Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa

A special issue of Genealogy (ISSN 2313-5778).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 12593

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of History, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA
Interests: African and Women’s/gender history; slavery; human trafficking; child labor; human rights; adoption

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The history of child slavery and systems of forced/coerced labor continues to be a rising topic, as is the focus on the contemporary trafficking of children (Allain 2012; Duane 2017; Pelckmans 2013; Razy and Rodet 2016; Rossi 2015). In 2009, historians Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller published the first comprehensive edited collection on child slavery throughout history and another in 2011 focused on modern child slavery. The former focuses on defining ‘who is a child’ and the latter on ‘what is slavery’. These are instructive texts on how ‘to do’ child slavery history and provide a basis on which scholars can move forward. Additionally, although there remains the question of whether historical slavery and modern systems of forced and coerced labor should be considered synonymous, scholars and policy makers continue to pay attention to various forms of unfree statuses throughout history (Kara 2017; Lawrance 2010; Quirk and Vigneswaran).

Many nineteenth-century abolitionists and humanitarians celebrated the collapse of the transatlantic slave trade as a noteworthy success even though African domestic slavery rose exponentially in its aftermath. This “reinvention and reconfiguration” of slavery deserves scholarly consideration, especially as it relates to children (Chapdelaine 2021; Law 1995; Lawrance 2012; Shell 2018). Anna Mae Duane argues that “although children are often excluded from the calculus of who counts as a slave, they have long been central to defining slavery itself,” precisely because of the child’s vulnerability and dependency on others (2017). Examining children’s vulnerabilities and dependencies is essential to understanding their daily experiences.

This Special Issue, Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa, will focus on children who inhabited unfree social statuses throughout history.  As noted in the American Historical Review Exchange (2020) on children’s histories, scholars continue to debate the efficacy of doing children’s history. It has, however, been argued that “children should be historicized, in their own right, as slaves” (Chapdelaine 2021). This is true even when there is limited archival material that represents their voices (Lawrance 2014). It is within this context that Genealogy is asking authors to share their perspectives and historical research on child slaves with the following questions in mind.

Questions to consider:

  1. Who is a child? What is child slavery?
  2. Where are children’s voices in the archives?
  3. What types of tasks did child slaves perform?
  4. How did masters and guardians conceal child slavery?
  5. How do children’s experiences add to larger African histories?
  6. How can oral history contribute to the history of child slaves?
  7. How did African politics, religion, agriculture, commercial activities, etc. incorporate child slaves?

These are just some questions to consider, among many more.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to [email protected] by 1 May 2023. Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Sources

Allain, Jean. The legal understanding of slavery: From the historical to the contemporary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Campbell, Gwen, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph Miller. Children in Slavery. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009.

Campbell, Gwyn, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph Calder Miller. Child slaves in the modern world. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011.

Chapdelaine, Robin Phylisia. 2022. The following exchange was prompted by Femi J. Kolapo's review of Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine's The Persistence of Slavery: An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020), published as ‘Child Trafficking After Abolition’ in this journal, Volume 62, Issue 3, 2021. The Journal of African History 63: 284–285. doi:10.1017/s0021853722000329.

Chapdelaine, Robin P. Little Voices: The Importance and Limitations of Children’s Histories. The American Historical Review 125: 1296–1299. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa377.

Duane, Anna Mae, ed. Child slavery before and after emancipation: An argument for child-centered slavery studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Kara, Siddharth. Modern slavery: A global perspective. Cambridge: Columbia University Press, 2017.

Northrup, David, and Robin Law. 1997. From Slave Trade to "Legitimate" Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa. The American Historical Review 102: 862. doi:10.2307/2171620.

Lawrance, Benjamin Nicholas. Amistad's Orphans: An Atlantic story of children, slavery, and smuggling. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.

Lawrance, Benjamin N. 2010. From child labor “problem” to human trafficking “crisis”: child advocacy and anti-trafficking legislation in Ghana. International Labor and Working-Class History 78: 63–88.

Lawrance, Benjamin N., and Richard L. Roberts, eds. Trafficking in Slavery’s Wake: Law and the Experience of Women and Children in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2012.

Razy, Élodie, and Marie Rodet, eds. Children on the Move in Africa: Past and present experiences of migration. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer, 2016.

Shell, Sandra Rowoldt. Children of hope: The odyssey of the Oromo slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2019.

Quirk, Joel, and Darshan Vigneswaran. 2013. The Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora. Trenton: Africa World Press.

Dr. Robin P. Chapdelaine
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • child/ren
  • slave/ry
  • history
  • forced labor
  • coerced labor
  • Africa

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2079 KiB  
Article
Vulnerability and Dependence in Slavery and Post-Slavery Societies: A Historicisation of the Enslaved Children (Pon Pekpen) from the Bamum Kingdom (West Cameroon)
by Mbohou Sylvain
Genealogy 2024, 8(3), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8030083 - 30 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1604
Abstract
This article is a reflection on the history of enslaved children (Pon pekpen) in African slavery and post-slavery societies, such as the Bamum Kingdom. This traditional monarchy of the Grassfields of Cameroon, founded in 1394 by Nchare Yen, was one of [...] Read more.
This article is a reflection on the history of enslaved children (Pon pekpen) in African slavery and post-slavery societies, such as the Bamum Kingdom. This traditional monarchy of the Grassfields of Cameroon, founded in 1394 by Nchare Yen, was one of the largest providers of captives transported to the Atlantic coast and used locally to meet the needs of traditional slavery. In this kingdom, slaves and their descendants, as well as enslaved peoples, represented nearly 80% of the total population. The trade of captives and servile practices left indelible traces, particularly where enslaved children were concerned. So, what did enslaved children represent in African slavery and post-slavery societies, such as the Bamum Kingdom? The aim of this study is to show that the enslaved children were the most vulnerable and dependent members of slavery and post-slavery systems. This study is based on oral, archival iconographic, written and electronic sources, using theories of social dominance and subaltern studies. It clearly shows that the vulnerability and dependence of enslaved children (Pon pekpen) made them special, weak and hopeful links in the slavery system and the persistence of slavery practices. They were mainly victims of traditional slavery and of the trans-Saharan and transatlantic slave trades. Despite the formal abolition of the slave trade and slavery between the 19th and 20th centuries, enslaved children and the descendants of enslaved people continue to be victims of a kind of subalternisation because they are usually considered second-class citizens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa)
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21 pages, 280 KiB  
Article
Child Soldiers/Child Slaves: Africa’s Weaponised Unfree Children in Blood Diamond (2006) and Beasts of No Nation (2015)
by Lauren Van der Rede
Genealogy 2024, 8(2), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8020046 - 25 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1674
Abstract
The figure of the child is one that, at least in the Westernised imagination, is entangled with notions of innocence, naivety, and freedom. But what of the child who is unfree, who has been stripped of innocence, and for whom naivety is a [...] Read more.
The figure of the child is one that, at least in the Westernised imagination, is entangled with notions of innocence, naivety, and freedom. But what of the child who is unfree, who has been stripped of innocence, and for whom naivety is a danger? One expression of this iteration of the figure of the child is the child soldier, which has been a centralising figure in various narratives set during and concerned with African experiences of warfare. This paper is concerned with the figure of the child soldier as it is staged in both Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond (2006) and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s filmic adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, Beasts of No Nation (2015). In turning to Ashis Nandy’s articulation of the tension held within “the child” as being both emblematic of a fantasy of childhood produced by adult nostalgia—hopeful, joyous and free—and always potentially dangerous, this paper pivots the notions of soldiering and slaving on and around the child as a figure. In doing so, the paper asks what it might mean to think of the condition of being a child soldier as being akin to that of being a child slave, weaponised for political and economic ends. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa)
13 pages, 881 KiB  
Article
Experiences of Enslaved Children in Luanda, 1850–1869
by Vanessa S. Oliveira
Genealogy 2024, 8(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy8010029 - 13 Mar 2024
Viewed by 2445
Abstract
About half of Luanda’s population comprised enslaved people in the mid-nineteenth century. Although scholars have examined the expansion of slavery in Angola after the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the use of slavery to underpin the trade in tropical commodities, the [...] Read more.
About half of Luanda’s population comprised enslaved people in the mid-nineteenth century. Although scholars have examined the expansion of slavery in Angola after the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the use of slavery to underpin the trade in tropical commodities, the labor performed by enslaved children has been neglected. This study explores the experiences of enslaved children working in Luanda during the era of the so-called “legitimate” commerce in tropical commodities, particularly between 1850 and 1869. It draws upon slave registers, official reports, and the local gazette, the Boletim Oficial de Angola, to analyze the means through which children were enslaved, the tasks they performed, their background, family connections, and daily experiences under enslavement. This paper argues that masters expected enslaved children to perform the same work attributed to enslaved men and women. After all, they saw captives as a productive unit irrespective of their age. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa)
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14 pages, 301 KiB  
Article
Child Trafficking in Africa: Reimagining the Problem
by Mitterand Okorie and Uchenna Okeja
Genealogy 2023, 7(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7030064 - 11 Sep 2023
Viewed by 4787
Abstract
Current perspectives on the intractability of child trafficking in Africa considers the problem as a failure of law enforcement or a lack of political will by state actors. In response, these works tend to suggest the need for strengthened institutional mechanisms as a [...] Read more.
Current perspectives on the intractability of child trafficking in Africa considers the problem as a failure of law enforcement or a lack of political will by state actors. In response, these works tend to suggest the need for strengthened institutional mechanisms as a preventative measure to curb the problem. We contend however, that this perspective does not fully appreciate the seeming detachment of civil society in Africa regarding the plight of children. In light of this, we argue that an examination of child trafficking as an intractable human rights problem ought to first, interrogate how childhood is viewed in the continent. Such interrogation creates the possibility of reimagining the problem by observing the lived realities of children in Africa and the (in)ability of society to keep track with their humanity. Further, we propose the need to memorialize the harms that children in Africa have been exposed to in the past and present through commemorative markers, as a means of appreciating the precarity of childhood in the continent. We reason that doing so will create a stronger sense of responsibility for state and civil society towards children and potentially curb child trafficking. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa)
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