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 as a consequence of the necessity to sell their
fellow community members as slaves. The Europeans duped the mercenaries and lavished them with gifts in
exchange for their assistance in obtaining additional slaves for commerce. The desire for power and property
drove these individuals to organize wars and kidnappings of their fellow Africans in quest of slaves to be
swapped for other European commodities such as weaponry. This sparked the slave trade, which resulted in the
suffering of Africans and the demise of kingdoms such as Kongo-Angola and the Yoruba. The tiny size of West
African communities rendered them more susceptible to slave raiders since they could not defend themselves
against mercenaries who had the capacity to assemble able-bodied men as well as heavy armaments such as
rifles.