there are MANY african slave trades, but im going to assume you mean the atlantic / american slave trade. Contrary to popular belief, the European colonizers didn't kidnap random africans, but rather they bought slaves from african kingdoms, with gold, European commodities, etc. this made west africa slightly more advanced than other Africans, but only in the short term. Not that it matters, since the scatter for africa got millions of africans to suffer from European rule, in there own land.