AFRICAN SLAVE RAIDS, CONTROLLED VIOLENCE

THEY DESTROY SOME PRODUCTION,

SEIZE A LIMITED NUMBER OF CAPTIVES...

AND STRENGTHEN THE STATUS QUO

Capturing too many slaves would lower their price. 

Then local producers would acquire them,

and increase their labor force, revenues and menace  

This page summarizes the description of warfare in Aubin,
Wars of  lineage and  and wars of state in Africa ,1982, 487-90, in French

Awful proof of the limit placed on slave capture:
The Bornu army (in Northern Nigeria) 

kills adult male prisoners by chopping off a leg 

-- In the description Heinrich Barth,
an explorer who accompanies the expedition:
Narrative of a voyage in North and Central Africa, 1855, II, 324-86

Northern Nigeria, Internet

The king's horsemen emphasize his glory -- and disperse his revenues.

• Efficiency
-- and so the number of captures --

is braked by...

° Crowds of civilians accompanying armies,
who make rapid movement and manoeuvers impossible 

In parts of Mali, Northern Nigeria, Chad, Darfur and Ethiopia, much of the capitals' population join the campaigns.

Bivouacs are organized to represent palace, capital and kingdom, or the head, hands and feet of the king.

  -- Aubin, 487; references, n.198

° Attacking villages from one side only

In Cayor (Senegal) that practice keeps most of the victims' harvest from being trampled, and lets villagers flee. 

 -- F. Carrère et P. Jolle, De la Senégambie française, 1855, 70

	° Using ritual to slow things down  The Ashanti consider only one day in three propitious for war. They halt an advance that threatens the English, so as not to fight on an unfavorable day.  -- Emmanuel Terray, "La captivité dans le royaume abron du Gyaman" in L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale, ed. Claude Meillassoux, 1975, 325  In Senegambia, adversaries advance "in a kind of parade," shoot and retire to reload, each in turn. -- Carrère and Jolle, 70
° Employing horses for prestige, show --  and flight

They let nobles exhibit sumptuous accoutrements, perform individual exploits and tower over commoners. But they are not used for rapid advance or to surround and annihilate the enemy.  

If the leader is captured or killed, riders bolt.

Should victory matter, horsemen may fight on foot -- when Galla (in Ethiopia) are ordered to dismount, "they fought desperately for their lives" and win; Mossi (in Burkina Faso) they come to the battlefield riding asses, three fighters to an ass, dismount and win.

-- James Bruce, Travels to discover the source of the Nile, 1791, III, 233;

 Dakar archives, 1892;

More examples in Aubin 486, n. 197

Voyage au Soudan français, 1879-81 by the Commandant Galliéni, Paris, 1885: 127

The fete contrasts the wild cavalry charge with foot soldiers' discipline.

° Using firearms to limit success

* The efficiency of traditional weapons

 amazes Europeans...

A hunter shoots five arrows in succession with such speed and precision that several appear to strike the target at the same time. 

-- H. Héquard in the Revue coloniale, 1852, 2nd series, IX, 342.

* ...who consider gun use absurd

Throwing stones would be more effective than shooting, and bullets do not pierce wooden shields or even European uniforms -- an officer is merely knocked down by a bullet shot at 20 meters.

-- Stones: Heinrich Barth, Travels and discoveries in North Central Africa, 1865 ed. II, 393;

-- Uniform: A. Raffenel, Voyage en Afrique occidentale, 1846, I, 28
Comments similar to this and to that above appear for the whole savannah belt
 until the end of the 19th century.

Aubin 487-9, n. 195-199

Like horses, firearms can be cast aside when victory counts -- in Nigeria, Oyo troops overcome those of Ibadan by throwing away their guns and charging with sabres.

-- Samuel Johnson, History of the Yoruba, 1924, 241

* The ineffective "trade guns" 
come from African demand

They are manufactured in Birmingham, specifically for the North American Indian and African markets. That choice does not come from Europeans but from local demand, which evolves when savannah economies become more commercial and the purpose of slave raids changes (from about 1870, please read on).  

The article mentions Indians' similar choice, without comment. 

* Muskets' smoke and fracas  

contribute to war as a ritual,

whose purpose is to keep things as they are

Raids must not succeed too well --

"We only want to keep you in your little corner."

-- Noble raiders to producers of crops for market in Mauretania toward 1790

in M. Lamiral, L'Afrique et le peuple africain, 1789, 85

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In France, warfare with comparable curbs