This book demonstrates the continuities of five centuries of European-led slavery and colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, examining calls for reparations in all three regions for what many now regard to have constituted crimes against humanity. The Atlantic world economy emerged from the interactions of this triangular slave trade involving human chattel, textiles, arms, wine, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and other goods. This is thus the story of the birth of the modern capitalist system and a Black Atlantic that has shaped global trade, finance, consumer tastes, lifestyles, and fashion for over five centuries. The volume is authored by a multi-disciplinary, pan-continental group encompassing diverse subjects such as history, international relations, politics, economics, sociology, anthropology, literature, and languages. This collection is concise and comprehensive, enabling cross-regional comparisons to be drawn and ensuring that some of the most important global events of the past five centuries are read from multiple perspectives.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS). He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, England, and served with United Nations (UN) missions in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq Professor Adebajo is the author of ten books, including “Building Peace in West Africa” (2002); “The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War” (2010); and “The Eagle and the Springbok: Essays on Nigeria and South Africa” (2017). He is co-editor/editor of eleven books on African Studies, including “The EU and Africa” (2012) and “The Pan-African Pantheon” (2020).