Slavery, Resistance, and Identity in Early Modern West Africa - The Ethnic-State of Gajaaga

Exploring the complexities of identity in precolonial West Africa, Makhroufi Ousmane Traoré shows the Soninke community's resistance to the slave trades led to the formation of a united community bound by an awareness of ethnic belonging. Traoré highlights the varied ways in which West Africans crafted and negotiated their identities.

List of contents

Introduction; Part I. Between the Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean: 1. The ethnic-state of Gajaaga; 2. African slavery versus the slave trade(s); Part II. Atlantic Slavery, Kingship, and Worship of Nature: 3. Trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic Gajaaga; 4. Matriarchy, ecology, and Atlantic slave trade; Part III. Gajaaga at the centre, the French Empire at the Edge: 5. Resisting the French empire; 6. Bridging empire and hinterland; Conclusion.

About the author

Makhroufi Ousmane Traoré is Assistant Professor at Pomona College and an African scholar whose research primarily focuses on the history of the Trans-Saharan and Transatlantic slave trades. He was awarded the 2022 Andrew Mellon New Directions Fellowship. With this fellowship, Traoré endeavors to shine a light on the unheard voices of African Egyptologists with the publication of a textbook featuring African perspectives on Egyptology.

Product details

• Authors: Makhroufi Ousmane Traoré
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.05.2025
• EAN: 9781009282338
• ISBN: 978-1-009-28233-8
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: African Identities: Past and Present
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; European History, HISTORY / Africa / General, Anthropology, African History, Political science and theory, West Africa, Slavery and abolition of slavery