Slavery in Africa

Current state of scholarship indicates that:

– Before the start of the transatlantic slave trade, in many parts of Africa categories of persons existed whose status we translate as ‛slaves’ (of course different African societies had their own, different names for such category)

– During the transatlantic slave trade, both slavery and slave trading within Africa transformed and expanded

– After the ending of the transatlantic slave trade, forms of slavery continued in many parts of Africa, in many cases well into the twentieth century

These claims are general and abstract.What do they mean for people?How to understand them? And – how to teach them?

Slavery in Africa

Issues we propose we talk about this afternoon:

– What is a slave? (in general, in Africa, in Ghana)

– Patterns of slavery in Africa

– Thinking about what primary sources we have for thinking and teaching about this

– Connections / differences between African slave systems and the transatlantic slave trade

– Change over time

“Slave”: A Working Definition

“Slave”: A Working Definition

Slaves across time and space have shared the following liabilities:

– Property: a slave is a person who is owned by an individual or corporate entity

– Rightlessness: a slave is a person who can claim none of the social, political, or spiritual rights and privileges of membership in society (though the granting of some such rights to slaves might be tolerated, even encouraged)

– Outsider: a slave is thus often marked by outsider status, which may be registered as ethnic, religious, racial, or some other category of social difference

Slavery in Africa

‛…one part of a continuum of relations, which at one end are part of the realm of kinship and at the other involve using people as chattels. Slavery is a combination of elements, which if differently combined—an ingredient added here or subtracted there—might become adoption, marriage, parentage, obligations to kinsmen, clientship, and so forth’

Slaves in Africa ‛were people of foreign origin, people who had been outlawed for criminal acts, people who had lost the protection of their kinfolk, or become irredeemably indebted to others. They differed from those enslaved by Europeans in that under normal conditions they were likely to be reabsorbed into society’

‛Life-cycle of the slave’: African slaves are most vulnerable, and most likely to be sold-on, just after capture, over time they become more integrated in society and in the lineage of their owners.

Forces us to think about how we conceive of binary of slavery and freedom: relates to thinking in particular time and place. Alternative: ‛bundles of rights in people’. Also: gender – female slaves often preferred (unlike in TAST)

Slavery in Africa

But: Africa is a diverse continent, and fundamental differences existed between African slave systems.

Let’s focus on Ghana

Use of slave labour by entrepreneursGold mining, forest clearing for agriculture

The concept of the ‛Big Man’Status and wealth not simply through gold and material goods (though especially imported goods became important) but through the number of dependents (could include slaves, or impoverished family members, others)

Integration of (former) slaves in clan, family, society.

Sources on slavery in Africa

What are the sources on which our insights on slavery in Africa are based? - Very few African written sources are available.

Sources on slavery in Africa

What are the sources on which our insights on slavery in Africa are based? - Very few African written sources are available.

• Reports from foreign travellers and slave traders. Assumptions about existence of slaves; Assumptions about ‛barbaric peoples’ (gender, power, justice, religion, ‛cannibalism’) >>

• Archaeology (slave markets, circulation of objects relating to slavery)

• Oral history and ‛collective memory’

• Projecting ethnographic research from around 1900 back in time.

• (For most of the time, no images, unfortunately)(Those images that exist are problematic.)

Sources on slavery in Africa

[1] ‛A group of these Blacks who eat the sons of Adam came to the Sultan Mansa Sulaiman with their amir. It is their custom to put in their ears big pendants, the opening of each pendant being half a span across. They wrap themselves in silk and in their country is a gold mine. The Sultan treated them with honour and gave them in hospitality a slave woman, whom they killed and ate. They smeared their faces and hands with her blood and came to the Sultan to thank him. I was told that this is their custom whenever they come on an embassy to him. It was reported of them that they used to say that the best parts of the flesh of human females were the palm of the hand and the breast.’

[2] ‛An attempt has been made to persuade me that they are cannibals, and that at a place called Savy, where a market is held, at a time of intensive famine they had slaves fattened, who were then sold, either alive to be butchered and eaten, or dead and cut into pieces for the same purpose, heads being also displayed on the market stands, so that those who were buying these meats would know if they were young or old, man or woman. I do not give entire credence to what I report at this point from hearsay.’

Sources on slavery in Africa

What are the sources on which our insights on slavery in Africa are based? - Very few African written sources are available.

• Reports from foreign travellers and slave traders. Assumptions about existence of slaves; Assumptions about ‛barbaric peoples’ (gender, power, justice, religion, ‛cannibalism’)

• Archaeology (slave markets, circulation of objects relating to slavery)

• Oral history and ‛collective memory’

• Projecting ethnographic research from around 1900 back in time.

• (For most of the time, no images, unfortunately)(Those images that exist are problematic.)

Sources on slavery in Africa

African slavery and the transatlantic slave trade

Why would African leaders engage in the transatlantic slave trade?

• Fage: African leaders had ready supply of slaves;Rodney: slavery result of European demand for slaves;Thornton: Africa ‘legally divergent’, unfree labour existed and could be ‘converted’ to be sold

• Internal slave market existed, but labour was needed in African communities (agriculture, mining)

• Were African leaders forced?- by European military force?- for access to imported goods?

• Thornton: opportunity for coastal leaders(relative price on the coast that they could use the proceeds to get more enslaved Africans in return from the interior)

Changes over the years of the slave trade

In some parts of Africa, local political elites become dependent on the slave trade to keep their power base (inflow goods). A large number of enslaved Africans is required: how achieved?

Changes over the years of the slave trade

In some parts of Africa, local political elites become dependent on the slave trade to keep their power base (inflow goods). A large number of enslaved Africans is required: how achieved?

• Slave raiding>> results in displacement, and attempt to defend against raiders

• Warfare>> were wars fought with the aim of procuring slaves?

• Exploiting relative fluidity categories – pawns sold

• Judiciary

• From selling ‛foreigners’ in some cases ways to selling local people (dependents, slaves)

• When atlantic slave trade declines: increasing use of slave labour in agriculture

It is said that the chief’s great-grandfather of the same name, Togbui Awusa Nodrkutsu of Atorkor, was the first to allow the Danes to come ashore to ply their trade. As the trade progressed, Atorkor became known as a major way station for slaves. … A system developed whereby Ndorkutsu, through his agents stationed near Anyako, Hatorgodo, and further inland, collected slaves in the hinterland and brought them to the coast. These agents brought the slaves to Ndorkutsu’s “big house” on the shore of Atorkor. There, they awaited European and American ships…

One day a group of drummers, famous drummers from the area, were playing their drums on the shores of Atorkor. The type of drum they were playing was called the adekpetsi drum. On this day the group included two of Togbui’s relatives – Ndorkutsu’s grandson and his grandfather. As the drummers played, the Europeans came to collect the slaves. As he was preparing to go, the captain of the ship invited these drummers to come aboard and play. He offered them barrels of drink, giving the same to the crowd that had begun to assemble on the Atorkor shore. An atmosphere of merriment ensued, and many became drunk. Thus were the drummers lured onto the European ship. Before they knew what was happening, the ship set sail, taking them away…

Togbui heard the story from his grandfather – the son of Ndorkutsu. He stressed the fact that this story was secret; that the details were told to him not all at once but little by little. He emphasized how sensitive a subject this was since several of the descendants of these drummers had since changed their family names…

The story goes that emotions ran so high about this incident that the neighbouring towns of Atorkor and Srogbe almost went to war. No one wanted to go to war, but it was a distinct possibility since it was widely thought that this incident was prearranged. The captain of the drummers was said to have offended one of the wives of Chief Tamaklo from the neighbouring town of Wuti. In response, Chief Tamaklo arranged with Ndorkutsu for the drummers to play on the Atorkor shore.