Stigmas and Memory of Slavery in West Africa: Skin Color and Blood as Social Fracture Lines

Abstract

The campaign and eventual abolition of the African slave was momentous on several levels, not least for its impact on the global economy. In Africa itself, it brought about constant conflict. This article traces the ambiguities of the anti-slavery struggle on the part of the colonial powers, with a main emphasis on French colonies. It then proceeds to explore the legacies of slavery in several of these societies before reaching some broader conclusions about the contemporary discourse of legitimacy and memory.

« Récits cinétiques » : le déplacement comme récit de contestation des wahayu, concubines de statut servile dans les régions frontalières du Niger et du Nigeria

“…Et comme il est quasi impossible d'échapper à ce statut, qui est transféré d'une génération à une autre, les personnes d'ascendance servile demeurent nombreuses. Leur statut est héréditaire et elles appartiennent à une catégorie transmise de manière quasi perpétuelle par les parents et la lignée (Thioub 2012). Il en résulte un « esclavage classificatoire » (Rossi 2009 : 4), aussi appelé « esclavage par ascendance ».…”

Vodún/Vodu, Resistance, and North/South Relations in Undemocratic Togo

“…These embodiments are symbolic of the strong desire for mediation and de-escalation of ongoing 'ethnic conflicts' dating back to independence in 1960, as well as a means for writing past injustices involving the marriage of mostly northern bought women into Ewe patrilineages (Montgomery 2019b). Southern merchants throughout the Atlantic coast often captured, purchased, sold, and domesticated slaves throughout the Atlantic slave trade and into the 1920s to '30s (Argenti 2008;Thioub 2012;Montgomery 2019). Colonialism and the 400-year legacy of slavery created asymmetrical power relations, perpetuating shifting alliances and allegiances, and leading to divisiveness and long-standing polarization based on north/south markers.…”