Historian Toby Green on how creolisation made the slave trade possible

Historian Toby Green, author of The Rise of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa: 1300-1589 on: the Mandinkas’ strong links in West Africa with the North African slave traders; the adoption of the cultural patterns of these slave traders and their cultures (which he terms primary creolisation); the role of the New Christians (converted Jews out of Spain and Portugal) in the Transatlantic slave trade; and the strong facility of those in the region to speak many languages.