42 - The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900

Summary

This chapter presents a list of ten Arabic letters that were either written by slaves, or addressed to slaves, in their role as commercial agents in the Niger Bend region of West Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century. One of them is a correspondence centered around two literate Muslim slaves who belonged to the same master, and who referred to themselves as brothers. The letters open a window on relatively autonomous and high-status slaves living in the circum-Saharan world of the nineteenth century. Sources of this kind allow us to add new stories to the history of slavery in Africa. Only some of the letters are dated. The first and second letters are written by Ṣanbu ʿĪsā to his master ʿĪsā b. Ḥmīda. The third letter is written by Anjay ʿĪsā to ʿĪsā b. Ḥmīda.