Impact of slavery on Africa?

Peter Heather's book Empires and Barbarians argues strongly that the emergence of several Eastern European states (Poland, Bohemia, Rus, Moravia) around the 10th century depended heavily on their participation in slave-trading and their ability to access (by water) Middle Eastern slave markets - which provided regional warlords with the money to recruit bigger warbands and ultimately impose their rule on a large territory. The relevance of that hypothesis here is that the existence of a slave trade may enhance the likelihood of centralised states emerging if other conditions are right. Arguably the emergence of African states like Dahomey is a data point in that direction.
 
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