A study that argues that slavery was never a common phenomenon in Africa. In centralized states it developed from indigenous servitude to form an integral component of an elaborate kinship system. BNS, 284pp, maps, figures, photographs, appendices, index. UK. EDWIN MELLEN PRESS.

Ten essays on the commercial transition in nineteenth Century West Africa. Considers the implications for societies of the transition between the slave trade and the legitimate trade in palm oil and other vegetable products. Includes essays on gender, owners & labour, plantations, palm oil, the Asante, Dahomey, etc. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

A collection of documents by writers and witnesses that offer perspectives on the trade and movement of slaves across the United States. BNS, USA. PENN. STATE UNIV PRESS, 027102089X

A collection of twenty essays exploring the institutions of debt bondage in Africa, in which individuals were held as collateral in lieu of debts that had been incurred. The authors discuss how the slave trade shaped the institution and how colonial rule then impacted on it in turn. What is also demonstrated are the close links between servility, credit and gender in the history of large parts of Africa from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Index, bib, notes, vi, 480pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.

An edited volume of studies on resistance to forms of bondage in Africa, Asia and the Indian Ocean analysing the causes, duration and structure of resistance. The contributors also assess to what degree, if any, resistance was effective in alleviating the nature of bondage. BNS, 256pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

Examines perceptions of one of the main themes of African history, slavery. Argues that there was no single form of slavery and the line between enslaved and non-slave labour was fine, challenging the assertion that domestic slavery increased in Africa as the result of the international trade. Selected contents: 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; 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; 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. Index, bib, 273pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

An examination of the meaning of slavery in the Indian Ocean world up to the period of European economic and political predominance in the nineteenth century. The author looks at complex and shifting forms of servitude and how they were affected by human and natural forces including state building, commercialisation, and political predominance. Index, maps, notes, xxxii, 206pp, UK. FRANK CASS.

Slavery in Africa existed for hundreds of years before it was abolished in the late 19th century. Yet, we know little about how enslaved individuals, especially those who never left Africa, talked about their experiences. Collecting never before published or translated narratives of Africans from southeastern Ghana, Sandra E. Greene explores how these writings reveal the thoughts, emotions, and memories of those who experienced slavery and the slave trade. Greene considers how local norms and the circumstances behind the recording of the narratives influenced their content and impact. This unprecedented study affords unique insights into how ordinary West Africans understood and talked about their lives during a time of change and upheaval. 300pp, USA. INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

The literature on Atlantic slavery is rich with accounts of plantation complexes in the Americas, but to date none have been produced for West Africa. In this valuable study, Mohammed Bashir Salau helps to address this lacunae by looking at the plantation operations at Fanisau in Hausaland, and in the process provides an innovative look at one piece of the historically significant Sokoto Caliphate. 208pp, UK. PALGRAVE.