Unbroken Chains

A Spectator 'Book of the Year'A new, full history of slavery in Africa, from the Pharaohs to the present.Updated in PaperbackSlavery has ravaged African societies since at least 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape; from Mauritania to Somalia. Most writing covers just one fraction of this history: the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Yet Indian Ocean slavery was equally sizeable, and far longer-lived. Historians often neglect the continent's internal practices, too--Ethiopian kingdoms enslaving conquered peoples; the Sokoto Caliphate capturing men and women on a scale matching the US plantations.Overlooked stories of enslavement matter. In 1794, Congress authorised construction of the US Navy's first six ships--to protect civilian vessels from North Africa's Barbary corsairs, who raided as far as Britain and the Caribbean, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Europeans. And, since abolition of the trans-Atlantic trade, international focus on 'modern' slavery has left Africans enslaved as chattel today with few champions. The UN and African Union are too embarrassed to confront leaders still permitting this practice.Unbroken Chains is the first full account of the bondage systems that have scarred African communities over the millennia. It is an illuminating, powerful read.Addresses head-on the thorny issue of reparations—dissecting the arguments for and against—and ultimately explaining why they cannot be paid. Argues that the past must be confronted globally—including the Arab world, India and Turkey—as well as Britain and the West, when discussing African enslavement. Effective use of primary sources to discuss Africa’s internal slavery, the enslavement of Europeans by the Barbary corsairs of North Africa, and modern-day slavery practices, amongst others. Contends that the United Nations and African Union are too embarrassed to confront the African states continuing to permit the practice of chattel slavery today.