70 Joseph E. Inikori
American imports started would have produced proportionately far more
descendants in Africa than those imported into North America produced in
that territory by 1863.
It must be understood that this estimate is a very rough one. It is likely
that Professor Curtin underestimated United States slave imports to a greater
extent than he did for imports into other territories. If so, reproduction rates
based on Curtin's United States figures will be an exaggeration which will
make our estimates somewhat too high. On the other hand, in our estimate
we have not included the numbers lost in the various stages of producing the
19 million actually exported. Besides, an assessment of the demographic
consequences of the external slave trade for Africa has to take into account the
indirect effects as well. The unsettled conditions produced by the slave trade
and its retardative effects on economic growth had adverse effects on population
growth in Africa during a period of over 400 years. It is significant that, from
1500 to 1870, the growth of the African population lagged far behind that of
any other continent during the same period. When the external demand for
Africans as slaves was cut off in the late nineteenth century, peaceful conditions
prevailed, international trade in the products of the African soil developed,
the flow of goods within Africa expanded and became more regular, and
general economic improvement took place. Under these conditions, population
growth rates in Africa came to be among some of the highest in the world
between 1900 and 1950. No one should be misled into thinking that this popu-
lation growth in Africa was due to the availability of modern medicine, whose
contribution was minimal, because only a tiny proportion of the total popu-
lation benefited from the limited modern medical facilities that existed. 'Tra-
ditional ' African medicine remained the only means of treatment for most
people, and 'traditional' African midwives remained the only physicians
known to most expectant mothers, as was the case during the slave-trade
period. The only new elements that were significant as far as population growth
was concerned, were peace and economic improvement.
Thus, however rough it may be there is no doubt that the figure we have
produced is a very conservative estimate of the additional population that
would have existed in Africa by 1870 in the absence of the external slave trade.
It should be pointed out that the operation of the Malthusian checks could not
have made it impossible to maintain this additional population since the amount
of land in Africa suitable for food production completely eliminates the
possibility of their operation. The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from
the foregoing, therefore, is that the extremely low ratio of population to culti-
vable land which prevailed in Africa south of the Sahara up to the present
century was the direct repercussion of the external slave trade from Africa.
This underpopulation prevented for several centuries the growth of a
virile market sector in the African economies by eliminating population pressern