AFRICAN SLAVE RAIDS, CONTROLLED VIOLENCE

RAIDS DESTROY SOME PRODUCTION, SEIZE A LIMITED NUMBER OF CAPTIVES... AND MAINTAIN IMMUTABILITY

While putting on a tremendous show.

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

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, pp. 487-90.

Proof of limiting slave capture: The Bornu army (in Northern Nigeria) kills adult male prisoners by chopping off a leg.

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

Efficiency, and so the number of captures, is braked by...

• The crowds of civilians who accompany some of the armies. They make rapid movement and manoeuvers impossible, but reinforce the system:

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, p. 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. 

 -- De la Sénégambie français by F. Carrère et P. Jolle, 1855, p. 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, p. 325.  In Senegambia, adversaries advance "in a kind of parade," shoot and retire to reload, each in turn. -- Carrère and Jolle, p. 70.
Using 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) come to the battlefield riding asses, three fighters to an ass, dismount and win.

-- Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile by James Bruce, 1791, III, p. 233;

 Dakar archives, 1 p.892;

More examples in Aubin p. 486, n.197.

     -- Voyage au Soudan français, 1879-81 by the Commandant Galliéni, Paris, 1885, p. 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. 

-- Revue coloniale by H. Héquard, 1852, 2nd series, IX, p. 342.

• Who find using guns 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: H. 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 these appear for the whole savannah belt until the end of the 19th century:

Aubin pp. 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.

-- History of the Yoruba by Samuel Johnson, 1924, p. 24.

• The ineffective "trade guns" come from African demand.

They are manufactured in Birmingham, specifically for the North American Indian and African markets.  

-- The Fur Trade Role in Western Expansion: Indian Trade Guns by Ned Eddins, © 2025.

That choice comes from local demand, which evolves when savannah economies become more commercial and the purpose of slave raids changes (from about 1870, please read on).

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,

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

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French warfare has similar limits