An Ancient Tradition Domestic slave ownership as well as the domestic and international slave trades in western Africa preceded the late 15th-century origins of the Atlantic slave trade. Since most West African societies did not recognize private property in land, slaves functioned as one of the only profitable means of production that individuals could own. West Africans therefore, acquired and expressed wealth in terms of dependent people, whether as kin, clients, or slaves. Caravan routes had long linked sub-Saharan African peoples with North Africa and the wider Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. Not only was slavery an established institution in West Africa long before European traders arrived, but Africans were also involved in a trans-Saharan trade in slaves along these routes. African rulers and merchants were thus able to tap into preexisting methods and networks of enslavement to supply European demand for slaves. Enslavement was most often a byproduct of local warfare, kidnapping, or the manipulation of religious and judicial institutions.    

Complicity in the Slave Trade While the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English and French slave traders were often brutal, they were not always working alone. Many Africans were willing partners in this victimization. Pre-colonial empires like Dahomey and Ashanti (located in what is now Benin and Ghana), where slave ports flourished at towns like Ouidah and Elmina, accumulated enormous wealth and power as a result of the trade of their fellow Africans. When European merchants first initiated a trading relationship with West Africans in the mid-15th century, they encountered well established and highly developed political organisations, and competitive regional commercial networks. Europeans relied heavily on African rulers and mercantile classes, at whose mercy more often than not, they gained access to the commodities they desired. European military technology was not effective enough to allow them this access by means of force on a consistent basis until the 19th century. Therefore it was most often Africans, especially the elite coastal rulers and merchants, who controlled the means of coastal and river navigation, under whose authority and to whose advantage the Atlantic trade was conducted. 

Slave Routes and Markets in Ghana

The early slave routes cut across the Sahara, passing through the old Ghana empire, Timbuctu, Kano, Gao, Djenne, and the Niger river basin - to Marakech in the Maghreb (Morocco), Tunis, Tripoli, and Al-qahira (Cairo). The slave routes in present day Ghana essentially linked the northern slave markets and coastal ports, with the New World via the Atlantic Ocean . The important slave markets included Buna and Bonduku in modern-day Cote d'Ivoire , Salaga in northern Ghana , Sonsomt Mongo in modern day Togo , Abomey in Benin , Aflao at the present Ghana-Togo border and Assin Manso in the south of Ghana . Most slaves were captured in organised raids in the interior. They were then brought to the many slave markets on the coast and sold to Europeans and Arabs. Some of these slaves fed the coastal markets located between Anecho in eastern Togo , and Ada in the west across the Volta in Ghana . These markets include Bey Futa ( Lome ) and Baguida in Togo , and Adafienu, Adina, Blekusu, Vodza, Keta and Atorkor in the then Keta District of Ghana. The slaves that were brought from the interior of Salaga, Kete Krachi, Bassari, Kadjebi, Chamba and other places in the northern regions of Ghana and Togo also served Abomey (Agbome) and Glefe (Ouidah) markets in Benin (formerly Dahomey). Kete Krachi and Salaga, two of the main sources for obtaining slaves from the interior, were themselves important slave markets which also served minor slave markets along the slave routes to the coast.  

The Slave Market at Slaga

The famous Salaga Slave Market was an important commercial nerve centre, linking Western Sudan and the African Inland. It was a meeting point for Hausa traders from Gyamon, Bonduku, Timbucktu, Tagyon and Kano to trade in slaves and general goods. A typical journey to the New World began from towns like this in northern Ghana . Captured slaves were sent to the Salaga market, chained together at the neck, hands and waist. There, for a few cowry shells or kola nuts, their captors would sell them. Other trade goods could easily be brought to the market by slaves, and for this reason it became the centre of the slave trade. From here, this human merchandise, just as in times of the Portuguese (only later in secret), was taken down to the Gold and Slave Coasts on hidden paths, through to districts occupied by the Europeans. In former times it is estimated there was a turnover of 15,000 slaves annually at Salaga. It was mostly the Dagomba who kidnapped people from Grunshi and other neighbouring districts and sold them as slaves. Because of their good horsemanship, the slave raiders could suddenly attack a village, set it on fire, kill anyone who tried to resist and then flee away with their loot - mainly women and children - for sale in Salaga. Some Muslim colonies, situated on the borders of these areas also took part in the slave raids. Mossi caravans brought all their goods, woolen materials and ivory, down to market on the heads of slaves and thus doubled their business. The transport of goods cost them almost nothing, and they could sell their wares, along with the slave porters, for a high price.

The Arduous Journey South

Like oxen to the slaughter, captives were marched through the dense and thick forests to the coast, their movements restrained by chains and shackles. By the time they arrived in Assin Manso, some would be dead from exhaustion and disease. Here, the survivors were allowed to take their final bath in the ‘Nnonkonsuo' ( Slave River ) to replenish their lost energy and regain some freshness and vitality. They were then sorted out according to age and sex to be sold to coastal merchants. They were marched amidst whippings and curses down to Cape Coast . White merchants paid courtesy calls on local chiefs and handed them enticing presents of cloths and bars of iron, so they would grant them authority to trade in slaves. The coastal merchants at this time would be busily shaving the heads of the slaves so that no grey hairs could be seen. They would also polish their skins with palm oil so that they looked younger and stronger. European merchants then met with coastal merchants to examine the slaves and begin bargaining for them. The slaves were forced to jump, run and stretch to show their strength. Selected ones would then be exchanged for rolls of cloth, basins, firearms, etc. Irons from a burning furnace were then used to brand the slaves. Often they would spend months in the dungeons at Elmina and Cape Coast castles, waiting for the arrival of a slave ship. They were then marched to a canoe through "The Gate of No Return" to an awaiting ship, and from there to be taken to a strange land where they would face an uncertain future and a far greater ordeal. According to a British captain named John Hall, the appearance of a slave ship on the shore was the signal for Africans to go north, returning several weeks later with their new captives.

On a Conservative Estimate , it can be said that over 500,000 people from northern Ghana were sold in slavery between the years 1732 and 1897. Thousands of others died or were killed (mostly men) in the slave raids. The Gonja, Dagbon (or Dagomba), and Mamprusi were the main slave raiders. The main effects of the slave trade in northern Ghana were depopulation, devastation, insecurity, and loss of life and property. Agriculture and local arts were disrupted while people lived in constant fear. The long term effect was a retardation of development in northern Ghana .  

Pressures from the Akan From 1698 to 1701, the united Ashanti army defeated the Denkyira people, who had conquered the Ashanti in the early 17th century. Over the course of the 18th century, the Ashanti conquered most of the surrounding peoples, including the Dagomba. Prior to 1732, northern Ghanaians mainly traded kola nuts. Activities such as endemic inter-state wars, kidnapping, and payment of tribute encouraged slavery in northern Ghana . In about 1732, the Ashanti army invaded Gonjaland. The Gonja were made to pay tribute (in slaves) to the Ashanti . The Gonja began to conduct slave raids to pay this levy. The Gonja people were eventually displaced and forced to migrate west as a result of wars with the Dagombas. The Dagomba people also began slave raiding to pay off their own debts to the Ashanti . In the 18th century there were slave markets at Kataba, Salaga, Yendi, Gambaga, and Walewale. A new power would later arrive in the 19th century, in the form of the Zabarma people who came from the East. A group of Zabarma from what is today northern Niger , came to Dagomba during the reign of Ya-Na Abdullahi in the second half of the 19th century. Initially they arrived as Muslim missionaries and traders. Soon they took part in slave raids into the Gurunsi country (to the north, in what is today Burkina Faso). 

Babatu the Slave Raider

Babatu, a Zambara who was destined to became the last of the slave raiders, had no dealings with the Gonjas, though his career sheds light on the affairs of Wasipe during the time of a legendary chief named Wasipewura Takora. When Babatu raided Walembele for slaves, its people fled to Belele and Kundugu in Wasipe (a region south of Bole which has lost all importance) where they repulsed their adversaries, and were thereafter allowed to live in peace for seven years. There they flourished, but Wasipewura Takora was angry because they had not paid him for his protection. He seized 220 of the refugees and sold them into slavery in lieu of payment. Babatu continued his activities as a slave raider well into the 1890's, at a time when slavery had nearly come to an end throughout the world. By 1897, Babatu, and another notorious slaver known as Samore, were forced to flee due to increasing influence of the French, the British, and other enemies. The story of the Dagomba-Zabarma relationship ends with the "arrival of the Christians". In October 1897, taking advantage of an old friendship, Babatu went to Dagomba with a few hundred Zabarma horsemen. The Zabarmas settled peacefully there. They built houses and retired to a life of farming. Babatu and many other Zabarma leaders passed the remainder of their lives in Yendi. The grave of Babatu lies in this village in the Northern region. The British, French, and Germans went on to divide the middle Volta basin, cutting off the old Arab trade routes to Northern Ghana . 

Samore Ture's Short-Lived Empire

In the late 19th century, a Muslim Malinke (Mandingo) warrior named Samore Ture created a small empire. Born near Kankan around 1830, Samori Ture became a trader and about 1852 took service as a soldier under a local chief who had enslaved his mother. Though not a learned man himself, nevertheless Samore was devoted to Islam as a rallying point for his own expansionist ambitions to unite the Malinke and bring other neighbouring territories under his rule. He had designs on extending his small empire to the city of Wa in what now is the Upper West Region of Ghana and where the Gonja then lived following their displacement by the Dagomba. Slave raids into these territories were numerous as Samore "nibbled" at the borders of Gonjaland. One reminder of Samore's frequent raids is the Gbollu Defence Wall. This wall, 70 kilometres northwest of Wa in the Upper West Region, was built as a defence against the slave route that ran through the area. Eventually Samore would orchestrate an all out assault on Wa in 1895, aiding an ambitious man named Kongwuar Abudulai who sought the Paramount Chieftiancy. While this attack met with limited success, a simultaneous invasion was launched by Samore against Benyalipe to the south where his army fought and defeated the Tuluwe forces. During this move Samore destroyed everything he left behind and devastated much of the land and enslaved the people. His advance east was stopped by the British in Ghana , while the French closed in on him from the north and west and from their Ivory Coast forts in the south. He surrendered in 1898 and was deported to Gabon where he died in 1900. The Samore Wars, as they were called, caused great havoc and ruin in Western Gonja, which now for the first time had made the acquaintance of the British who began to pacify and reconstruct the country - but not before the Bole people had been able to wreck revenge on Kong (Samore's base nearby in what today is northeast Côte d'Ivoire) by razing it to the ground and massacring its inhabitants. Kongwuar Abudulai, however, had escaped to Bouna with Samore and some of his progeny, including Mama Moruwura, his eldest son, who later settled in Kintampo (Brong Ahafo Region) while other Kongs sought refuge in Wasipe or on the Coast. 

Preserving History Following the Accra Declaration in Ghana on April 4, 1995, UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization cooperated with African Tourism and Culture Ministries and the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) to implement the Slave Route as part of a cultural tourism endeavor. The project provides a common theme for integrating some of Ghana 's historical sites with complementary slave route features in other West African countries, so as to promote the common heritage of monuments, historical sites, manuscripts, archives and documents resulting from the slave trade among these countries. It involves development of libraries, monuments, reception and interpretative facilities, infrastructure, the collection and display of relics, artifacts and other materials associated with the slave trade, and the training of local tour guides. Ghana has already initiated action in this regard by earmarking all existing forts and castles for conservation and preservation. Slave Routes have been identified and benchmarks include shackles, gravesites, rivers, defense walls, "slave" trees and slave markets. Among these are Salaga and several sites in Brong Ahafo, including the Bono Manso Slave Site, the Jinini Mass Grave, the Kunso Slave Market, Atebubu Slave Market and the Sampa Slave Market.