. It is estimated that the database
contains 82% of all trans-Atlantic slaving voyages ever
attempted
(Eltis and Richardson 2006).
Data for the early period of the Atlantic slave trade not cov
ered by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database are from Elbl
(1997). For the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and trans-Saharan slave
trades, data are from Austen (1979, 1988, 1992). The data are

based on estimates from all available documents, records, and
ac
counts by observers and government officials on the location
and
volume of slave exports.
With the shipping data one can calculate the number of slaves
that were shipped from each coastal country. However, this
does
not give an accurate indication of where slaves were originally
captured. Slaves shipped from the ports of a coastal country
may
have come from a country located further inland. To estimate
the
number of slaves shipped from the coast that came from inland
countries, I also use a second source of data that reports the
ethnic
identity of slaves shipped from Africa. This information comes
from a variety of sources, such as records of sale, slave
registers,
2. Ideally, I would also like to include people that entered into
local domestic
slavery. However, the necessary data to construct these
estimates do not exist.
2017 22:05:44 UTC
slave runaway notices, court records, church records, and
notarial

documents.
There were a number of ways of identifying the ethnicity
or "nation" of a slave. The easiest was often by a slave's name.
Slaves were often given a Christian first name and a surname
that identified their ethnicity (e.g., Tardieu [2001]). As well, a
slave's ethnicity could often be determined from ethnic
markings,
such as cuts, scars, hairstyles, or the filing of teeth (Karasch
1987,
pp. 4-9). Oldendorp (1777, p. 169) writes that "the people of all
Negro nations are marked with certain cuts on the skin. As far
as I have been able to learn from the Negroes themselves, these
serve to distinguish one nation from another."
Because slaves were legally defined as property, those en
gaged in the buying and selling of slaves had a strong incentive
to
correctly identify the birthplace or "nation" of slaves (Wax
1973).
Moreno Fraginals (1977, p. 190) writes that "the slave trade
was
the business that involved the greatest amount of capital invest
ment in the world during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
And a business of this size would never have kept up a
classifica
tory scheme had it not been meaningful (in overall general
terms,
in keeping with reality) in designating in a very precise way
the
merchandise that was being traded."
Information on the ethnicities of slaves shipped during the

trans-Atlantic slave trade come from 54 different samples, to
talling 80,656 slaves, with 229 distinct ethnic designations re
ported. Table I summarizes information about the samples used
in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The table reports the location,
the years covered, the number of slaves, and the number of eth
nicities that could be identified for each sample. Similar tables
for
the other three slave trades are reported in Nunn (2007).
The ethnicity data for the Indian Ocean slave trade come
from six samples, with a total of 21,048 slaves and 80 different
ethnicities reported. The data for the Red Sea slave trade are
from
two samples: one from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, and the other from
Bombay, India. The samples provide information for 67 slaves,
with 32 different reported ethnicities. For the trans-Saharan
slave
trade two samples are available: one from central Sudan and
the
other from western Sudan. The samples provide information on
the origins of 5,385 slaves, with 23 different ethnicities
recorded.
The shipping data from Austen (1992) also provide additional
information on which caravan slaves were shipped on, the city
or town that the caravan originated in, the destination of the
2017 22:05:44 UTC
147

TABLE I
Slave Ethnicity Data for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Num. Num.
Location Years ethnic. obs. Record type
Valencia, Spain 1482-1516 77 2,675 Crown records
Puebla, Mexico 1540-1556 14 115 Notarial records
Dominican Republic 1547-1591 26 22 Records of sale
Peru 1548-1560 16 202 Records of sale
Mexico 1549 12 80 Plantation accounts
Peru 1560-1650 30 6,754 Notarial records
Lima, Peru 1583-1589 15 288 Baptism records
Colombia 1589-1607 9 19 Various records
Mexico 1600-1699 28 102 Records of sale
Dominican Republic 1610-1696 33 55 Government records
Chile 1615 6 141 Sales records
Lima, Peru 1630-1702 33 409 Parish records
Peru (Rural) 1632 25 307 Parish records
Lima, Peru 1640-1680 33 936 Marriage records
Colombia 1635-1695 6 17 Slave inventories
Guyane (French Guiana) 1690 12 69 Plantation records
Colombia 1716-1725 33 59 Government records
French Louisiana 1717-1769 23 223 Notarial records
Dominican Republic 1717-1827 11 15 Government records
South Carolina 1732-1775 35 681 Runaway notices
Colombia 1738-1778 11 100 Various records
Spanish Louisiana 1770-1803 79 6,615 Notarial records
St. Dominique (Haiti) 1771-1791 25 5,413 Sugar plantations
Bahia, Brazil 1775-1815 14 581 Slave lists
St. Dominique (Haiti) 1778-1791 36 1,280 Coffee plantations
Guadeloupe 1788 8 45 Newspaper reports
St. Dominique (Haiti) 1788-1790 21 1,297 Fugitive slave lists

Cuba 1791-1840 59 3,093 Slave registers
St. Dominique (Haiti) 1796-1797 56 5,632 Plantation
inventories
American Louisiana 1804-1820 62 223 Notarial records
Salvador, Brazil 1808-1842 6 456 Records of manumission
Trinidad 1813 100 12,460 Slave registers
St. Lucia 1815 62 2,333 Slave registers
Bahia, Brazil 1816-1850 27 2,666 Slave lists
St. Kitts 1817 48 2,887 Slave registers
Senegal 1818 17 80 Captured slave ship
Berbice (Guyana) 1819 66 1,127 Slave registers
Salvador, Brazil 1819-1836 12 871 Manumission certificates
Salvador, Brazil 1820-1835 11 1,106 Probate records
Sierra Leone 1821-1824 68 605 Child registers
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1826-1837 31 772 Prison records
Anguilla 1827 7 51 Slave registers
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1830-1852 190 2,921 Free
africans'records
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1833-1849 35 476 Death certificates
2017 22:05:44 UTC
TABLE I
(continued)
Num. Num.
Location Years ethnic. obs. Record type
Salvador, Brazil 1835 13 275 Court records
Salvador, Brazil 1838-1848 7 202 Slave registers
St. Louis/Goree, 1843-1848 21 189 Emancipated slaves

Senegal
Bakel, Senegal 1846 16 73 Sales records
d'Agoue, Benin 1846-1885 11 70 Church records
Sierra Leone 1848 132 12,425 Linguistic and British
census
Salvador, Brazil 1851-1884 8 363 Records of manumission
Salvador, Brazil 1852-1888 7 269 Slave registers
Cape Verde 1856 32 314 Slave census
Kikoneh Island, 1896-1897 11 185 Fugitive slave records
Sierra Leone
caravan, and in some cases the ethnic identity of the slaves
being
shipped.
To illustrate how I combine the ethnicity data with the ship
ping data to construct my estimates I use an example, which is
shown in Figure I. The figure is a hypothetical map of the
western
coast of Africa, with each square representing a country.
From the shipping data, I first calculate the number of slaves
shipped from each coastal country in Africa. In this example
100,000 slaves were shipped from Country A and 250,000 were
shipped from Country C. The problem with relying on the ship
ping data alone is that many of slaves shipped from Country A
may
have come from Country B, which lies landlocked behind
Country
A. Then, using the ethnicity data, I calculate the ratio of slaves
from each coastal country relative to any landlocked countries
lo

cated inland of the coastal country. This requires that I map eth
nicities to countries and aggregate up to the country level. In
prac
tice, this step relied on a great amount of past research by
African
historians, linguists, and ethnographers. The sources most heav
ily used are Koelle (1854), Murdock (1959), Curtin (1969),
Higman
(1984), and Hall (2005).
Assume that the ratio of slaves from Country A relative to
Country B is 4 to 1. This ratio suggests that 20% of the slaves
shipped from Country A were actually from Country B. There
fore, the estimated number of slaves from Country B is 20,000
and from Country A is 80,000. Assume that the ratio of slaves
2017 22:05:44 UTC
149
T
AFRICA N Atlantic
Ocean
Figure I
An Artificial Map of the West Coast of Africa
Figure II
Ethnic Boundaries Defined by Murdock (1959) and Modern
Political Boundaries

2017 22:05:44 UTC
from Country C to D to E is 3 to 1 to 1. The same procedure
then yields an estimate of 150,000 slaves from Country C and
50,000 each from Countries D and E. In practice, these calcula
tions are performed separately for each slave trade. As well, be
cause slaves were increasingly taken from further inland as
each
slave trade progressed, the calculations are also performed sep
arately for each of the following time periods: 1400-1599, 1600
1699, 1700-1799, 1800-1900.3
Because ethnicities tended to be much smaller than coun
tries, the mapping of ethnicities into countries generally is not
problematic. This is illustrated in Figure II, which shows
African
ethnicities based on Murdock's (1959) classification, as well as
modern political boundaries. From the figure it is apparent that
ethnicities are much smaller than modern boundaries, and there
fore ethnicities generally map cleanly into one country.4
An important assumption in this procedure is that slaves
shipped from a port within a country are either from that
country
or from countries directly to the interior. However, in reality,
some
slaves shipped from a country's coast may have originated from
a
neighboring coastal country. In Nunn (2007), using three

samples
of slaves for which we know both the ethnicity of the slaves
and the
port that they were shipped from, I test the validity of this
assump
tion and the overall accuracy of the estimation procedure. I
find
that for each of the three samples my procedure correctly
identifies
the origins of between 83% and 98% of the slaves in the
samples.
A second source of measurement error arises because slaves
from the interior will tend to be underrepresented in the
ethnicity
samples. This is because only slaves who survived the voyage
outside of Africa are in the ethnicity samples. All else equal,
the
further inland a slave originated, the longer the journey was,
and
the more likely it was that he or she died along the way.
Because
the rates of mortality during the slave trades were extremely
high,
this form of measurement error may be significant.5 However,
as I
show formally in the Appendix, the undersampling of slaves
from
3. See Nunn (2007) for all of the finer details of the
construction procedure.
4. In instances where an ethnicity is located in more than one
country, I
map the ethnicity into the multiple countries using land area as
weights. This is

explained in detail in Nunn (2007).
5. Estimates of cross-Atlantic mortality rates ranged from 7%
to 20% depend
ing on the time period and the length of the voyage (Curtin
1969, pp. 275-286;
Lovejoy 2000, p. 63). Death rates during the trek to the coast
are known with less
certainty, but estimates range from 10% to 50% (Vansina 1990,
p. 218; Lovejoy
2000, pp. 63-64).
2017 22:05:44 UTC
151
the interior results in OLS estimates that are biased toward
zero.
As well, one can use instruments that are uncorrelated with the
measurement error to derive consistent estimates. I do this in
Section V.B.
After the data have been constructed, I have estimates of
the number of slaves shipped from each country in Africa
during
each of the four slave trades during four different time periods:
1400-1599, 1600-1699, 1700-1799, 1800-1900. Table II reports
the estimated total number of slaves exported from each coun
try, as well as the total disaggregated by slave trade. Overall,
the estimates are consistent with the general view among
African

historians of where the primary slaving areas were. During the
trans-Atlantic slave trade, slaves were taken in greatest
numbers
from the "Slave Coast" (Benin and Nigeria), West-Central
Africa
(Zaire, Congo, and Angola), and the "Gold Coast" (Ghana). All
of
these countries appear among the top exporting countries on
the
list. Ethiopia and Sudan are also among the top exporting coun
tries because they were the primary suppliers of slaves shipped
during the Red Sea and Saharan slave trades. The low number
of
slave exports from South Africa and Namibia confirms the view
of
African historians that these areas exported "virtually no
slaves"
(Manning 1983, p. 839). The relative magnitudes of exports
from
geographically close countries are also consistent with the
qualita
tive evidence from the African history literature. Manning
(1983,
p. 839) writes that "some adjoining regions were quite
dissimilar:
Togo exported few slaves and the Gold Coast many; Gabon ex
ported few slaves, and the Congo exported many." The
estimates
are consistent with Manning's observation. Exports from Togo
are
far less than from Ghana, and exports from Gabon are less than
from the Republic of Congo.
IV. Basic Correlations: OLS Estimates
I begin by examining the relationship between past slave ex

ports and current economic performance. I normalize the total
number of slaves taken from each country by its size, measured
by land area.6 Figure III shows the relationship between the nat
ural log of the number of slaves exported in all four slave
trades
6. Alternative measures of country size are also possible. As I
show in Table
A.2 in the Appendix, using the average population of a country
between 1400 and
1900 yields nearly identical results. Similarly, using arable
land area rather than
land area also yields essentially identical results.
2017 22:05:44 UTC
TABLE II
Estimated Total Slave Exports between 1400 and 1900 by
Country
Trans- Indian Trans- Red All slave
Isocode Country name Atlantic Ocean Saharan Sea trades
AGO Angola 3,607,020 0 0 0 3,607,020
NGA Nigeria 1,406,728 0 555,796 59,337 2,021,859
GHA Ghana 1,614,793 0 0 0 1,614,793
ETH Ethiopia 0 200 813,899 633,357 1,447,455
SDN Sudan 615 174 408,261 454,913 863,962
MLI Mali 331,748 0 509,950 0 841,697

ZAR Democratic 759,468 7,047 0 0 766,515
Republic of Congo
MOZ Mozambique 382,378 243,484 0 0 625,862
TZA Tanzania 10,834 523,992 0 0 534,826
TCD Chad 823 0 409,368 118,673 528,862
BEN Benin 456,583 0 0 0 456,583
SEN Senegal 278,195 0 98,731 0 376,926
GIN Guinea 350,149 0 0 0 350,149
TGO Togo 289,634 0 0 0 289,634
GNB Guinea-Bissau 180,752 0 0 0 180,752
BFA Burkina Faso 167,201 0 0 0 167,201
MRT Mauritania 417 0 164,017 0 164,434
MWI Malawi 88,061 37,370 0 0 125,431
MDG Madagascar 36,349 88,927 0 0 125,275
COG Congo 94,663 0 0 0 94,663
KEN Kenya 303 12,306 60,351 13,490 86,448
SLE Sierra Leone 69,607 0 0 0 69,607
CMR Cameroon 66,719 0 0 0 66,719
DZA Algeria 0 0 61,835 0 61,835
CIV Ivory Coast 52,646 0 0 0 52,646
SOM Somalia 0 229 26,194 5,855 32,277
ZMB Zambia 6,552 21,406 0 0 27,958
GAB Gabon 27,403 0 0 0 27,403
GMB Gambia 16,039 0 5,693 0 21,731
NER Niger 133 0 0 19,779 19,912

LBY Libya 0 0 8,848 0 8,848
LBR Liberia 6,790 0 0 0 6,790
UGA Uganda 900 3,654 0 0 4,554
ZAF South Africa 1,944 87 0 0 2,031
CAF Central African 2,010 0 0 0 2,010
Republic
EGY Egypt 0 0 1,492 0 1,492
ZWE Zimbabwe 554 536 0 0 1,089
NAM Namibia 191 0 0 0 191
BDI Burundi 0 87 0 0 87
GNQ Equatorial Guinea 11 0 0 0 11
DJI Djibouti 0 5 0 0 5
BWA Botswana 0 0 0 0 0
2017 22:05:44 UTC
153
TABLE II
(CONTINUED)
Trans- Indian Trans- Red All slave
Isocode Country name Atlantic Ocean Saharan Sea trades
CPV Cape Verde Islands 0 0 0 0 0
COM Comoros 0 0 0 0 0
LSO Lesotho 0 0 0 0 0
MUS Mauritius 0 0 0 0 0
MAR Morocco 0 0 0 0 0

RWA Rwanda 0 0 0 0 0
STP Sao Tome & Principe 0 0 0 0 0
SWZ Swaziland 0 0 0 0 0
SYC SeycheUes 0 0 0 0 0
TUN Tunisia 0 0 0 0 0
|g||^^
WKHM ***** :-.-**' w
HH Ai* ' ** **''
Figure III
Relationship between Log Slave Exports Normalized by Land
Area,
ln(exports/area), and Log Real Per Capita GDP in 2000, ny
between 1400 and 1900 normalized by land area and the natural
log of per capita GDP in 2000.7 As shown in the figure, a
negative
7. Because the natural log of zero is undefined, I take the
natural log of 0.1. As
I show in the Appendix, the results are robust to the omission
of these zero-export
countries.
2017 22:05:44 UTC
relationship between income and slave exports is apparent in

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