They were thrown away for good
"give me your tired, your poor, your haddled masses yearing to breathe free wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send this, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside my golden door."
He peoples of West Africa had a rich and varied history and culture
long before European slavers arrived. They had a wide variety of
political arrangements including kingdoms, city-states and other
organisations, each with their own languages and culture.
The empire of Songhai and the kingdoms of Mali, Benin and Kongo were
large and powerful with monarchs heading complex political structures
governing hundreds of thousands of subjects
