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History

Slavery Routes Part 1

January 30, 2020

476 AD - 1375 AD: Beyond the Desert - The history of slavery did not begin in the cotton fields. It has been going on since the dawn of humanity.

https://p.dw.com/p/3X2JG
Menschenhandel - Eine kurze Geschichte der Sklaverei
Image: CPB Media

Part 1 of this four-part documentary series investigates how Africa became the epicenter of human trafficking.

The first installment of the series Slavery Routes - A Short History of Human Trafficking opens the story of the slave trade. By the 7th Century AD, Africa had already become a slave trading hub. Barbarian invaders brought on the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Less than two centuries later, the Arabs founded an immense empire on its ruins, stretching from the banks of the Indus River to the southern Sahara.

Sklaverei
Image: Getty Images/Hulton Archive

Now a new era of systematic slave hunting began, from the Middle East to Africa. At the heart of this network, two major merchant cities stood out. In the North, at the crossroads of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, Cairo - the most important Muslim city and Africa’s main commercial hub. In the South, Timbuktu, the stronghold of the great West African empires, and point of departure of the trans-Saharan caravans. This documentary tells how, over the course of centuries, sub-Saharan peoples became the most significant "resource" for the biggest human trafficking networks in history.

 

Broadcasting Hours: 

DW English

WED 10.03.2021 – 01:15 UTC
WED 10.03.2021 – 05:15 UTC
THU 11.03.2021 – 09:15 UTC
SAT 13.03.2021 – 02:15 UTC
SUN 14.03.2021 – 08:15 UTC

Cape Town UTC +2 | Delhi UTC +5,5 | Hong Kong UTC +8
Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 
San Francisco UTC -8 | Edmonton UTC -7 | New York UTC -5
London UTC +0 | Berlin UTC +1 | Moscow UTC +3

DW Deutsch+

THU 11.03.2021 – 09:15 UTC
SUN 14.03.2021 – 08:15 UTC 

Vancouver UTC -8 | New York UTC -5 | Sao Paulo UTC -3