Did Africans Sell Their Own People?

They say Black people sold their own people into slavery.
But when you hear that,
Pause
Because that statement, repeated over and over, is not just a distortion
It’s a lie born from the legacy of colonialism.
And here’s why.
You see, Africa was never a single tribe, a single voice, or a single nation.
It was a continent — vast and complex — made up of kingdoms, empires, and ethnic groups,
each with their own cultures, languages, and histories.
So when conflict broke out between rival groups,
when prisoners of war were captured,
those people weren’t seen as “our own.”
Just as the English didn’t consider the French “their own,”
or the Spanish the Dutch — Africa too had its divides.
But here’s where the truth begins to twist.
Because it wasn’t Africa that crossed oceans with shackles and ships.
It was Europe.
It was European powers who built a monstrous global machine,
who brought iron chains, muskets, and sugar dreams —
who created a market for flesh and turned it into profit.
Yes, in some cases, African leaders were involved.
But it was European demand — European greed — that drove the system.
And let’s be clear: many of those African rulers didn’t fully understand
what slavery across the Atlantic really meant.
They weren’t imagining their people whipped, branded, or erased.
They couldn’t have.
Some were tricked.
Some were forced.
And many resisted.
Remember Queen Nzinga of Ndongo,
or Yaa Asantewaa of the Asante Empire —
Warriors who rose and fought back against European domination,
refusing to bow to the chains or the crown.
So when they say “Black people sold their own,”
know that they’re not telling the full story.
They're shrinking centuries of trauma into a convenient myth —