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16 Howard L.J. 334 (1970-1971)
The African Slave Trade and the Attitudes of International Law Towards It

handle is hein.journals/howlj16 and id is 350 raw text is: The African Slave Trade and the Attitudes of International Law Towards it U. 0. UMOZURIKE* Historians are more familiar with the African slave trade than international lawyers who have not shown as much interest. Yet an inter-disciplinary study of this nature opens avenues to the better understanding of the working of International Law, its failures and achievements. This article is intended to demonstrate how Inter- national Law was used against a people who were not in a position to influence it. Their handicap was the result of ignorance, back- wardness and military weakness. Even in the present partially or- ganized international community, International Law may be thrown to the winds when a powerful state is determined to bulldoze its way over the rights of a weak state. This was very much the case when international society was wholly unorganized or much less organ- ized than it is today. When the ignorant, backward and the weak belonged to another race there was very scant regard for their rights. The eventual triumph of International Law over the profits of the slave trade is illustrative of the ideal that the good of the international community as a whole lies in the strict respect by all states for the fundamental human rights of all peoples. 1. THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The pioneers of the European trade in African slaves were the nationals of the small state of Portugal. Having successfully driven out the Moors from the Iberian peninsular, in collaboration with the Spainards, the Portuguese captured the Moslem strong-hold of Ceuta in 1415 on the African coast opposite Gibralter. Fired by the zeal for adventure, profit and of course for expanding the frontiers of christian civilization, Prince Henry, the navigator (1394-1460), son of the Portuguese King, commissioned ships to sail down the west coast of Africa. * Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, D. Phil (Oton) LL.M. (Lord), Barrister-at-Law (Lincoln Inn).

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