The political marginalization of the Darfur region since the creation of colonial Sudan has resulted in one of the continent's longest-standing conflicts, which threatens to destroy the country's social fabric and its historical heritage.
Hello Isaac, great write up as usual, these kingdoms are often over shadowed by the the big three or four, but definitely important, it seemed to me the both the Mamelukes and the Ottoman had mostly good relations with their neighbors, one thing that intrigued me is, the opposite direction of enslaved Eurasian into these lands to the south from the north, as far back as the Wagadu empire, and especially in Kanam Bornu where slave soldiers were employed, how prevalent was the bidirectional movement of enslaved persons, did it remained a novelty.
they may not have been too prevelant, but also not very uncommon. Most enslaved people in all regions of the world (and this includes Europe and Asia) were derived from populations that were relatively near (eastern europe, the steppes, turks, etc) and served specific roles (military, domestic, etc) so while there's often emphasis on enslaved africans, they never constituted anything more than a minority in most regions, albeit a highly visible one (even in most periods of islamic north africa, save for the rare exception of 19th century egypt and that was b'se of its expansion into sudan).
As for africa, the same rules apply, most enslaved people came from regions that were relatively close so those from farther afield were as rare as the reverse and considered a novelty.
the enslaved europeans in bornu were imported specifically for military service (abit like Ottoman janniseries or medieval Mamluks -who also mostly comprised enslaved turks and europeans)
the account of al-Umari and Ibn Battuta also indicates that some Mali officials bought enslaved mamluks for the palace guard, and one had an enslaved woman from Damascus.
the Zanzibar sultans also imported eastern european and turkish slaves (mostly women), and others from south asia (baloch region),
and it wasnt un common for the eastern sudanic kingdoms (Bornu, Wadai, Bargimi, Darfur) to receive tribute from their arab-speaking subjects in the desert regions, that included concubines, although these "arabs" were ethnically heterogenous.
Besides these are multiple reports of europeans being enslaved (or more accurately, imprisoned/detained) in parts of atlantic africa likie the Bijagos islands, and even in Kongo, there's also the account from Agadez in Niger where a belgian who was kidnapped in north africa was sold to the local sultan and joined the rest of his enslaved european peers, some of whom were from france.
so its safe to say there was biderictional movement of enslaved persons, but in the premodern world where transportation was poor (except at sea), and the demand for enslaved labour wasnt so high as to require constant replenishment from distant lands (eg the sugar and cotton plantations of the new world) it remaimed a novelty.
My introduction to the postwar Sudan was via Edgar O'Ballance's The Secret War in the Sudan 1955-1972, published in 1977 which included discussion of Sudan's history - it's a longstanding conflict.
Well, ive been trying to read sources and stuff that explains where daju origin is from, because when i read it from wikipedia it says they came from the nile valley after ezana’s sack of axum, and i cant find a source that says they speak nubian actually
Don’t they say fazughli is their origin and only its only eastern sudanic ? Then how come its considered nubian speaking because thats classified as northern eastern sudanic
Hello Isaac, great write up as usual, these kingdoms are often over shadowed by the the big three or four, but definitely important, it seemed to me the both the Mamelukes and the Ottoman had mostly good relations with their neighbors, one thing that intrigued me is, the opposite direction of enslaved Eurasian into these lands to the south from the north, as far back as the Wagadu empire, and especially in Kanam Bornu where slave soldiers were employed, how prevalent was the bidirectional movement of enslaved persons, did it remained a novelty.
they may not have been too prevelant, but also not very uncommon. Most enslaved people in all regions of the world (and this includes Europe and Asia) were derived from populations that were relatively near (eastern europe, the steppes, turks, etc) and served specific roles (military, domestic, etc) so while there's often emphasis on enslaved africans, they never constituted anything more than a minority in most regions, albeit a highly visible one (even in most periods of islamic north africa, save for the rare exception of 19th century egypt and that was b'se of its expansion into sudan).
As for africa, the same rules apply, most enslaved people came from regions that were relatively close so those from farther afield were as rare as the reverse and considered a novelty.
the enslaved europeans in bornu were imported specifically for military service (abit like Ottoman janniseries or medieval Mamluks -who also mostly comprised enslaved turks and europeans)
the account of al-Umari and Ibn Battuta also indicates that some Mali officials bought enslaved mamluks for the palace guard, and one had an enslaved woman from Damascus.
the Zanzibar sultans also imported eastern european and turkish slaves (mostly women), and others from south asia (baloch region),
and it wasnt un common for the eastern sudanic kingdoms (Bornu, Wadai, Bargimi, Darfur) to receive tribute from their arab-speaking subjects in the desert regions, that included concubines, although these "arabs" were ethnically heterogenous.
Besides these are multiple reports of europeans being enslaved (or more accurately, imprisoned/detained) in parts of atlantic africa likie the Bijagos islands, and even in Kongo, there's also the account from Agadez in Niger where a belgian who was kidnapped in north africa was sold to the local sultan and joined the rest of his enslaved european peers, some of whom were from france.
so its safe to say there was biderictional movement of enslaved persons, but in the premodern world where transportation was poor (except at sea), and the demand for enslaved labour wasnt so high as to require constant replenishment from distant lands (eg the sugar and cotton plantations of the new world) it remaimed a novelty.
Thank you for putting this into perspective, permission to share your answer with credit to you of-course if the need arise.
granted
My introduction to the postwar Sudan was via Edgar O'Ballance's The Secret War in the Sudan 1955-1972, published in 1977 which included discussion of Sudan's history - it's a longstanding conflict.
Well, ive been trying to read sources and stuff that explains where daju origin is from, because when i read it from wikipedia it says they came from the nile valley after ezana’s sack of axum, and i cant find a source that says they speak nubian actually
this
https://x.com/rhaplord/status/1868694830274294119
Don’t they say fazughli is their origin and only its only eastern sudanic ? Then how come its considered nubian speaking because thats classified as northern eastern sudanic
thats nice!! Could you tell me more about battle of the dinder river and hamis the darfuri prince
I've been meaning to write about the Funj kingdom for a while, but I'll need to gather all the sources I can get