a far more ancient tragedy that has been going on since the dawn of humanity from the 8th century onwards for over 1000 years africa was the epicenter of a global form of human trafficking the amount i would. my parents were abused by those with a fair complection or. songhai for lani. to pull. over 20000000 africans were deported traded and reduced to slavery this criminal system shaped our history and our world so expansive was its reach that for a long time it seemed impossible to fully explain its mechanisms. in this series we will journey back along the roots of the slave trade. the thing about the slave trade a key thing about the slave trade and i always would have to explain