31 - “Being a Slave, I Was Afraid...”

Summary

For most of the nineteenth century, British control of the Gambia River was limited to a number of small enclaves. Slave labor was crucial both to the household economy and the expansion of commercial groundnut cultivation, which had boomed along the river in the second part of the century. This chapter describes the nature of slavery and slave-dealing in Gambia. It presents the testimonies of Yahling Dahbo, Dado Bass, and Maladdo Mangah in light of the particular vulnerability that enslaved women experienced. Yahling, Dado, and Maladdo together provide detailed recollections of their life in slavery. Domestic slavery could indeed have a benign face that mitigated the intrinsic vulnerability of having being enslaved. Legal abolition did not completely erase the social boundary between former slaves and masters, as slave origins still carry significance in contemporary Gambian social life.