For me, dehumanization is when you take a person and make them believe they are less than a person. If you are a slave and your owners always talk bad to you every day for the rest of your life, you will start to believe them because that's what everyone calls you. Dehumanization played a huge role during the slave trade. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, Africans have been robbed of their identity. They were introduced to different religions and religious beliefs. They threw away the traditions of the African people and condemned them. This has resulted in the loss of many original African traditions as they turn to following the European way of life. This dehumanized the African people because they were made to believe that their culture was not good and their lifestyle was primitive, so they ended up living the life of another people. People also dehumanized Africans by killing and enslaving them. Sometimes people obtained slaves by kidnapping them from their villages as if they were animals or other living and non-living things considered inferior to human beings."" Although internal slavery existed long before the first Europeans, the Portuguese, reached the coasts of Africa, slavery at that time was not as intensive and many slave owners obtained slaves after defeating another tribe in a tribal war. The slaves obtained by the Europeans were completely dehumanized, had no rights and were forced to work against their will until they wore out and died. “They were beaten, abused, betrayed and killed just like animals. African slaves were property of the slave-owning people rather than equal living beings with a voice. This dehumanized Africans as they were totally reduced to property rather than living as free people who can make autonomous decisions about their lives and live as they wish. Africans responded to dehumanization in many different ways. Some African slaves could not stand the abuse and allowed themselves to starve and waited for the day when the humiliation would end. Enslaved Africans learned to fight off the encroachment of other groups into their settlements and to avoid a second capture or enslavement that was different from their current situation just one example. Get a custom document from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay This the kind of humiliation and impoverishment of the African population has affected the continent irreparably and is the main reason why the continent has very high poverty and a lack of unity and trust among people.