Their perception reflected the actual conditions of slavery in varying degrees, but the correspondence between the ideological and social reality was never exact. Cooper uses the Swahili and the Arabs on the East African coast and their use of Islam to make sense out the their slave society. Similarly, Lovejoy Uses the Sokoto Caliphate to illustrate various ways in which slavery was perceived by different observers. In the sense that ideology is a cultural system which justifies and legitimizes a social order, ideology has an explanatory function. It is an articulated body of thought which applies to society, particularly as to the way society is supposed to function.
Ideology therefore motivates people to act according to an objectified moral code.
The various studies of Muslim society explain how slavery was conceived within a framework which encouraged conversion to Islam, allowed for the emancipation of acculturated and loyal slaves, and perpetuated a paternalistic attitude among slave masters in the treatment of slaves. In non-Islamic cultures, the ideological dimension justified actions in terms of the cultural setting. Where kinship was the governing principle, slavers were perceived as nonkin. People legitimized their control over slaves by defining them as outsiders to the kin group to justify denial of the rights and obligations of kin. This definition of slavery in terms of the lack of kinship ties not only explained slavery in the context of society but also allowed for the incorporation of slaves when artificial connections which could be interpreted in terms of kinships later developed.