Ezinne, you speak disparagingly of the northern emirs. OK, fine. Just remember those emirs were and are Muslims, who, even now, see nothing wrong with slavery, polygamy, and slave trading. You may say that the white Brits just changed the coat on slavery and you’ll be at least half-right, but the zeal of those Christians who fought to abolish slavery was real and uncalculated. Without Dr. Livingstone and the redcoats behind him, what is now Zambia, Malawi and most of Zimbabwe would have been denuded by Arab slave-traders from Zanzibar. And yes, I do know about the Congo Free State. Finally, ask yourself: are the northern emirs part of the fourteen-century-old (and still probably active even now) trans-Sahara slave trade? The trade that’s lasted four times as long as the transatlantic slave trade and may have so far cost more than twenty times the number of African lives? You might want to think about that. At least I’d hope so.