Slavery in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa

by Henri Medard (Editor), Shane Doyle (Editor)

Overview

This book enlarges perceptions of one of the main themes of African history. Slavery was more important in the Great Lakes region than often has been assumed and Africans from the interior played a more complex role than was previously recognised.

These are ten studies by the most prominent historians of the region, four of which have been translated from French. They reveal the connections between the peoples of the region as well as their encounters with the conquering Europeans. The growth of Zanzibari and Sudanese trade had consequences for local forms of slavery. Slave traders were often compelled to negotiate with African leaders more than in neighbouring areas.

Slavery was not a uniform phenomenon and the line between enslaved and non-slave labour was fine. Forms of servitude within the region are compared and a number of conflicting interpretations examined. Kinship ties could mark the difference between free and unfree labour. The social categories are not always clear-cut and the status of a slave could change within a lifetime. There were more female than male slaves and in the pre-colonial period the use of women could be critical for kingdoms in meeting labour demands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782047889
Publisher:	James Currey
Publication date:	12/01/2007
Series:	Eastern African Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Henri Médard is at M.A.L.D in Montreuil.

Shane Doyle is a lecturer in history at Leeds University.

Table of Contents

List of Maps & Tables     ix
Notes on Contributors     x
Introduction   Henri Medard     1
Violence, Marginality, Scorn & Honour: Language evidence of slavery to the eighteenth century   David Schoenbrun     38
Notes on the Rise of Slavery & Social Change in Unyamwezi: c. 1860-1900   Jan-Georg Deutsch     76
Slavery & Forced Labour in the Eastern Congo: 1850-1910   David Northrup     111
Legacies of Slavery in North West Uganda: The story of the 'One-Elevens'   Mark Leopold     124
Human Booty in Buganda: Some observations on the seizure of people in war c. 1700-1890   Richard Reid     145
Stolen People & Autonomous Chiefs in Nineteenth-Century Buganda: The social consequences of non-free followers   Holly Hanson     161
Women's Experiences of Enslavement & Slavery in Late Nineteenth & Early Twentieth-Century Uganda   Michael W. Tuck     174
Slavery & Other Forms of Social Oppression in Ankole: 1890-1940   Edward I. Steinhart     189
The Slave Trade in Burundi & Rwanda at the Beginning of German Colonisation: 1890-1906   Jean-Pierre Chretien     210
Bunyoro & the Demography of Slavery Debate: Fertility, kinship & assimilation   Shane Doyle     231
References     252
Index     269

Editorial Reviews

"Slavery in the Great Lakes takes us away from the coast to the much neglected interior. ... (T)his book is a much needed addition to the literature on the East African slave trade and will be very useful in the classroom."--Journal of Third World Studies

"(Slavery in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa) goes well beyond a consideration of slavery within the kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro, to consider wider issues in the study of slavery such as its relationship to warfare, gender relations, ethnicity, and colonialism. By doing so, it places the Great Lakes--a region that is typically located at the periphery of the commercial slave trade that flourished to the north, east, and west--at the center of historical analysis."--The International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Penetration of the region by slave dealers led to a rapid expansion of slavery in the nineteenth century, but this book makes clear that slavery has a long history there."--The Journal of African History

"This book is a pioneer study devoted to answering basic questions such as the chronology of slavery in the region, what forms it took, how it changed over time, how central it was to the societies under study, and what its connections were to the much better-known slave trades from the interior to the East African coast and from Southern Sudan northward."--African Studies Review

From the Publisher