From Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to Trans-Mediterranean Migration: A Malaise of Africa’s Historical Mistakes

By Nathan Kiwere

The current phenomenon of trans-Mediterranean migration, characterized by the perilous journeys of thousands of Africans into Europe, has taken a great deal of interest from the global community in the last decades. While talking of this mass exodus, much discussion is concentrated on contemporary economic, political, and social crises, but attention needs to be turned to the historical context that played its role in this modern tragedy. These can be traced back to the continuous legacies of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism. Each of these historical phenomena depletes not only Africa’s human capital but also its resources, thus creating structural imbalances that even today drive Africans to seek better opportunities abroad.

Africa’s history is scarred by a series of profound disruptions, two of the most important being the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and contemporary trans-Mediterranean migration. Both were sites of significant moments when the continent lost millions of its people in conditions of despair and exploitation. Separated by centuries, these two periods have common threads of external interference, internal vulnerabilities, and the loss of human potential. Analysing these phenomena together sends light into Africa’s lingering struggles with governance, socio-economic instability, and external pressures-a contribution to preventing recurrence of these past historical mistakes.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Historical Catastrophe

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade stands out as one of the darkest pages in the annals of human history, having occurred between the years 1500-1866. More than 12-15 million Africans were forcibly taken from their homes and sold into slavery across the Americas and Europe. Not only was this systematic exploitation a complete human rights disaster, but it was a catastrophe for the social and economic development of Africa. Whole generations were torn from the continent, with the result that a demographic vacuum was created which disrupted local economies, weakened states, and fractured African societies.

This human cargo enabled European powers to solidify their wealth and international power while simultaneously shoving participating African states into whirlpools of war, instability, and political disintegration. So many particular states-such as the Kingdom of Dahomey, now Benin, and the Ashanti Empire, now Ghana-effectively engaged in the slave trade by exchanging captives of war for European goods such as guns, which further fueled violence. This in turn created a vicious cycle where weakened African states, due to internal strife, fell more easily to domination by outsiders.

Although slavery was eventually abolished in the 19th century, the damage it had caused to Africa’s socioeconomic fabric was an enduring one. Human resource loss arrested for good the development capacity of Africa in achieving good state institutions, infrastructure, and industry. In fact, by the time European colonization got underway in earnest in the late 19th century, most African societies had already weakened and thus enabled easy imposition of colonial rule.

Colonialism and Its Lingering Effects

Formal colonization of Africa, following the end of the slave trade, only heightened all those historical traumas on the continent. The German-like artificial carving of Africa by the powers was wholly insensitive to ethnic, cultural, or historic boundaries. Such fake states that were compelled to live together within the colonial borders had deeply embedded tensions that survived well into the post-colonial period.

Its legacy is one of economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, and the deliberate underdevelopment of African societies. In fact, many of the governance and socio-economic challenges facing Africa today have their roots in that practice. For example, colonial powers extracted raw materials for European markets, making African economies reliant on a few primary products for export. Such dependency continued beyond independence to produce economies prone to global market shifts and external indebtedness.

For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a no-poor country in terms of natural resources, but it has abundant resources of cobalt and copper; it is nonetheless entangled in a sea of poverty and conflict. Its colonial history under King Leopold II of Belgium, who ruthlessly exploited the colony with his insatiable personal interests at the forefront, treated the people to abhorrent conditions that set the course for extractive institutions. Since independence, successive governments have found it hard to shake off this trend, with the country remaining in the grip of corruption, violence, and foreign interference.

Trans-Mediterranean Migration: The New Exodus

Over the past decades, another form of exodus has taken place in Africa: the trans-Mediterranean migration. Thousands have made perilous journeys across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea for a better life in Europe. A significant portion of these migrants originate from countries torn apart by civil wars, political repression, or economic adversity, such as Somalia, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Nigeria.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 20,000 migrants died attempting to cross the Mediterranean between 2014 and 2020. Many such immigrants have been at the mercy of traffickers who take advantage of their desperation by promising safe passage in exchange for an extortionate amount of money. Many others are sold into slavery in Libya, subjected to forced labor, or kept in brutal detention. The images of drowning African migrants in the Mediterranean, or those being held in makeshift camps across Libya, create harrowing parallels with the dehumanizing conditions of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

It is hard to trace the root causes of trans-Mediterranean migration, which, for the most part, are symptoms of historical and contemporary problems of Africa: weak governance, underdevelopment, and economic inequality. While formal colonial rule has ended, many African nations have been prevented from resolving their differences and maintaining stable political systems that could help address the needs of their populations. The breakdown of central authority in countries like Libya and Somalia has perpetuated lawlessness, thus creating ripe environments for human trafficking and exploitation.

For instance, in West Africa, countries like Senegal and The Gambia reveal the exodus of young men despite hazardous journeys across the Sahara Desert. Most of these youths cite high levels of unemployment, no access to higher education, and corrupt governance as key factors that inform their decisions to leave in search of a better life abroad. Such patterns reveal that the malaise of Africa is not just historical but rooted in contemporary realities.

Lessons from the Past: A Call for Accountability and Reform

What is common to both the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and trans-Mediterranean migration is only one thing: Africa’s failure to protect her people from external exploitation and internal mismanagement. These historical mistakes should serve as powerful lessons for African leaders, intellectuals, and policy thinkers. Human potential lost through migration, conflict, or poor governance is persistently drained from the continent, and this must be urgently addressed if the way is to be charted toward sustainable development.

They need to be responsible and create environments that attract people to stay in the country and contribute towards its growth by investing in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and economic opportunities that could absorb the rapidly growing youth population in the continent. A very good example is Rwanda, which shows how a country can turn its fortunes from traumatic history. After the genocide in 1994, this leadership of Rwanda embarked on rebuilding strong institutions, reducing corruption, and spur economic growth; it made Rwanda one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent.

Of particular note is the regional cooperation on migration and human trafficking challenges. The AU has to be more active in the promotion of good governance, conflict resolution, and economic integration across the continent. Initiatives such as AfCFTA go in the right direction and are capable of reducing economic disparities, some of the drivers of migration.

From the atrocities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the tragedy of modern-day trans-Mediterranean migration, the African story has been bloodied by moments of deep and irreplaceable loss. Yet these tragedies also enshrine important lessons. By coming to terms with the mistakes of the past and addressing the root causes of its contemporary predicaments, it can transform historical malaise into a bright, stable, and prosperous future for Africa. But not learning those historical lessons is likely to perpetuate a vicious circle of loss and exploitation that has bedeviled the continent for centuries.