Slavery, Forced Labour and Identity in African History (P01253)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-SFLIAH

The history of modern slavery is primarily about an ever-widening circle of enslavement of peoples from Africa south of the Sahara. Whereas this is well known, what is less appreciated is the extent to which the slave trades were also bound up with the expansion of slavery as an institution within Africa. This course makes these linkages explicit, and pursues the topic through to the eventual ending of slavery in the colonial period. It examines the trans-Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades, indigenous forms of servitude and the replacement of slavery and pawnship with various forms of coerced labour in the twentieth century. Issue of identity will also be explored, not merely in respect of the distinction between slave and unfree, but also in the shaping of new religious and ethnic identities. Consideration will also be given to the slave voice, drawing on slave narratives such as the eighteenth-century autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The course, which is overtly comparative, is structured around a number of key debates in a rapidly expanding field. Students will also have an opportunity to engage with relevant contemporary texts, including writings by abolitionists and anti-abolitionists and colonial officials. The course will deal with West, West-Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, although the balance between them may shift from one year to the next.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 1 hour(s) 50 minutes per week for 9 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : Course will take place in Paul Nugemnt's Office in the Centre for African Studies, 21 George Square.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

It is anticipated that students will emerge from the course with:
-A clearer understanding of how Africaís experience of slavery relates to that of slave systems at other times and places;
-A greater sense of how the trajectories of different regions of Africa have been influenced by slavery;
-An enhanced ability to engage critically with historiographical debates;
-Improved presentation skills, given that the course will be run on the basis of seminars;
-A greater familiarity with the available source material and the advantages and pitfalls attached to each kind.