Slavery in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa is a collection of ten studies by the most prominent historians of the region. Slavery was more important in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa than often has been assumed, and Africans from the interior played a more complex role than was previously recognized. The essays in this collection reveal the connections between the peoples of the region as well as their encounters with the conquering Europeans. The contributors challenge the assertion that domestic slavery increased in Africa as a result of the international trade. Slavery in this region was not a uniform phenomenon and the line between enslaved and non-slave labor was fine. Kinship ties could mark the difference between free and unfree labor. Social categories were not always clear-cut and the status of a slave could change within a lifetime. Contents: - Introduction by Henri Médard - Language Evidence of Slavery to the Eighteenth Century by David Schoenbrun - The Rise of Slavery & Social Change in Unyamwezi 1860–1900 by Jan-Georg Deutsch - Slavery & Forced Labour in the Eastern Congo 1850–1910 by David Northrup - Legacies of Slavery in North West Uganda ‘The One-Elevens’ by Mark Leopold - Human Booty in Buganda: The Seizure of People in War, c.1700–c.1900 by Richard Reid - Stolen People & Autonomous Chiefs in Nineteenth-Century Buganda by Holly Hanson - Women’s Experiences of Slavery in Late Nineteenth- & Early Twentieth-Century Uganda by Michael W. Tuck - Slavery & Social Oppression in Ankole 1890–1940 by Edward I. Steinhart - The Slave Trade in Burundi & Rwanda at the Beginning of German Colonisation 1890–1906 by Jean-Pierre Chretien - Bunyoro & the Demography of Slavery Debate by Shane Doyle

The Batwa communities of the Great Lakes Region are mainly former hunter-gatherers who have been evicted from their forest homes over the course of many decades. They now live as a neglected and marginalized minority, often in remote conflict and post-conflict areas. Although Batwa adults and children across the region have identified education as their most important priority, the vast majority have had little if any chance to go to school. Poverty and hunger, and the long distances they often have to travel to access schooling, prevent children from enjoying what is their fundamental human right. Batwa identity has been historically misrepresented in school curricula in the region, and this continues today. Batwa children in Burundi report being told by teachers that because they are Batwa, they are ‘worth nothing’. For Batwa, access to education means change at the most basic level, such as being able to read public signs and notices. It allows self-sufficiency and promotes self-esteem; it offers the potential to undertake training in technical skills or access to employment, all of which would help Batwa people combat the poverty they live in. The welfare of minorities within a country has repercussions for its welfare as a whole. If the social and political exclusion of the Batwa is to end, it is clear that their education opportunities must improve dramatically at every level. This report contains a wealth of first-hand research from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda which clearly shows that more positive action is needed from governments, civil society organizations and the international community.

In this wide-ranging history of the African diaspora and slavery in Arabia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Matthew S. Hopper examines the interconnected themes of enslavement, globalization, and empire and challenges previously held conventions regarding Middle Eastern slavery and British imperialism. Whereas conventional historiography regards the Indian Ocean slave trade as fundamentally different from its Atlantic counterpart, Hopper’s study argues that both systems were influenced by global economic forces. The author goes on to dispute the triumphalist antislavery narrative that attributes the end of the slave trade between East Africa and the Persian Gulf to the efforts of the British Royal Navy, arguing instead that Great Britain allowed the inhuman practice to continue because it was vital to the Gulf economy and therefore vital to British interests in the region. Hopper’s book links the personal stories of enslaved Africans to the impersonal global commodity chains their labor enabled, demonstrating how the growing demand for workers created by a global demand for Persian Gulf products compelled the enslavement of these people and their transportation to eastern Arabia. His provocative and deeply researched history fills a salient gap in the literature on the African diaspora.

Though the history of slavery is a central topic for African, Atlantic world and world history, most of the sources presenting research in this area are European in origin. To cast light on African perspectives, and on the point of view of enslaved men and women, this group of top Africanist scholars has examined both conventional historical sources (such as European travel accounts, colonial documents, court cases, and missionary records) and less-explored sources of information (such as folklore, oral traditions, songs and proverbs, life histories collected by missionaries and colonial officials, correspondence in Arabic, and consular and admiralty interviews with runaway slaves). Each source has a short introduction highlighting its significance and orienting the reader. This first of two volumes provides students and scholars with a trove of African sources for studying African slavery and the slave trade.

Offers a historical, multidisciplinary perspective on African political systems and institutions, ranging from Antiquity (Egypt, Kush and Axum) to the present with particular focus on their destruction through successive exogenous processes including the Atlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism or globalization.

The rise of Zanzibar was based on two major economic transformations. Firstly slaves became used for producing cloves and grains for export. Previously the slaves themselves were exported. Secondly, there was an increased international demand for luxuries such as ivory. At the same time the price of imported manufactured gods was falling. Zanzibar took advantage of its strategic position to trade as far as the Great Lakes. However this very economic success increasingly subordinated Zanzibar to Britain, with its anti-slavery crusade and its control over the Indian merchant class. Professor Sheriff analyses the early stages of the underdevelopment of East Africa and provides a corrective to the dominance of political and diplomatic factors in the history of the area.

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

This history of African motherhood over the longue durée demonstrates that it was, ideologically and practically, central to social, economic, cultural and political life. The book explores how people in the North Nyanzan societies of Uganda used an ideology of motherhood to shape their communities. More than biology, motherhood created essential social and political connections that cut across patrilineal and cultural-linguistic divides. The importance of motherhood as an ideology and a social institution meant that in chiefdoms and kingdoms queen mothers were powerful officials who legitimated the power of kings. This was the case in Buganda, the many kingdoms of Busoga, and the polities of Bugwere. By taking a long-term perspective from c.700 to 1900 CE and using an interdisciplinary approach - drawing on historical linguistics, comparative ethnography, and oral traditions and literature, as well as archival sources - this book shows the durability, mutability and complexity of ideologies of motherhood in this region.

"This book ... focuses on the European invasion of the GLR. It analyses the factors that underlay the invasion, the demarcation process that followed and the indigenous people’s responses to it. What is worth noting is that most of the anti-colonial struggles in the GLR were anchored in religion. Reference is made to the Maji Maji Rebellion, the Nyabingi Movement, the Lamogi Movement, Dini Ya Misambwa and the different independent churches that arose in the GLR during colonialism. Even the more secular Mau Mau Movement integrated religious cultural practices in its bondings through oath taking. The most pronounced was the Nyabingi Movement, which covered almost the whole region – Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Uganda ... This work investigates why [the groups] resisted, the nature of their resistance and the reasons why they were defeated. It explains why and how the European colonisation of this region created material conditions and seeds for thesubsequent recurrent conflicts in the GLR."--Page 6.

The various manifestations of coerced labour between the opening up of the Atlantic world and the formal creation of Haiti.