Paper short abstract:

This communication analyses the trajectories of former slaves in the rural hinterland of Malindi (Kenya), 20th century. Through written corpus and interviews, the aim is to understand what emancipatory tracks were possible through the Christian missions on the one hand and marronage on the other.

Paper long abstract:

This communication analyses the trajectories of former slaves at the beginning of the 20th century in Malindi's rural hinterland (Kenya). Through a written corpus (colonial archives, missionary sources) and interviews conducted in the region with people whose ancestors had been slaves, we seek to understand what emancipatory tracks were provided by the Christian missions after abolition of slavery on the one hand and by the marronage on the other. If these two tracks were supposed to sign the end of slavery, what new statuses did the former slaves experience, when colonisation required cheap labour? Moreover, one of the patterns in the post-slavery process, which is not specific to the Kenyan coast, is the assimilation into local non-slave communities (here the Mijikenda groups). However, this assimilation seems to have been made to various degrees and if it seems to have been “full” in some cases (notably via Christianity), the distant foreign origin or servile ancestry is still something known today among a village or within the same family. This communication will be based on two case studies. In Jilore, freed slaves joined the ranks of the Church Missionary Society and often had ascending economic and social trajectories. In Ganda, fugitive slaves, and then freed slaves, mostly Muslims, settled and experienced major issues throughout the century (identity documents, land access), which challenged the idea of total emancipation.

Paper short abstract:

Notre contribution analyse le retour en Sierra Leone et Guinée équatoriale, d' esclaves africains affranchis provenant des Etats-Unis d'Amérique, de Jamaïque et d' Angleterre. Elle traite des incidences linguistiques et culturelles: la créolisation, la diffusion de l'anglais et du protestantisme.

Paper long abstract:

La traite et l'esclavage des Africains s'étendent du XVIe au XIXe siècles. Les révoltes d'esclaves et le mouvement abolitionniste impulsés à la fin du XVIIIe siècle entament le système négrier et esclavagiste. L'abolitionnisme vise la suppression de l'esclavage des Noirs. C'est un mouvement international né en Angleterre où il est incarné par William Wilberforce, fondateur de la Society for the extinction of the slave Trade. En France, il est surtout représenté par l'abbé Grégoire et Victor Schoelcher. Aux États-Unis d'Amérique, l'abolitionisme est animé principalement par les Quakers et des missions protestantes comme les évangélistes dont faisait partie Harriet Beecher-Stowe, l'auteur de La Case de l'oncle Tom. Après l'affranchissement des esclaves noirs, des groupes d'abolitionnistes anglais vont organiser leur retour en Afrique, notamment en Sierra Leone. Leur présence dans ce pays, et plus tard dans l'actuelle Guinée équatoriale dans le sillage du Tribunal hispano-britannique chargé de la répression de la traite, permettra le développement local de la langue anglaise et de la religion protestante. La diversité des peuples, des langues et des culturelle sur ces deux territoires favorisera la créolisation c'est-à-dire un phénomène de métissage culturel et linguistique.

Notre contribution analyse le retour de ces anciens esclaves en Afrique, ainsi que les incidences linguistiques et culturelles de leur installation en Sierra Leone et en Guinée équatoriale. Pour ce faire, nous nous appuyons sur les archives britanniques et espagnoles, les mémoires des pasteurs baptistes anglais, les entretiens ciblés, l'observation directe et les enquêtes de terrain.

Paper short abstract:

Adopting an "urban" "Swahili" or "Ngwana" culture provided respectability within the caravan trade complex and the basis for urbanization along the former caravan trade routes after colonial conquest had destroyed the caravan trade complex - propagandistically claiming to have abolished slave trade.

Paper long abstract:

The nineteenth-century history of slavery and slave trade in East Central Africa was embedded in the caravan trade complex. The emancipation from slavery should, therefore, also be understood in relation to the caravan trade complex.

Marcia Wright researched formerly enslaved people who had been liberated by Christian missionaries. Philip Gooding described how making career within the caravan trade complex was a gradual process of increased respectability and independence. Both historians talk about fundamentally different groups of people: humans shipped by the caravan trade complex versus people running the caravan trade complex. In East Central Africa the distinction between both groups was not as clearcut as it may seem further east.

I argue that, first, life perspectives had been shattered before being absorbed by the caravan trade complex, and that, gradually, hopes for the future were developed within that complex. The "enslaved" label is mainly an external qualification. The precarious, arbitrary, and violent situation within the caravan trade complex, however, was something people wanted to liberate themselves from. Some people may have found this emancipation by fleeing, but we know little about them. We can trace those who found emancipation within the complex, though.

Adopting an East Central African "urban" "Swahili" or "Ngwana" culture provided status or respectability within the caravan trade complex and the basis for urbanization along the former caravan trade routes after colonial conquest had destroyed the caravan trade complex - propagandistically claiming to have abolished slave trade.

Paper short abstract:

Through the study of diaries, registers and interviews conducted in the Taita region (Kenya), we seek to understand the logics of emancipation of former slave families and their descent in the Catholic mission of Bura in the early 20th century, in a context of reformation of local identities.

Paper long abstract:

In 1892, the Catholic priests of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit decided to set up a mission in Bura, on the Dabida hill, few years before the creation of the East Africa Protectorate. They took with them a dozen young couples of former slaves who had been ransomed by the priests in Bagamoyo Catholic station (German East Africa). During the first years, the missionaries' policy, supported by the help of former slaves, perpetuated numerous acts of violence against the inhabitants of the region (spoliation of land, etc.). The latter, in return, did not hide their hostility towards the mission in a context of emphasising community ties and redefining identities after the settling of Europeans, episodes of great famine and new types of migratory movements. These events influenced the choices of the former slaves and their descendants, in their emancipation and in the creation of a common identity. They tried to find a better future in a place where the support to Christians was not well seen, relying on the advantages given by the mission or seeking their fortune elsewhere, migrating to Nairobi or to Tanganyika.

Up to today, the historiography of the Taita hills never took into consideration the impact of slavery on the personal lives of some inhabitants of the region. This contribution to the history of the Christian villages of former slaves in East Africa, tries to understand the logics of emancipation of these former slaves and their descendants in the first decades of the 20th century.

Paper short abstract:

The limited sources available on the lives of former slaves lack representativeness and often concern exceptional people or circumstances. This paper reflects on how these sources, both precious and frustrating, can be used to shed light also on those ex-slaves who remained in the shadows.

Paper long abstract:

A range of political and social factors worked against the retention of information on the lives of former slaves in twentieth-century East Africa. Neither missionaries nor colonial officials wanted to acknowledge the persistence of unfreedom or hardship for former slaves, people with marginal origins had little to gain from stating them, and those seeking to keep them marginal preferred to use less charged categories in doing so. Due to this conspiracy of silence, information on the aftermath of slavery is often scattered, fleeting, partial and partisan.

When information is richer (or even if it is available at all), this is often due to exceptional circumstances and focused on exceptional individuals. For instance, the names of ex-slaves may turn up in the record if they needed emergency help during famine. Almost all respondents who acknowledged their ancestors’ slave origins were descended from people who had done exceptionally well for themselves or shown particular courage. Their subsequent success enabled them to safely acknowledge their marginal origins.

This paper seeks to reflect on the implications of the reliance on the historiography of post-slavery on such ‘unicorns’, that is, sources available due to exceptional circumstances or the exceptional character of their protagonists. It argues that we must acknowledge the limitations of this material while pushing against them. We will never have a representative set of sources on post-slavery lives, but the struggles and pursuits of the most fortunate can still yield some information also on those who remained in the shadows.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the position of women who were dependent of "Arab(ised)" traders in and around Kisangani throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. It addresses how these women were able to negotiate their condition and that of their peers through several forms of alliance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses a limited sample of life histories of women who were married to or enslaved by so-called "Arab(ised)" traders throughout the late 19th and early 20th century in the region of Kisangani (Democratic Republic of the Congo). The stories of these women were recollected through oral interviews with their descendants. The paper addresses three particular elements: (1) the hazy boundary between slavery and marriage in a more general context of relations of dependency and a predominance of "wealth in people" societal structures; (2) the agency of these women in their access to/pursuit of social and economic mobility for themselves and their relatives; and (3) the relative status of bridewealth to distinguish between different types of alliance in the region.

Paper short abstract:

Negotiating freedom and belonging to families and society varied across time and space in Unyamwezi. This paper explores the diverse experiences of former slave women to show how culture and missions shaped struggles for social recognition and integration into the post-abolition Nyamwezi society.

Paper long abstract:

Most slaves in Unyamwezi were women and girls working as both domestic and field slaves. Because of the increasing demand for agricultural produce, most slave women lived in rural Unyamwezi as agricultural laborers. By 1890, about two-thirds of the Tabora district's population (233,000 out of 350,000 residents) were slaves, and women constituted the majority. Slave owners preferred slave women to male slaves because they were “docile” and “easier to control and were valued as agricultural laborers, sexual partners and potential mothers.” As such, they were “higher priced” than male slaves because they could be absorbed into “kinship groups” and “patronage networks”, becoming “children” or “relatives” or “part of their owner’s family.”

Although slave women could be integrated into the owner’s family, becoming free and belonging to families and society varied across time and space in Unyamwezi. The majority of slave women, despite their assimilation into the owner’s family through marriage and sexual partnership, remained marginal in the hierarchies of families and religious circles and binaries between bonafide members and ‘former slaves’ who dominated social and religious life in Unyamwezi. Despite certification of freedom, others were excluded from the Nyamwezi ritual, the right to own land, and decision-making and participation. Eventually, slave women lived in Nyamwezi patriarchal societies with limited legal positions, social rights and economic opportunities such as self-employment and social mobility. They were also deprived of access to resources, freedom of choice and the development of personal skills.

This paper, relying on church records deposited in the archives of western Tanzania and oral interviews collected in Unyamwezi, weaves through the post-slavery experiences of former slave women living in missions and villages. Because the effects of slavery on formerly enslaved women and their descendants varied depending on the culture and society they were brought into contact in post-abolition Unyamwezi, they shaped struggles for social recognition and integration into the Nyamwezi society. While some former slave women “attached themselves to people” and, in due course, sought autonomy within the households, others, instead, relocated to distant villages where they were unknown in search of opportunities, including marriage, access to resources, and ritual. In the end, the paper seeks to show that an understanding of freedom, marginality and integration of slave women should consider context, culture and varied responses of former slave women in space-time.