Show SLAVERY IN AFRICA people take the yoke to escape starvation foa in an account of famine prevalent in africa cabled to this country the other day it was stated that men were selling themselves their wives wires and children into slavery to insure themselves food in return and that whole villages g had voluntarily taken the yoke to esca escape pe starvation tio n the incident illustrates anew one of the conditions which first introduced and have long sustained african slavery and slavery says an ex es consul in the boston transcript is not confined to the mountains and valleys of british central africa the truth esthe is the condition is common to all africa from north of sene gambia to far south of the Moss mo ss amedes river in other words it may be said that slavery is an institution in africa wherever fetich or superstition is an influence and improvidence a practice there are but few tribes whose members have not some degree of skill in the manufacturing of rude agricultural implements which they use in the cultivation ti kivat 0 n of rice sweet potatoes guinea corn and other staples indigenous to their soil these products are raised in quantities sufficiently large if economically no used to meet all necessary needs but economy is something to them unknown on the contrary improvidence is the rule with the result that when a season of drought arrives their granaries soon become empty and famine takes possession of the land it is during this period of suffering ering that thousands of sa savages va beco become me slaves the chiefs the head men the strong the powerful jn order that their th own lives may be preserved seize the weak and help helpless lesi and sell them into in to slavery in this way they renew their exhausted granaries with treasures of grain and at the same time reduce the number num berof of consumers it itis is pertinent to state right here that since the interruption ru eption of the slavery trade between africa and america the marh market et for the sale of slaves being dita cult for the west african tribes to reach it frequently happens that those who in former times would have been sold are arc now killed the improvidence which so often is the cause of their dufferin suffering is display displayed in all their doings not a single act is performed without the practicing dicing of some superstitious rite accod accompanist nanh 1 with revelry and great waste even tho the sowing n of their farms farm s with grain being no exception |