According to the textbook “Traditions and Encounters”, wrote by Jerry H. Bently, between the eighth and sixteenth centuries, West Africa were controlled by “powerful kingdoms and imperial states”. The kingdoms of Ghana, the Mali empire and the Songhay state ruled the west Africa until the sixteenth century. Those kingdoms dominated west Africa with gold trades and using the wealth to control valleys (Traditions and Encounters 412-413) . Another Important kingdom of Africa was the kingdom of Kongo. In 1483, the kingdom of Kongo started commercial and political relations with the Portugueses. Within those relationship, Portugueses were for cooper, ivory but most of all, slaves. African people was seen as labor sources for the large plantations
