Becoming a slave-descendant: labels and paths of emancipation in Northern and Central Chad

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the Sahel, labels related to slavery are often tools used to marginalize specific social groups. Scholars and activists for decades underestimated this issue, which was also underemphasized by theories describing slavery in Africa and among Muslim communities as mild. Exploring two specific labels related to slavery – Yalnas and Kamaya – in Chad, the article argues that the status of slave descendants is deeply connected to the colonial encounter, when most slave descendants’ labels were created; and that if slave ancestry matters today it is mainly because of forms of governance that facilitated the reproduction and political use of these labels. The focus should therefore move on from the debate about African or Muslim slavery and explore contemporary struggles around the meanings of labels used to stigmatize slave descendants.