Lagos is a Portugese word.
None of the current countries existed.
Their argument is probably the institutions that benefitted from Slavery are gone and dont exist so the most you may be able to do is find a family that currently still benefits from the slaves they sold. Being related to someone who sold slaves is not the same as being part of the institution that sold slaves because in theory there are AAs who could have had a slave trader ancestor but we know that the AA did not benefit from that institution so nobody would ask that AA for reperations because they are a victim.
What we do know is the European institutions that continue to benefit and that created the current nations in Africa which were victims to colonialism which is a direct result of the slave trade still exist.
So long story short it would be hard to find an African institution that wasnt destroyed that benefitted from the slave trade. The only thing left really are the victims of the acts (the family members who were split from the members brought to the new world). Now Nigeria does still have Kings and Queens so there is a chance those people may be living on wealth aquired from the act of trading slaves (I cant speak on History of the region honestly) but the literal nation of Nigeria didnt sell slaves, Nigeria is a end product of slavery and colonialism (thus Britain would be the perpetrator that is guilty, not the Modern Nigerian nation we see today).
Got it. Thanks for explaining.
I have to do more research on it. I know Europeans benefited more - but I understand a small amount of Nigerians benefited economically.
It's just crazy cause they were a large part of the trade - and country/people are in such bad condition.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade began in the late 15th century in Nigeria. By 1471, Portuguese navigators hoping to tap the fabled Saharan gold trade had reconnoitered the West African coast as far as the Niger Delta, and traded European commodities for local crafts as well as slaves, the latter which turned out to be highly lucrative. In the early stages, Europeans captured Nigerians in raids on coastal communities, but as the demand grew they relied on slaves to be supplied by local rulers, traders, and the military aristocracy, providing these agents with rum, guns, horses, industrial products, and fine muslin cloth.
Enormous profits were made, mostly by Europeans, but a small number of Africans also benefited economically, mostly along the southwestern coast of Nigeria. Over this period of trade, more than 3.5 million slaves were shipped from Nigeria to North and South America and the Caribbean colonies. A smaller trade also existed to Europe and other regions.
In using local brokers to provide captives, the slave trade degraded preexisting social, political, and religious structures and destroyed longstanding trading patterns, turning markets along the trans-Saharan trade routes into slave raiding stations. Competition among local tribes in the slave trade was intense and spurred internal wars to provide a steady stream of slave captives. Those groups that were implicated in supplying the most slaves (the Aro, Oyo and Hausa) also experienced internal crises and struggle, and Yoruba city-states ended up engaged in internecine wars for control of the slave trade. In the north, the Islamic legal prohibition against enslaving Muslims led to rising conversion to Islam in order to avoid enslavement—though the economic incentives ensured that many Muslims were taken by Muslim raiders or predatory neighboring polities.
On Lagos being a Portugese word...
Lagos, Onim:
By the late 15th century Lagos Island had been settled by Yoruba fishermen and hunters, who called it Oko. From the late 16th century to the mid-19th century, the area was dominated by the Kingdom of Benin, which called it Eko. The Portuguese first landed on Lagos Island in 1472. Trade developed slowly, however, until the Portuguese were granted a slaving monopoly a century later. The local obas (kings) enjoyed good relations with the Portuguese, who called the island Onim (and later Lagos) and who established a flourishing slave trade. British attempts to suppress the slave trade culminated in 1851 in a naval attack on Lagos and the deposition of the oba. The slave trade continued to grow until Lagos came under British control in 1861.
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