The use of slaves in precolonial western Dar Fur: the case of Dar Masalit, 1870-1905
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Citation
Abstract
The present essay is written from the premise that African slavery - like
African Islam and African women cannot be studied and understood in
isolation from the political economy of the society in which it exists.
For the organization of this essay, this means that a short characterization
of Masalit society (and the changes it underwent between 1870 and 1905) will
precede the analysis of the use of slaves in Dar Masalit. It also implies that
the model of slavery presented here may be to a large extent valid for the
sultanates of Wadai and Dar Fur, if one excludes the enclaves inhabited by
foreign long-distance traders whose position and activities were in many ways
unique.3
This paper is based largely on oral sources collected in the Western Sudan
and Khartoum between 1978 and 1981.4 These sources include little data
obtained from people who have been slaves themselves - a major limitation
which the reader should bear in mind. However, while the analysis presented
here is provisional, it is the first of its kind in the field of Sudanese
history and may therefore form a valuable point of departure for future
research.
Description
African Studies Center Working Paper No. 92
License
Copyright © 1984, by the author.