THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE - WHY THE H1B VISA CRISES IS THE REDEMPTION WE NEED

 

Introduction - The Slave Industry of Dahomey (modern Benin)

The Atlantic slave trade was one of the most profitable industry for the kings of west Africa. While Ashanti (present day Ghana) and King Alphonso of the region known as Congo were active profiteers none matched the capture and supply network of  King Gezo of Dahomey (modern Benin, early–mid 19th century). Gezo declared: “The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and glory of their wealth.”

The transatlantic slave trade, which persisted for 366 years and resulted in the forced deportation of 12.5 million Africans to the New World, ranks as one of history’s greatest crimes against humanity.   it was not driven by hatred and a desire to exterminate an entire people The overriding motive that lay behind the uprooting, enslavement, and coerced long-distance transport of millions of sub-Saharan Africans was (economic) greed. ( DAVIS, DAVID BRION, et al. “Foreword.” Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. xvii–xxii. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vm1s4.4. Accessed 27 Sept. 2025.

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The Industrial Revolution in Britain and parts of Europe reduced the economic centrality of plantation-based slavery. Manufacturing economies began to rely more on wage labor and mechanization, making slavery increasingly inefficient and less profitable compared to industrial production (Williams, 1944; Drescher, 2009).

To put it crudely, slavery ended as an economic model for West African slave suppliers due to advent of technology which made slavery unprofitable. To add to that the policy change to a liberal and emancipated ideology in Europe and America made slave exports a dumb business idea.

 

Which should have been a wake-up call for the West African Slave exporter states, however failed to wake up the states and soon Europeans moved in to exploit the land and people with greater glee.

 

The Emancipation declaration

When the Trump administration announced the new fees for H1 B Visa Rules (https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/h-1b-final-rule-h-2-final-rule-and-revised-form-i-129-effective-jan-17-2025) , the Indian IT Industry went into a panic (https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-h-1b-visa-clarification-eases-uncertainty-indias-it-industry-body-says-2025-09-22/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) .

 

Justifiably so.

 

 

For an Industry that was essentially based on outsourcing technical labor since the 1990s with almost zero innovations it was an ominous declaration. It was not unexpected. Why?

 

Because Nearly 60% of Indian IT export revenue comes from the United States, making the sector dangerously vulnerable to US policy changes (NASSCOM Report, 2024).and  tightening of H-1B visas (USCIS, 2025) brought out  how policy shifts abroad can destabilize India’s outsourcing-heavy model. Additionally, India’s IT boom was built on the wage gap between India and developed economies. As wages rise and AI-driven automation reduces the need for human coders, this model is losing viability (Deloitte, 2023).

Despite its size, the Indian IT industry spends less than 1% of its revenue on R&D, compared to 7–10% in US and Chinese tech firms (Economic Times, 2024). with low-end services like application maintenance and business process outsourcing rather than high-value intellectual property creation.

The ‘IT Coolie’

While its rather ludicrous to compare Transatlantic Slave trade to the IT Industry, the lessons to India as an economy and society is eerily similar. We as a society need to ask ourselves as to why did we let our economy and our society become a slave to outsourcing? And what can we do about it so that we do not end up as the Kingdom of Benin.

The Economy of the Computer Engineer

(a)   -The Production of ‘Engineers’ to feed the demands of a technical labor arbitrage perhaps is the greatest tragedy of STEM in India. An entire engineering college production pyramid with ‘computer science ‘ at the peak was built up only to supply the outsource market.  Essentially producing low level coders and developers under the label of Engineering.

(b)   The cost of training an Engineer vs the ROI on his employment made sense till the supply was scarce in the American Market but soon became skewed as more and more ‘computer engineers’ flooded the market.

(c)   Due to the anticipated demand the colleges of engineering spiked up fees, making even normal engineering inaccessible to the student who genuinely looked at stem. While the existing engineering colleges kept churning out ‘Computer engineers’ despite lowering demand.

 

(d)   Ultimately as the last axe fell via the H1B Visa regime and the Computer Engineer became an object of scorn.

 

King Gezo Syndrome.

(e)   This would have been just another ‘death of an obsolete job’ had it not been for the was Indian Society lapped up the outsourcing dream. It made outsourcing aspirational. As if the ‘American Job’ was the pinnacle of achievement. Brilliant brains which could have contributed happily to myriad other fields were sacrificed at the alter of this ‘American alter’.

(f)    Generations of the best of the best instead of doing their best , were becoming the best drones for the new slave trade and the Indian society applauded the remittances sent home.

(g)   It was as if the society suddenly took up the spirit of King Gezo of Benin.

 

Why the H1B Visa Regime is the emancipation declaration for India.

 

The mad rush to supply slaves did not stop because the slaves revolted, it strangely came due to the enlightenment of their masters. Although not the redemption one expects, the declaration of the H1B visa restrictions might be one such ‘enlightenment’ which foresees the Indian Society and Education system to change from a ‘technical coolie’ supplier to a genuine Production economy.

Instead of contorting backwards to circumvent the regime, it would behoove us not to make the same complacent mistake as the west African countries.

We Should honestly take a tough look at ourselves and what made us such suckers for this ‘slave industry’ and why did we waste an entire generation of bright minds to ‘IT job’. As to why did we let easy money seduce our brightest minds to drone work and since when did we reserve our greatest honor for drone work.

Its anybody’s guess if we will. Only time will tell.