h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

....I have learnt a lot about slavery in last few days due to Live8 interest, and slavery issue is not as clear cut as I first thought. For years I have heard how black Africans were hard done by the horror of slavery done to them,and indeed slavery is horrific.
....some years ago there was a documentary by Trevor Phillips who pointed out that villages were raided in Africa by other villages for revenge and money as captives were then to European slavers.
.....in the last few days, I found Olaudah Equino's story written in 1789 of his early days as a slave in Africa. He said that slavery was part of Africa's culture BEFORE europeans went there to take slaves. Indeed his family owned slaves, Africans lived in fear of being taken by other Africans to be used as their slaves...indeed at the age of 12, Olauda and his sister were taken by African slave masters, passed from master to master for six months, and sold to the first eur.opean he had ever seeen, at the coast....he even had slaves later when he started a plantation.
....also, I discover that Britain was often raided by North African slave traders from Algeria...indeed between 1609-1616 466 Britiash ships were raided and prisoners taken as slaves.....Britains coastal regions lived in fear of raids as whole villages were taken captive to be sold as slaves .
....in Europe, from 1530-1780 one million three hundred thousand British, Spanish, Dutch, Frentch, Italian people were snatched by west African slave traders and sold along Barbary coast, Tripoli, Tunis, Algier,etc....mostly dieing of starvation, maltreatment, etc.

....we are often told of the horrors done to African slaves by us....but no mention is ever made of slavery done to African people by African people, or of European taken as slaves and made to row as galley slaves, etc by North Africans...if slavery is horrific, then it is horrific, whoever does it.