Descent-based slavery

Last updated

Descent-based slavery is a form of slavery based on the assignment of a so-called hereditary "slave status". Although slavery has been officially abolished by law, stigmatisation and discrimination based on genealogy persist locally. [1] [2]

Contents

This phenomenon, rooted in history, still affects many people today, particularly in West Africa (Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal). Slavery by descent is present in most of the ethnic groups of the Western Sahel, particularly in the Tuareg, Moorish, Hausa, Soninke and Fulani communities.

"Slave" status is generally transmitted through the maternal line. Even after the official abolition of slavery by most of the colonial powers in Africa and right up to the present day, many people are still considered to be "descendants of slaves", on the grounds that one of their ancestors was enslaved. [1]

However, this group often also includes people who were never literally enslaved in the past, but who were assigned the social status of foreigners by village chiefs when they arrived, and who were only allowed to marry descendants of enslaved people, so that these "foreign migrants" are socially inserted into the "descendants of slaves" status group. [1]

Definition

Anti-Slavery International defines descent-based slavery as the situation where an individual is "born into slavery" because their ancestors were captured and enslaved and their families have "belonged" to "slave-owning" families ever since. [1] [3]

In terms of terminology, it is important to prefer the terms "enslaved", "considered to be a descendant of a slave", "locally assigned the status of a descendant of a slave", in order to avoid essentializing these categories, which are social rather than biological constructs. The activists themselves are fighting against the use of the term "slave".

History

The phenomena of slavery and internal trafficking preceded the transatlantic slave trade, although the latter reinforced the importance of trafficking in West African economies. People captured during wars or raids were enslaved, kept locally or sold to finance other wars.

In the 19th century, the phenomenon of internal slavery in West Africa grew in importance, with the increase in local conflicts, while the outlet for the Atlantic slave trade gradually closed as a result of the transatlantic abolitions. The abolitions and the fall in demand for slaves outside the continent made access to slave ownership possible for many sections of the population. The conversion of West Africa into a plantation economy, the "legitimate trade", particularly in coastal areas during the colonial period, relied essentially on the labour of enslaved people. [1] [4]

As "slave" status was mainly transmitted through the maternal line, this led to the creation of an endogamous class that could be exploited at will by the local elites. Freedom could be bought back, but this was rare. Some victims of descent-based slavery do not have ancestors who were captured and reduced to slavery, but were assigned this status after migrating to a new community. [5] The children of a "slave" concubine and a "noble" man are generally free if the father recognises them, but do not have a status strictly equivalent to that of the children of free wives. [6] [7]

The internal slave trade was officially abolished during French colonisation of French West Africa in 1905, which led a number of slaves to leave their former "masters ". [8] The history of descent-based slavery is linked to the history of internal migration, whether forced or voluntary, and whether or not it led to emancipation. [6] [7] Nevertheless, abolition did not always lead to the actual emancipation of those still assigned "slave" status: the colonial authorities only partially applied the new laws, and practices of slavery by descent continued in a more or less concealed form. [9]

Contemporary situation

Practices directly linked to the slave-owning past are still perpetrated today and form part of what is known as descent-based slavery.

These practices can be found in most communities in the Sahel (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Senegal).

People considered locally as "descendants of slaves" face discrimination and abuse. [1] [10] They are sometimes forced to work without pay, denied access to education and civil status documents, and excluded from public office. [3]

Refusal to accept the status of "slave" in the face of those who consider themselves to be their "masters" leads to sanctions in the villages where the people concerned live: victims of descent-based slavery who refuse their status are exposed to physical violence, and may be denied access to essential resources such as water, land and necessary consumer goods (embargo). [1]

Slavery by descent consequently leads to forced migration, which is not very visible and is invisible. Historically, these migrations have accompanied resistance and movements to escape slavery, to found autonomous communities, or to cities or neighbouring countries. [1]

In the Kayes region, which has been particularly hard hit by this phenomenon, more than 3,000 victims of descent-based slavery have had to leave their villages since 2018. Until 2021, the Malian authorities did not recognise the existence of victims of descent-based slavery in the region, and considered that the people concerned were simply taking part in "traditional" cultural practices, which had to be respected in order to preserve social cohesion. [1]

Slavery by descent is a "public secret" in the villages concerned, in a society that is generally reluctant to listen to what the victims have to say. [7] The "ideology of slavery", which can be defined as "a cultural system that justifies and legitimises a social order based on a social hierarchy inherited from slavery" persists today, prompting certain members of the political and economic elite who might be categorised as "descendants of slaves" to remain silent about their origins. [5] People considered locally as "descendants of slaves" are particularly vulnerable to other forms of modern slavery. [1] The practices of " fostering " (placing a child in the care of another family), marriage and domestic service may conceal situations of modern slavery under the guise of legality. [9]

Legislation

Legislation explicitly criminalising practices linked to descent-based slavery has existed in Niger since 2003 [11] and in Mauritania since 2015. [12] The Guinean constitution of 2020 prohibits slavery, human trafficking and forced labour (article 7), but these provisions were not included in the transitional charter of 27 September 2021. [13]

There is no specific law criminalising descent-based slavery in Mali, although the Constitution affirms the equality of all Malian nationals and the country is a signatory to several international conventions against slavery and trafficking (guaranteeing the right to life and freedom). [14] Since 2006, a coalition of Malian human rights organisations has been lobbying for the adoption of a law criminalising descent-based slavery. A draft law was drawn up but never passed, being relegated to second place in 2016 [15] by other government priorities, notably security. The absence of such a law makes it difficult to appeal to the courts, not to mention other judicial malfunctions and corruption. A number of anti-slavery activists and organisations also stress the importance of adopting such a law, even though they know that its effective application is likely to be long and complex. [1]

Resistance to descent-based slavery

Resistance to descent-based slavery and its consequences has existed throughout the history of this phenomenon, leading in particular to the foundation of free autonomous communities. The village of Bouillagui, in the Kayes region, is a good example. [16] In the same region, and particularly in and around the town of Kayes, people who have fled slavery are called "djambourou", which is synonymous with "Freedom". The origins of this term are unclear. It is possible that it comes from the Wolof term "diambour", which means "free peasant". This term would have travelled to West Africa with the French colonial conquest of Mauritania, Mali and as far as the Ivory Coast from Senegal. It would have referred to the inhabitants of the villages of freedom, founded by the French colonial administration to take in slaves fleeing their masters, but systematically recruited for forced labour by the colonial authorities. [17] [18] Today, the term has acquired a pejorative connotation in Kayes (Mali), denigrating these people as "vagabonds", "unattached", "uncivilised", "rebels to authority". When used to insult a female person, it even means "prostitute".

The traumas associated with exile, family separation and the persistence of stigma into contemporary generations fuel the fight against descent-based slavery. [19] [20] Various strategies exist to combat the stigma attached to victims of descent-based slavery: [5] these strategies range from concealing the assigned status (often facilitated by migration) to challenging it.

Social movements led by people assigned "slave" status now exist in almost all the countries of French-speaking West Africa. [5] [21] The Soninke diaspora is heavily involved in the fight against descent-based slavery, notably through the "Gambana" movement (a slogan meaning "equality"), operating mainly in Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania and Mali. Social networks play a decisive role in the fight against descent-based slavery. The Gambana WhatsApp groups are currently followed by more than 70,000 people in Africa and the diaspora. In Mali, several associations are fighting against descent-based slavery, including RMFP Gambana (Rassemblement malien pour la Fraternité et le Progrès), which is the national branch of the international Ganbanaaxun Fedde [22] movement. Major demonstrations against slavery took place in Kayes in 2020 (in reaction to the death of four Malian activists, beaten to death on the orders of local slave elites in Djandjoumé, western Mali), and in 2022 following the murder of Djogou Sidibé, who had refused to be assigned "slave status". [1] [23] The community of Malian bloggers also launched the #MaliSansEsclaves campaign in 2019. [1] [14] [24]

Other associations are active elsewhere in West Africa, including Semme Allah in Benin, SOS Esclaves in Mauritania, Timidria in Niger, etc.

Gender, age and descent-based slavery

The majority of those enslaved before abolition were women, and the majority left their "masters'" villages after abolition. [25] Female and juvenile labour was therefore in great demand, particularly among "noble" women, who turned to the family network. The system of confiage expanded in the twenty years following abolition. Questions of child custody after the father's death, or the recovery of a former "slave" child, were often submitted to the courts, because of the economic stakes involved. The emancipation of slaves also meant regaining control over their own families, which the courts rarely guaranteed in the absence of financial compensation to the former "master". The boundaries between trust, pledging one person for the debts of another, child labour and forced marriage became permeable and perpetuated the hierarchies of slavery. [9]

Young girls from poor families who have been assigned the status of "slaves" are still often victims of forced marriage under the wahaya system (Islamic concubinage): they are not considered legitimate wives and suffer social isolation, economic and sexual exploitation (as in the case of the movement of concubines from Niger to northern Nigeria). [26] [27] There is sometimes a return migration to the region of origin, but the socio-economic situation of these women generally remains precarious. [26]

Those considered as "slaves" are particularly vulnerable to modern slavery (the case of "petites bonnes" in Mali). [9]

Islam and descent-based slavery

People assigned "slave" status may face restrictions on their practice of the Muslim religion: the widowhood of a woman considered to be a "slave" is shorter; fathers of families are not allowed to slaughter animals for the feast of Tabaski and must butcher the animal in the family of those considered to be their former "masters".

Certain documents signed by the kadis ratified the liberation of a person categorised as a "slave" (manumission). In a pre-abolitionist Islamic context, manumission was a legal form of emancipation. Manumission gave access to certain Islamic privileges, such as receiving a new name and passing on an inheritance, but established a clientelistic relationship between the former "master" and the former "slave", who did not become free in the same way as the former master, but rather "freed". It was therefore not a question of total emancipation. As the colonial decrees abolishing slavery were only weakly applied by the administrations and courts, slavery and the practice of manumission persisted in certain areas. Recourse to manumission most often concerned the oldest members of the franche who were assigned slave status, a practice that was sometimes denounced as naïve, backward-looking or even as "treachery to one's class". In their journey towards emancipation and to free themselves from social stigma, other strategies are used to a greater extent, to challenge, circumvent or ignore these social boundaries. [28]

Various interpretations of Islam coexist with regard to slavery. Islam is often used by political and religious elites to maintain the status quo of slavery and descent-based slavery. On the other hand, resistance movements such as IRA Mauritania and Gambana invoke Muhammad's liberation of slaves and consider slavery practices to be illegitimate in an Islamic context.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate slaves around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Sudan</span> French colonial territory in West Africa from 1880 to 1960; now Mali

French Sudan was a French colonial territory in the Federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1959, when it joined the Mali Federation, and then in 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. The colony was formally called French Sudan from 1890 until 1899 and then again from 1921 until 1958, and had a variety of different names over the course of its existence. The colony was initially established largely as a military project led by French troops, but in the mid-1890s it came under civilian administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haratin</span> Ethnic group in Africa

The Haratin, also spelled Haratine or Harratin, are an ethnic group found in western Sahel and southwestern Maghreb. The Haratin are mostly found in modern Mauritania, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Algeria. In Tunisia and Libya, they are referred to as Shwashin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic views on slavery</span>

Islamic views on slavery represent a complex and multifaceted body of Islamic thought, with various Islamic groups or thinkers espousing views on the matter which have been radically different throughout history. Slavery was a mainstay of life in pre-Islamic Arabia and surrounding lands. The Quran and the hadith address slavery extensively, assuming its existence as part of society but viewing it as an exceptional condition and restricting its scope. Early Islamic dogma forbade enslavement of dhimmis, the free members of Islamic society, including non-Muslims and set out to regulate and improve the conditions of human bondage. Islamic law regarded as legal slaves only those non-Muslims who were imprisoned or bought beyond the borders of Islamic rule, or the sons and daughters of slaves already in captivity. In later classical Islamic law, the topic of slavery is covered at great length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compensated emancipation</span> Form of abolishing slavery in which former slaveowners were paid

Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery, under which the enslaved person's owner received compensation from the government in exchange for manumitting the slave. This could be monetary, and it could allow the owner to retain the slave for a period of labor as an indentured servant. In practice, cash compensation rarely was equal to the slave's market value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Mauritania</span>

Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the northwest African country of Mauritania and estimated to be "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country, although it has also been estimated that "Widespread slavery was traditional among ethnic groups of the largely nonpastoralist south, where it had no racial origins or overtones; masters and slaves alike were black", despite the cessation of slavery across other African countries and an official ban on the practice since 1905.

The New York Manumission Society was founded in 1785. The term "manumission" is from the Latin meaning "a hand lets go," inferring the idea of freeing a slave. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States as well as statesman Alexander Hamilton and the lexicographer Noah Webster, along with many slave holders among its founders. Its mandate was to promote gradual emancipation and to advocate for those already emancipated. New York ended slavery in 1827. The Society was disbanded in 1849, after its mandate was perceived to have been fulfilled. the society battled against the slave trade, and for the eventual emancipation of all the slaves in the state. In 1787, they founded the African Free School to teach children of slaves and free people of color, preparing them for life as free citizens. The school produced leaders from within New York's Black community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Brazil</span>

Slavery in Brazil began long before the first Portuguese settlement. Later, colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases of settlement to maintain the subsistence economy, and natives were often captured by expeditions of bandeirantes. The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries. Europeans and Chinese were also enslaved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in contemporary Africa</span> Modern history of slavery in Africa

The continent of Africa is one of the regions most rife with contemporary slavery. Slavery in Africa has a long history, within Africa since before historical records, but intensifying with the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trade and again with the trans-Atlantic slave trade; the demand for slaves created an entire series of kingdoms which existed in a state of perpetual warfare in order to generate the prisoners of war necessary for the lucrative export of slaves. These patterns persisted into the colonial period during the late 19th and early 20th century. Although the colonial authorities attempted to suppress slavery from about 1900, this had very limited success, and after decolonization, slavery continues in many parts of Africa despite being technically illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Key Grinstead</span> Enslaved woman in colonial America (1630–1665)

Elizabeth Key Grinstead (or Greenstead) (1630 – January 20, 1665) was one of the first Black people in the Thirteen Colonies to sue for freedom from slavery and win. Key won her freedom and that of her infant son, John Grinstead, on July 21, 1656, in the Colony of Virginia.

The Ikelan are a caste within Tuareg society, who were at one time slaves or servile communities in their natives lands like Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom suit</span> Enslaved persons lawsuits for freedom

Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by slaves against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom, often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor, or time held as a resident in a free state or territory.

<i>Code Noir</i> 1685 law on slavery in the French colonial empire

The Code noir was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire and served as the code for slavery conduct in the French colonies up until 1789 the year marking the beginning of the French Revolution. The decree restricted the activities of free people of color, mandated conversion to Catholicism for all enslaved people throughout the empire, defined the punishments meted out to them, and ordered the expulsion of all Jewish people from France's colonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Mali</span>

Slavery in Mali exists today, with as many as 200,000 people held in direct servitude to a master. Since 2006, a movement called Temedt has been active in Mali struggling against the persistence of slavery and the discrimination associated with ex-slaves. There were reports that in the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, ex-slaves were recaptured by their former masters. Moreover, the phenomenon of descent-based slavery still persist in different ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Cuba</span>

Slavery in Cuba was a portion of the larger Atlantic Slave Trade that primarily supported Spanish plantation owners engaged in the sugarcane trade. It was practised on the island of Cuba from the 16th century until it was abolished by Spanish royal decree on October 7, 1886.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Tunisia</span>

Slavery in Tunisia was a specific manifestation of the Arab slave trade, which was abolished on 23 January 1846 by Ahmed I Bey. Tunisia was in a similar position to that of Algeria, with a geographic position which linked it with the main Trans-Saharan routes. It received caravans from Fezzan and Ghadamès, which consisted solely, in the eighteenth century, of gold powder and slaves, according to contemporary witnesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in ancient Greece</span> History of slavery in ancient Greece

Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancient Greece, as it was in contemporaneous societies. The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, and as domestic servants.

Niama was a Senegalese princess, who was enslaved, and whose liberation meant she became one of the first enslaved people to be freed on Réunion. She was also the mother of the astronomer, botanist and academic Jean-Baptiste Lislet Geoffroy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aline Helg</span>

Aline Helg is a historian, specializing in the history of slavery. She is known for her research and books on the history of revolutions, the Americas, the African diaspora, civil rights, racism and ethnicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Cartagena</span>

Cartagena has a long history with slavery, that ranges from the 1500s to the early 1800s. It was one of three Spanish ports allowed to take in slave shipments in the Spanish Americas, and was one of the most popular. This led to an economy based on labor of African slaves. This also made Cartagena a place with rich African heritage and racial discourse, including the Cartagena witch trials and conflicts with neighboring maroon villages. Many ladinos became ship workers, and later these ship workers fought for independence from Spain starting in 1810. After freedom was decreed in 1821 the new government decided on manumissions and freed births to gradually end slavery.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pelckmans, Marie Rodet, Bakary Camara, Marie-Christine Deleigne, Lotte (2021-06-07). "West Africa's Modern Slavery Problem". The Republic. Retrieved 2024-01-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Camara, Bakary; Pelckmans, Lotte; Rodet, Marie (2021-03-11). "Pourquoi l'" esclavage par ascendance " subsiste encore au Mali". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  3. 1 2 Antislavery (2019). "The difficult path to freedom" (PDF). Antislavery.
  4. ↑ Law, Robin (1995). "From Slave Trade to "Legitimate" Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa". African Studies Series (86).
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hahonou, E. K.; Pelckmans, L. (2011). "West African Antislavery Movements: Citizenship Struggles and the Legacies of Slavery". Journal of African Studies. S2CID   56114532.
  6. 1 2 Pelckmans, Lotte (2013-03-01). "Moving Memories of Slavery among West African Migrants in Urban Contexts (Bamako, Paris)". Revue européenne des migrations internationales. 29 (1): 45–67. doi:10.4000/remi.6266. ISSN   0765-0752.
  7. 1 2 3 Pelckmans, Lotte (July 2012). "'Having a Road': Social and Spatial Mobility of Persons of Slave and Mixed Descent in Post-Independence Central Mali". The Journal of African History. 53 (2): 235–255. doi:10.1017/S0021853712000400. hdl: 1887/20409 . ISSN   1469-5138. S2CID   145100166.
  8. ↑ Rodet, Marie (2015). "Escaping Slavery and Building Diasporic Communities in French Soudan and Senegal, ca. 1880-1940". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 48 (2): 363–386. ISSN   0361-7882. JSTOR   44723365.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Rodet, Marie. ""Under the Guise of Guardianship and Marriage": Mobilizing Juvenile and Female labor in the Aftermath of Slavery in Kayes, French Soudan, 1900-1939".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ↑ Pelckmans, Lotte (2020-01-01). "2020 - Breaking the Silence? Gambana and the Ongoing Legacies of Internal African Slavery in Kayes, Mali". The Dependent.
  11. ↑ Aït-Hatrit, Saïd (2003-05-13). "Le Niger criminalise l'esclavage". Afrik (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  12. ↑ "De l'application de la loi sur l'esclavage en Mauritanie, le HCDH et le BIT publient un rapport critique". www.cridem.org. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  13. ↑ Avocats sans frontières. "La prise en compte des droits fondamentaux dans le cadre de la rédaction de la nouvelle Constitution de Guinée : état des lieux et enjeux" (PDF).
  14. 1 2 RODET, Marie (2019-09-30). "#MaliSansEsclaves : au Mali, criminaliser l'esclavage par ascendance est une urgence". Benbere (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  15. ↑ "The fight against descent-based slavery in Mali". africasacountry.com. 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  16. ↑ Rodet, Marie. "BD Bouillagui, un village libre". Bouillagui.
  17. ↑ Bouche, Denise (2017-09-25), "Les villages de liberté en Afrique noire française: 1887–1910", Les villages de liberté en Afrique noire française (in French), De Gruyter Mouton, doi:10.1515/9783111342665, ISBN   978-3-11-134266-5 , retrieved 2024-01-10
  18. ↑ "Le travail forcé en Afrique Occidentale Française (1900-1946)". Karthala (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  19. ↑ Rodet, Marie (2020-01-01). "Documenting the History of Slavery on Film in Kayes, Mali".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ↑ Productions, Ker Doff (2017-12-04), Les Diambourou : Esclavage et émancipation à Kayes - Mali (2014) , retrieved 2024-01-10
  21. ↑ Lotte Pelckmans, Christine Hardung (2015). "Introduction au thème- La question de l'esclavage en Afrique : Politisation et mobilisations". Politiques Africaines. 140 (140): 5–22. doi:10.3917/polaf.140.0005.
  22. ↑ "Association Armepes France| Lutte contre l'esclavage| Paris". www.ganbanaaxufedde.com (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  23. ↑ "L'assassinat de Diogou Sidibé: le prix de l'affranchissement". Avocats sans frontières Canada (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  24. ↑ YAO, Michel (2019-09-17). "#MaliSansEsclaves : à Kayes, persécutés au nom de la coutume". Benbere (in French). Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  25. ↑ Rodet, Marie (2013), Bellagamba, Alice; Klein, Martin A.; Greene, Sandra E. (eds.), "Gender, Migration, and the End of Slavery in the Region of Kayes, French Soudan", African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1: The Sources, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 319–330, ISBN   978-1-139-02255-2 , retrieved 2024-01-10
  26. 1 2 "Invisibility in African Displacements". www.bloomsburycollections.com. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  27. ↑ "Wahaici". LESLAN (in French). 2019-01-09. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  28. ↑ Schorsch, Jonathan (2021-03-03), "Transformations in the Manumission of Slaves by Jews from East to West", Paths to Freedom, University of South Carolina Press, pp. 69–96, doi:10.2307/j.ctv1gk4r3w.8, S2CID   233818281 , retrieved 2024-01-10
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.