Slavery in the Mandara Mountains and Lake Chad Basin
Slavery in the Mandara Mountains and Lake Chad Basin
- Melchisedek ChetimaMelchisedek ChetimaUniversité du Québec à Montréal
Summary
The demand for slaves in the Lake Chad Basin spanning a long period from at least the 16th century through the first half of the 20th century significantly shaped the physical and human landscapes. Throughout this long period, the Mandara Mountains were part of the practice of slavery as an area of predation first for Kanem-Borno between the 15th and 18th centuries and then for the kingdom of Wandala since the 18th century and the Sokoto Caliphate through the Lamidate of Madagali since the 19th century. To better contextualize the issue of slavery and its role in the political and social transformations of the Chadian Basin, we will rely on three types of sources: first, the travel reports of European explorers and the German, French, and English colonial archives which reported the practice of slavery in the region; second, oral traditions collected by historians and anthropologists; and third, a diary dictated between 1912 and 1927 by Hamman Yaji, the most important slave raider in the southern Lake Chad Basin during that period. As an internal source dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, this diary provides insight into the explosion of slave raids in the early years of colonial occupation and offers unique insight into the relationship between slave-owning and enslaved societies as well as the ambiguous relationship between colonial masters and slave-owning societies.
Subjects
- Slavery and Slave Trade