Reconfiguring Slavery

Benedetta Rossi is Professor of History at University College London (UCL). She taught at the University of Birmingham from 2012 to 2020, and has held visiting positions at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Humboldt University in Berlin, and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. Her research focuses on the global and African history of slavery, abolition, labour and migration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project AFRAB (ERC-AdG-885418, 2020–2026) and Senior Researcher on the ERC-funded project LANGARCHIV.

• ContentsList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsPrefaceA note on Language1. Introduction: Rethinking Slavery in West Africa - Benedetta Rossi2. Slave descent and Social Status in Sahara and Sudan - Martin A. Klein3. African American psychologists, the atlantic Slave trade and Ghana: a History of the present - Tom McCaskie4. After abolition: Metaphors of Slavery in the political History of the Gambia - Alice Bellagamba5. Islamic patronage and republican emancipation: The Slaves of the Almaami in the Senegal river valley - Jean Schmitz6. Curse and Blessing: on post-slavery Modes of perception and agency in Benin - Christine Hardung7. Contemporary trajectories of Slavery in Haalpulaar Society (Mauritania) - Olivier Leservoisier8. Slavery and politics: Stigma, decentralisation and political representation in Niger and Benin - Eric Komlavi Hahonou9. Slavery and Migration: Social and physical Mobility in ader (Niger) - Benedetta Rossi10. Discourses on Slavery: reflections on forty years of research - Philip BurnhamGlossary of Foreign WordsIndex

'Reconfiguring Slavery is an important book that provides rich insight into processes of emancipation and the legacies of slavery in West Africa. Most chapters draw heavily on the testimony of former slaves or slave descendants, which gives special liveliness to the difficult conceptual issues under consideration. The book has much to offer for comparisons between slavery in West Africa and in other world regions, in particular perhaps in Asian settings. Many chapters in the volume also shed light on the impact and reach of Western imperialism in Africa. Reconfiguring Slavery will find its readers mainly among scholars specializing in African studies and slave studies, but teachers of world history courses interested in Africa will also find the book rewarding and stimulating even though the chapters do not make for suitable readings in undergraduate college courses.'Claus K. Meyer, World History Connected