Africa’s alternate modernity without the trans‑Atlantic slave trade: An academic perspective

Abstract

The question of Africa’s hypothetical global position had the trans‑Atlantic slave trade not occurred invites a rigorous, historically grounded analysis. While counterfactual history requires careful methodological discipline, scholars have increasingly explored alternative trajectories for Africa to better understand the scale of demographic, economic, and institutional losses suffered between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries (Nunn, 2008; Rodney, 1972; Akyeampong et al. 2014). This article synthesizes historical evidence, economic modeling, and comparative civilizational analysis to project Africa’s likely standing in the contemporary world had enslavement and subsequent colonial extraction not interrupted its civilizational development.

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