Neither Devil Nor Child

difficulty for African societies that they became independent in the late twentieth century when human aspirations everywhere were at historically unprecedented levels, but so also were the technological means to fulfil them. Those same technological means, in the form of modern communications technology, have made the living standards of the prosperous world more and more visible to the rest. It is in this historical context that, in both the poor and the rich worlds, deprivation, particularly of basic physical necessities, has come to be seen as more and more unacceptable.

underneath these swirling currents and tactical shifts lies a dogged determination to make Africans like us. The damaging

deal hung on this idea, and attempts were made in the mid-nineteenth century to develop such commerce, especially in the export of oils to supply growing industrial and food markets in Europe. However, this commerce was not only seen to have failed but also, in a cruel paradox, to have renewed slavery within Africa. In some African societies, men of power and influence, now deprived of Atlantic slave markets, turned to local slave labour to produce goods for Western consumption. This wholly unforeseen development prompted the idea that it was not enough to abolish the trade outside Africa;

boundary between explanation and advocacy is flexible.