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248 J. F. Ade Ajayi and J. E. Inikori

in disciplines such as sociology and economics should be encouraged to take
an interest in such research work. More important, undergraduate and post-
graduate programmes in history departments should be structured in such a
way that interested students can acquire the analytical tools needed for a proper
study of the slave trade along the lines we have suggested.

Statistics on the slave trade

Professor Curtin's book, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (1969), has

stimulated a great deal of quantitative research relating to the slave trade. One

recent contributor to the debate is Leslie B. Rout, Jr,^2 who shows that Curtin's

estimate of slave imports into Spanish America up to 1810 is about 67 per cent

too low. On present evidence it would seem that Curtin's global estimate for

the Atlantic trade may be at least 10 per cent too low. We think therefore that

it would be more realistic for the moment to raise Curtin's figures for the

Atlantic trade by 40 per cent, making total exports from Africa by way of that

trade 15.4 million.

From the comments of Professor Hubert Gerbeau who is familiar with

the slave trade from the East African coast, the figure for the Indian Ocean

trade is about 4 million. On present evidence, the figure for the trans-Saharan

and Red Sea trades may be put at about 10 million. This brings the total to

about 29.4 million. The present evidence permits us to say, therefore, that

19 million represents the lowest possible number and 30 million, the highest.

New research should provide more statistical information, especially

on mortality between the time of capture and the time of departure from Africa.

While in some aspects of the slave trade the total numbers may not be very

important, in other aspects a proper understanding of the issues requires a

quantitative analysis.

Notes

1. Of the specialists who have worked specifically on some aspects of the slave trade,
   we have the following:
   J. U. J. Asiegbu, University College, Port Harcourt, whose main work on the
   subject is Slavery and the Politics of Liberation 1787-1861, London and New York,
   Longman, 1969.
   E. A. Oroge, formerly of the University of Lagos, Lagos, whose main work
   is 'The Institution of Slavery in Yorubaland with Particular Reference to the Nine-
   teenth Century' (University of Birmingham, Ph.D. thesis, 1971).
   J. E. Inikori of the Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University,
   Zaria, whose main works relating to the slave trade are: 'English Trade to Guinea:
   A Study in the Import of Foreign Trade on the English Economy 175&-1807'
   (University of Ibadan, P.D. thesis, 1973); 'Measuring the Atlantic Slave Trade:
   An Assessment of Curtin and Anstey', Journal of African History, Vol. XVII,