What effect did the slave trade have on africa

One negative about the slave trade was that it tended to increase the amount of war that occurred in West Africa. The reason for this is that European (and American)slave traders did not simply go out into the African countryside and kidnap their own slaves. Instead, they bought slaves from the coastal kingdoms.

The effects caused by this inhuman act cannot be easily measured based on countable or visible impacts. There are also the psychological and cultural aspects suffered by the continent and which produced lasting consequences on her population. However, for this exercise only a few points are mentioned.

Explanation:

Promotion of inter-tribal wars:  One of the ways whereby the activities of the Atlantic slave trade was maintained was through the system of trading. Among the goods brought in by Europeans traders  were firearms, these were sold to African ethnic groups to encourage disgruntled regions to wage wars against each other.Gradual and continual depletion of the African human work force: Apart from the casualties caused when a warring side lost, most of those captured for slavery were the strong-abled men of the society. This worsened an already bad population loss. Those left behind were mostly women, children and the aged; they had to rebuild the destroyed towns and villages. The renewal of these populations were badly impaired.  Demographic loss: As large-scale agriculture increased in the American continent with the production of items such as sugar cane, tobacco and cotton, there was also need to increase the supply of slave work force from the Africa.   Millions of young, strong abled men were the main targets especially between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This depleted the population growth of the African continent.  Loss of work force also hindered growth:  The growth of economic, technological and scientific development was greatly impaired. It is important to note that slave trade activities lasted for close to 400 years.

As this horrible and inhuman act, continued, most of the coastal regions had lost a vast majority of their able-bodied populations and this led to further invasion and destruction of the hinterland leading to further environmental, demographic and economic destruction.