African participation in the slave trade

African participation in the slave trade Africans themselves played a role in the slave trade. The Africans that participated in the slave trade would sell their captive or prisoners of war to European buyers. [ 25 ] Selling captives or prisoners was common practice amongst Africans and Arabs during that era. The prisoners and captives that were sold were usually from neighboring or enemy ethnic groups. [ 31 ] These captive slaves were not considered as part of the ethnic group or 'tribe' and kings held no particular loyalty to them. At times, Kings and businessmen would sell the criminals in their society to the buyers so that they could no longer commit crimes in that area. Most other slaves were obtained from kidnappings, or through raids that occurred at gunpoint through joint ventures with the Europeans. [ 25 ] Some Africans Kings refused to sell any of their captives or criminals. King Jaja of Opobo refused to do business with the slavers completely. [ 31 ] For this, he was captured along with his people. Ashanti King Agyeman Prempeh (Ashanti king, b. 1872) also sacrificed his own freedom so that his people would not face collective slavery. [ 31 ]