Slavery and the Slave Trade in Colonial Africa

Abstract

The European conquerors of Africa found themselves to be rulers of slave populations whose numbers reached into the millions. The new rulers, rather than emancipate the slaves they encountered, adopted gradualist policies; they abolished overt slave trade, and later de-legalized slavery. While censuses of interwar slave populations were hardly feasible, it may be that several million Africans remained in slavery in 1920, a total perhaps comparable to the number of New World slaves in I86o.1 This collection of essays addresses directly the problem of slavery in twentiethcentury Africa.2 The title emphasizes the end of slavery, yet the content of the chapters gives almost equal emphasis to the continuation of slavery well into the colonial era. Suzanne Miers, co-editor of a well-known collection which focused on nineteenth-century slavery, has now joined with Richard Roberts to produce this sequel.3 Roberts and Miers introduce the book with an interpretive dilemma: 'Slavery in Africa sometimes ended suddenly, causing widespread disruption, and sometimes petered out with apparently minimal repercussions. Some scholars, therefore, see its demise as precipitating a crisis, while others view it as a nonevent . ' Did the world of African slave-holders end with a bang or with a whimper? Various contributions to the volume support each alternative. Raymond Dumett and the late Marion Johnson, contesting Gerald McSheffrey's earlier analysis, argue that the ending of slavery in Gold Coast 'must be one of the quieter social revolutions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries'. Jan Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy emphasize Lugard's careful efforts to ensure a gradual and smooth end to slavery among the Hausa. Richard Roberts, in contrast, provides