Short Abstract

This panel explores how individuals used legal institutions, norms and practices to contest slavery and dependency and to pursue freedom and autonomy in Africa. We welcome contributions that foreground African experiences and agency and that examine law as a field of negotiation and contestation.

Long Abstract

Slavery and other forms of dependency profoundly shaped the lives of men, women, and children across many regions of Africa. Alongside diverse indigenous systems of bondage and economic and social subordination, European colonial expansion introduced new legal and political regimes that transformed, interacted with, and at times reinforced existing subjugation practices. Yet, people subjected to slavery and other forms of dependency were not passive victims. They employed a range of strategies to challenge, negotiate, and redefine their status, including flight and engaging with legal institutions.

This panel examines the relationship between law, slavery, dependency, and freedom in African societies from the precolonial period through the colonial era. We are particularly interested in how enslaved individuals understood, articulated, and pursued claims to freedom. Which legal arguments and institutions did they invoke? How did they navigate overlapping and sometimes competing legal orders? In what ways did colonial interventions reshape the possibilities and limits of emancipation, autonomy, and belonging?

Africans drew on multiple sources of legal authority. Some invoked local legal norms and institutions, while others mobilized colonial legislation, emancipation decrees, or local norms. In certain contexts, they turned to institutions that colonial authorities designated as “indigenous courts,” using these forums to contest enslavement, negotiate status, or assert autonomy.

We welcome proposals that foreground African experiences and agency and that examine law as a dynamic field of contestation through which enslaved and dependent people pursued their own interests, challenged inequalities, and shaped the meaning and possibilities of freedom.

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