Abolitionism succeeded thanks to the struggles of many movements, some of which were global, while others were local and emerged from pre-existing Anti-slavery laws in pre-colonial Africa that sought to protect the free subjects of individual states and kingdoms.
Very important article, thanks for posting, one thing I have to ask, did you happen take a look at the Kurukan Fuga by Sundiata Keita and the attempted abolishing of slavery within the Manden society including raids, especially article 6 , if not it's a nice little dive, keep up the good works sir.
Yes, the oral traditions related to Sudiata and the Nze Nri (Igboland, Nigeria) are the most intriguing regarding anti-slavery laws, and seem to significantly predate the 19th century period. But their interpretation required a bit more space than was available in this essay. Here I focused on the more direct evidence for such laws that we know of from the written sources.
I'm also aware of other examples, eg traditions in Dahomey about laws against enslaving people born in the kingdom, reports by Bowdich that runaway slaves in Asante automatically become free, etc. I think all these oral traditions concerning slavery deserve a separate article.
Great article! I went to see the statue of Ne Vunda in Rome last week. I have been doing more research on the Kongo for my MSc dissertation.
I was inspired by the article you wrote about AJR, which echoed a lot of the sentiment I felt when reading their section on the Kongo Kingdom in Why Nations Fail.
Thank you too. It's unfortunate that AJR's erroneous description of Kongo is still very popular in online spaces and popular literature. So many people, including professional scholars, retain an image of pre-colonial Africa that's steeped in outdated Eurocentric tropes
Very important article, thanks for posting, one thing I have to ask, did you happen take a look at the Kurukan Fuga by Sundiata Keita and the attempted abolishing of slavery within the Manden society including raids, especially article 6 , if not it's a nice little dive, keep up the good works sir.
Yes, the oral traditions related to Sudiata and the Nze Nri (Igboland, Nigeria) are the most intriguing regarding anti-slavery laws, and seem to significantly predate the 19th century period. But their interpretation required a bit more space than was available in this essay. Here I focused on the more direct evidence for such laws that we know of from the written sources.
I'm also aware of other examples, eg traditions in Dahomey about laws against enslaving people born in the kingdom, reports by Bowdich that runaway slaves in Asante automatically become free, etc. I think all these oral traditions concerning slavery deserve a separate article.
Looking Fwd to it as always, thank again.
Great article! I went to see the statue of Ne Vunda in Rome last week. I have been doing more research on the Kongo for my MSc dissertation.
I was inspired by the article you wrote about AJR, which echoed a lot of the sentiment I felt when reading their section on the Kongo Kingdom in Why Nations Fail.
Thank you.
Thank you too. It's unfortunate that AJR's erroneous description of Kongo is still very popular in online spaces and popular literature. So many people, including professional scholars, retain an image of pre-colonial Africa that's steeped in outdated Eurocentric tropes