For the past three years, I have been teaching a course to third year
students entitled 'Slavery, Community and the State in Africa
c.1700-1910'. It deals with the impact of the slave trade on African
societies, economies and political systems, as well as the nature of
internal forms of slavery. It also addresses abolitionism and
emancipation in the colonial period.
We are presently being encouraged to explore the use of computers in
our teaching. Is there anyone out there who knows of a computer
package that might be relevant for my purposes? I am hoping that
there will be something which will enable students to experiment with
the kind of modelling of the demographic impact of the slave trade
which Patrick Manning performed in Slavery and African Life.