Seneca on slavery: An African perspective

Abstract

Slavery is one of the humanistic concepts bothering the human society. Slavery can be seen as a state in which ones life and affairs are controlled by another; hence the slave is seen as a lesser being. The African society is dialectic in structure, thus there is the existence of the opposites; master (free born) and slaves. The interest of this paper is on the basic ideas of Seneca on slavery. He wrote based on the inhuman treatment meted on slaves who are humans too and therefore advocates for the abolishment of slavery, otherwise they should be treated as persons,with voluntas and ratio. When there is mutual relationship and respect between humans, there would be enhancement of values, peace and development in the society.