Introduction: African Cities and Urban Slavery in Historiographical Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This introductory essay explores the rich historiography lying at the intersection of African urban and African slavery studies. How does the study of slaves, former slaves and those of slave descent in urban environments help us understand emancipation in Africa? How have those experiences of historical and contemporary emancipation shaped African cities? Case studies from Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Tanzania, and Madagascar address these questions. Contributors question long-held assumptions about cities providing autonomy, anonymity, and prosperity to those of slave origin. They suggest that interconnections between the rural and the urban are both material and ideological; moreover, memories and traditions travel the same migration paths as people. Thus, life histories tracing individual trajectories are key to revealing the humanity of urban slavery. As important as recent cultural studies are, however, labor—what people do, why they do it, and who they do it for—remains central to the urban “post-slave” experience.