KLG p 1-32

“Like any system that gives some human beings total power over others, slavery in Africa could be vicious.” p 10
Very true; complete power usually doesn't lead to anything good. Complete power corrupts completely?

“It was surely not right, said one (priest), “for persons baptized in the Catholic church to be sold to peoples who are enemies of their faith (Protestants).” p 10
The Catholic priests were not at all bothered by the slavery, but they were absolutely against selling a slave to a Protestant.

“Alfonso's life spanned a crucial period. When he was born, no one in the kingdom knew that Europeans existed. When he died, his entire realm was threatened by the slave-selling fever they had caused. He was a man of tragic self-awareness, and he left his mark...A native of the Knogo knos the name of three kings: that of the present one, that of his predecessor, and that of Affonso.” p 11
-converted to Christianity
-did nothing but study
-fan of European skills such has medicine, woodworking, masonry
-fluent in Portuguese
-once sent a bunch of slaves to his “brother” king in Lisbon as a gift
Did Affonso do everything he could to stop the Kongo slave trade? Did he assist or make any part of it easier for the white Europeans?

“Because virtually everything we know about this part of Africa for the next several hundred years comes to us from its white conquerors, King Affonso I provides something rare and valuable: an African voice.” p 12
Do you think the voice of Affonso correctly represented the voices of his people?

How did the Kongo slaves view the white man? Great traders, cruel, rich? Myths were created! Plus, “From that time to our days now, the whites have brought us nothing but wars and miseries.” p 16

Why did the whites never take up white slaves?

“When the ship bombarded a Confederate fort in North Carolina, Stanley became one of the few people to see combat on both sides of the Civil War.” p 25
This gives him a unique perspective and later probably helped him to see from the Africans' POV - to see that what the Europeans were doing was wrong.

“But to nineteenth-century Europeans, celebrating an explorer for “discovering” some new corner of Africa was, psychologically, a prelude to feeling that the continent was theirs for the taking.” p 27
Why did Europeans think that just because they found some place new that they had a right to take it (when they were obviously NOT the first to discover it and when there were already people living there)?

We can only hear the voices of the Kongo slaves through the voices of their white conquerors, and at least one white man was known to make things up. How do we know that we are right about anything we know about the Kongo slaves?