Description
Book SynopsisWhile the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended in the nineteenth century, slave raiding and dealing and the extensive use of slave labor continued into the twentieth century in many parts of Africa. Using primary oral sources such as songs, proverbs, names, and everyday sayings as a basis for critical reflection, the overriding aim of this book is to shift emphasis from conventional historical methodology by exploring previously neglected oral sources. Bringing such sources into the academic conversation proffers new insights relating to victims’ responses and adjustments to slave raiding and trafficking in the late nineteenth century northern Ghana.
Trade Review"In this important and well-researched book, Emmanuel Saboro draws from original oral sources to show us how communities in northern Ghana are bearers of a collective memory of the transatlantic and internal trades." - Ana Lucia Araujo, Professor of History, Howard University
Table of ContentsContents Foreword Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Note on Transcriptions and Translations Introduction: Envisioning the Past in the Present: Hearing the Unsaid 1 Northern Ghana and the Historiography of the Slave Trade 2 Reconfiguring Enslavement and the Slave Trade in Africa: the Place of Oral Tradition 3 Memory/Remembering 4 Sources and Methods 5 Structure of the Book 1 Remembering a Fractured Past: Historicizing Violence, Captivity, and Enslavement in Northern Ghana in the Nineteenth Century 1 Introduction 2 The Gold Coast and the Trans-Atlantic Connection 3 Navigating Histories, Constructing Identities: Geography and People of Northern Ghana, the Bulsa and Kasena in Perspective 4 Post-abolition Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century 5 Asante and the Slave Trade in Northern Ghana in the Nineteenth Century 6 The Zabarima Slave Raiding Hegemony in Northern Ghana 7 “Babatu Has Really Dealt with Me and I Know”: the Portrait of a Ruthless Leader 8 ‘Places, Places Are Still There’: Salaga, a Bloodied Landscape of Captivity, Enslavement, and Dispossession 9 Conclusion 2 The Song as a Cultural and Historical Archive for Reconstructing the Past 1 Introduction 2 The African Song Tradition: a Brief Overview 3 Song Traditions in Northern Ghana: the Bulsa and Kasena in Perspective 4 “They Have Killed Me, Killing of a Different Kind”: Dirges/Laments/Sorrow Songs 5 War and Victory Songs 6 The Bulsa Battle Cry 7 The War Flute 8 Performing Pain: Song, Ritual Dance, and Performance 9 “Singing Rocks”: The Pikworo Slave Camp Songs 10 Conclusion 3 ‘Unspeakable Things Spoken’: Cultural Constructions of Trauma, Mourning Loss 1 Introduction 2 Framing Violence: Metaphorizing the Kanbong (Foreign Enslaver) as the Other 3 Sexual Violence 4 Of Mothering and Motherhood 5 Of Place, Belonging and Home 6 Where There Are No Graves: Metaphorizing Death and Mourning Loss 4 “Sins of Our Fathers”: Re-reading Indigenous Complicity Narratives 1 Notions of Betrayal: the Insider Motif 2 The Politics of Silence: Survival or Complicity? 3 Conclusion 5 “We Are Free at Last”: Local Adaptations and Indigenous Resistance Strategies against Captivity and Enslavement in the Hinterland 1 Introduction 2 “We Have Fled, Fled a Lot”: Flight as a Survival and Resistance Strategy 3 The Landscape and Hollow Trees as “Refuge Sites” 4 Hiding in Hollow Trees 5 Drums of War: Contestations and Deconstructing Notions of Victimhood 6 Animistic Metaphors as Counter Representation Strategies 7 The Lion 8 The Elephant 9 Celebrating Triumph over Tragedy 10 Conclusion Conclusion: Freedom beyond the Wound and the Silences Glossary Bibliography Index
