Walter Rodney referred to the West African coastal communities who cooperated with Europeans during the

slave trade as Local Mulatto mercenaries who came to prominence due to the necessity to sell their fellow
community members as slaves. The Europeans deceived the mercenaries by lavishing them with gifts in
exchange for their assistance in acquiring additional slaves for commerce. These guys planned war and
abduction against their fellow Africans in order to acquire slaves in return for European commodities like as
firearms. This sparked the slave trade, with a large proportion of slaves bringing misery to Africans and
destroying nations such as the kingdoms of Kongo-Angola and the Yoruba. Inability to defend themselves
against mercenaries with the ability to assemble able-bodied men and powerful armaments, such as rifles,
rendered the tiny West African cultures more susceptible to slave raids.