Enslaved Africans and their descendants in Africa : life histories / edited by Martin A. Klein and Stephen J. Rockel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Klein, Martin A., editor, author.

Rockel, Stephen J., editor, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enslaved persons--Africa--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

Children of freed persons--Africa--Biography.

Children of freed persons.

Africa.

Genre:

Biographies

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 416 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Unlike narratives focused on enslaved people in the Americas, Europe, or the Middle East, this edited collection highlights the lives of African slaves and their descendants who remained in Africa. The contributors chronicle lives spanning the continent, from Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon to Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Africa. The collection explores various forms of slavery and diverse personal trajectories, with many stories beginning in childhood enslavement and evolving into adulthood with limited chances for education or personal advancement. Notably, the accounts include figures who managed to achieve prominent roles, such as a slave who became a general and administrator, a female slave who rose to be a village chief, and a woman who became a successful obstetrician in Muslim Africa. The narratives underscore the resilience and agency of the enslaved individuals, many of whom created meaningful lives despite the constraints and stigma of both slavery and post-slavery. Some, like a medical missionary in Tanganyika and a slave convert who helped grow the Catholic Church in Burkina Faso, contributed significantly to their communities and religious institutions. Accessing these stories required rigorous research due to limited documentation, social silence surrounding slavery, and stigma associated with slave ancestry. The contributors' extensive research brings together fragmented knowledge and oral histories to provide an invaluable perspective and insight into the complex identities, struggles, and achievements of African slaves and their descendants"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : Life Histories of Enslaved Africans, Their Descendants, and the Biographical Turn / Stephen J. Rockel

Part I. Enslavement and Freedom in the Nineteenth Century

James Will : A Narrative of Slavery and Liberation in Yorubaland and Sierra Leone / Richard Anderson

An Eyewitness Account of Slavery in the Central Sudan : Dorugu's Narratives / Mohammed Bashir Salau

Part II. Experiencing Enslavement and Redemption

The Autobiography of Adrien Atiman : Freed Slave to Medical Missionary / Stephen J. Rockel

Alfred Diban's Experience of Enslavement / Martin A. Klein

Braiding the Life Narratives of Two Oromo Slave Children : Tolassa Wayessa and Bisho Jarsa / Sandra Rowoldt Shell

Part III. The Lives of Women and Children

"I have married Knowledge" : Fatmé Effendi, from Enslavement in Abyssinia to Medical School in Egypt, ca. 1828-1847 / George Michael La Rue

"A fate as happy as mine!" : The Enslavement of Young Fadalcarim, from Taqali to Istanbul and Her Redemption in Alexandria, Egypt, ca. 1846-1856 / George Michael La Rue

Kengni (1907-2007) : A Woman's Fate in the Cameroonian Grassfields / Ricardo Marquez García

Part IV. Two Slavers and Two Slave Officials

Ndiba and Mbartwa : Two Slavers among the Gbaya of Eastern Cameroon, 1859-1903 / Joseph Jules Sinang

Pasha Aroueli : An 'Outsider' in Precolonial Bagirmi / Adam Mahamat

Gourdo, A Female Slave Chief / Dadda Astabarka and Abdouraman Halirou

Part V. Descendants: Silence and Forgetting

The Predicament of Silence : The Presence of the Unspeakable in the Life of a Slave Descendant in Southwest Cameroon / Ute Röschenthaler

Slave Status in the Cameroon Grasslands Today : The Comparison of the Life Histories of Two Bun / Moris Samen.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9780821426500

0821426508

OCLC:

1514649613

Publisher Number:

CIPO000295967