Mainly because the definition of African slavery was much different than it was in the Americas. That and the whole: It wasn't all white people being bad thing...

Tunnel vision. Or, Another inconvenient truth.

I don't think it has been especially hidden. The different tribes in africa are kind of like the american indians in that they didn't think much the other tribes and so kidnapping, selling or killing them wasn't considered especially wrong.

After my opinion it does not fit into the picture some people want to have. It is concealed that black slaves were first enslaved and captured by their own fellow-countrymen. The first step of slavery was the fact that black people were hunting other black people and brought them to the coast. At the coast black people offered other back peopl eto white people (British, Portuguese, Spanyards etc.) The white people therefore paid a certain sum of money to black people who offered their slaves to them. If black people never would have hunted their own people and offered them to white slavers at the coasts of Africa, the white people never would have been able to transport these slaves to America and offer them at the slave-markets. This kind of interaction is completely concealed. That white people who urgently needed workers and could buy them on the slave-market, I can fully understand.

Because to focus on that is to try to shift responsibility, or in some way suggest that what they did could have been worse. I think people do realise that the slaves were sold by Africans, and it is mentioned (in the UK at least), yet there is no need to focus on that fact. A quick mention and then move on to discuss our role in it - it is our society's history which we are criticising, not others' so there is little need to discuss it. My thoughts =)

HEAVEN FORBID!! and their ENTITLEMENT would be lost!! hey, the Israelites ALWAYS caused their OWN enslavement, bondage, as punishment for their GREED, SELFISHNESS, and IDOLTRY...they brought it on themselves...:)

well it would make a hell of a lot of statements that totally blame "The White man" as B.S. ( which they are ) and we can't have that can we, because it would show a hell of a lot of Blacks up as Hypocrites and we can't have that can we

Because such would prevent a good rant. Not to mention bringing up the fact that many freed slaves went back to Africa and captured their countrymen and made them into slaves. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia

After my opinion african slaves have had a much better fate as slaves in America as they could ever expect in Africa. In Africa as slaves or prisoners they could expect nothing but getting killed by their own people. In America they were treated by their mistresses and masters like human being with enough food,reasonable housing and medical care. I do not understand why all the people permanently are focussing on "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Even uncle Tom lived in his cabin as a slave muich better as he ever would have lived at home in Africa.

I've also heard that the African tribes sold their "stock" to Middle Eastern slave traders, who then sold them to American and European buyers, which calls into question why Islam was such a major symbol of the Civil Rights movement.

Because the biggest atrocities tend to trascend...

for starters, your question is inaccurate. The fact that you just brought it up dismisses that notion. You are not the first to bring it up and won't be the last. If you googled the subject, you would likely get thousands of hits mentioning such things. I have seen several documentaries and books on slavery that mention it as well. As someone has already pointed out, it is likely not the focus because it is usually brought up in a lame attempt to shift blame for slavery on the victims themselves. I can randomly dig into any topic in history and pull out something that is not commonly discussed but it would be pointless

It is mentioned sometimes, but it's not the central focus -- the people who did that are not around, neither are their ancestors... at least, they're not around the USA. Here in America, we have the legacy of the slavery that happened here, not what happened in Africa.

It's mentioned in some places, not mentioned in the others. It's interesting that a lot of answers on this tend to basically say, "aHA! you righteous black people, you were lying! Shut up now!" First of all, while yes, they were already slaves, I think you should consider the differences in their slavery at home and slavery in the US. Yes, slavery is slavery, but one thing about that time in the US is that it was full of white people that considered blacks and native americans dumb savages because of their skin colour. I don't know much about the original tribes so I can't say how their customs compare, but I doubt they had that conception of their slaves just because of their skin colour. No, it does not make slavery back at home better, but it makes it different. Second, I don't see how this makes what settlers did any better.

So does that exonerate the europeans of their guilt and involvement in such a travesty? Is that what you're attemting to stablish here? Did the the African went to europe to sell the slave to them, or was the european who went to Africa? Are we dealing here with guilty feelings by attempting to shift responsibility? If you seek to kill someone and I sell you the gun to do it you think I'm free from any responsibilty. You just telling a very convinient half of the story, and the reason is very old and very common among many whites. Do you really think slavery was a sort of a picnic? We have our own bags, yes, but don't make black people responsible for your evil nature and your evil practice and then come here to play innocent--simplifying a very complex issue attmpting to have a bunch of bigots like yourself jumping in your bandwagon. I'm just starting, I'm not done yet.

If by 'discussing' you mean teaching in classrooms I would say that it is because teachers are less interested in history as such than they are in getting their students engaged. I remember hearing about black slave owners in history class but it wasn't emphasized - and really shouldn't be emphasized, just mentioned. . Within the context of America, slavery was especially shameful because it so clearly violated our stated ethos. . Within the context of the world, slavery was standard practice when America was colonized but we were pretty much the last to outlaw it.

Somewhere in the mid '80s, apologies were offered to the children, grandchildren, and great-grandcgildren of Japonese-American who were placed in concentration camps by white America during the war. And if I do recall correctly, a check for so many thousand of dollars were offered to them. Now, as a black man--a decendent of slaves--I'm not asking for any apology and it would be foolish to expect one, nor I'm seeking or expecting any monetary compensation for 337 years of my foreparents been forced into involuntary servitude. But what I'm asking though, is for whites to take up the full responsibilty of their conscious and voluntary involvement in the evil practice of slavery instead of making every possible attempt to rationalize their wrongdoing to either exonerate themselves or at least to soften the view most people have about their direct involvement in it. Or directly make the blacks--the victims--somehow responsible for the white's wrongdoing. That is akin to the husband who beats the crap out of his wife then tell her that it was her fault--or worse yet--that he did it for her own good. What business did you have in Africa anyway? The Africans were always eager traders. The main attraction of foreing traders was that they brought in many new kinds of commodities. These traders had little or no trouble in gaining coastal foodholds as trading posts. Nonetheless, the land was not sold, but leased. However, the blacks had what the Europeans wanted most: gold, diamonds, ivory, copper, iron ore, and themselves. The wrong of a group of blacks does not make the conscious wrong of whites "right" or more acceptable or more palatable. No! We are not responsible for your conceived warped ideology of white supremacy upon which you have acted and functioned all along. That's your bag, not ours! This wicked behavior of yours has nothing to do with some blacks in Africa selling their captive prisoners from rival tribes to Arabs and Europeans! No, this is who you are! In June 2, 1877 Cecil Rhodes in his "Confession of Faith" he explains: "...We know the size of the world. We know the total extent. Africa is still lying ready for us, and it is [our duty] to take it. It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes; that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the "best", the "most human", the "most honourable race the world possesses". No, slavery was not a picnic or niggers vacation. Black women were raped at the will of their masters whenever they felt like it, and the women had no say in their own bodies. Entire family separated. Sons castrated, fathers whipped until their skin fell off--and in many cases lynched. Runaway slaves caught and their limbs cut off so would not attempt to escape again. According to prominent and renowned historians, between 80-100 millions of Africans lost their lives from the beginning of the slave trade up until the end of it--not so long ago. But your argument, of course, sits well as a soothing filler for the conscience of those whites who might--JUST MIGHT--walk around with any guilty feelings; particularly during the month of February. I do not hold responsible the white people of today for what some of their ancestors(yes, not every white ancestor was a slave owner) did back then. We can only, and should only, hold you accountable for what you do and say today. That's only fair. But it's difficult to see you in different light than your ancestors because much of what some of you have done and said resonates with that of your ancestors! There is absolutely NOTHING that you could use as argument of any moral worth to justify hanging a pregnant black woman upside down from a tree and force hundreds of slaves--women and children--to gather around to witness a white man, hired by a master, to cut wide open the belly of the woman, pull the unborn child and stump on it to induce permanent psychological fear in the rest of the slaves. Your argument that some blacks sold some slaves makes it a very feeble case to defend this evil and wicked actions. The intelligent, non-racist, non-bigot, non-wicked white person--and there are many--would have never attempt, or even consider, to bring the evil of slavery in the light in which you have--much less articulate it in such simplistic and bias way or attempt to downplay its catastrophic impact and lingering consequences in society at large. But I must confess. I did understimate the arrogance on many whites. I didn't know it can reach such a high peak until I heard a white man telling a young black man: "You should be thankful". Yes black man! You should be thankful for APARTHEID! You should be thankful for raping our mother and sisters, castrating our brothers and lynching our fathers! You should be thankful for the entire colonization of Africa and raping her of its natural resources! Oh yes brother, you should be thankful for murdering nearly 100 million Africans during the slave trade! You should be thankful for 337 years of forced servitude! Thankful for the unjustice practiced by the "Justice System". You should be thankful for the KKK!. Thankful for bombing the black churhces down south and killing 4 little black girls. Be thankful for the Jim Crow segragated and unequal policy! You should be thankful for all the lynching in the south and sometimes up in the north! Ah, and be thankful for the murder of MLK! OH DEAR LORD! HOW UNGREATFUL WE ARE!

We still put up with it and kept them enslaved. expletive, expletive, expletive. No excuses.

Dont ask me ask the companies that write your kids history books

Seldom mentioned, not never. For instance, you just mentioned it. The Africans gave them the key to the bank, but didn't rob it, kill the manager, or get most of the money. Some Africans participated, sure. But, they didn't transport them in inhuman conditions, letting half of them die along the way, and then sell them to cruel owners who would/could beat, rape, and abuse them for the rest of their lives.

It's not significant once the slaves were here. I'm sure it's never been forgotten in Africa.