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A VIEW OF THE SLAVE TRADE FROM THE MARGIN: SOUROUDOUGOU IN THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY SLAVE TRADE OF THE NIGER BEND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2001

ANDREW HUBBELL
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego

Abstract

The region of Souroudougou played a dynamic role in the regional slave trade of the western Niger Bend during the nineteenth century, supplying slaves to neighboring states. A number of mechanisms, termed here ‘indirect linkages’, connected sources of slaves in Souroudougou to the broader regional slave trade. These took the form of commercial activity by Muslim mercantile groups, banditry and alliances formed between neighboring states and local power brokers in Souroudougou. At the same time, the growing slave trade triggered important internal processes of change in the local social landscape, termed here the ‘espace de compétition’. In particular, heightened individual and group competition transformed established codes of behavior and social networks.

Type
Decentralized Societies and the Slave Trade
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I wish to thank Martin Klein, Richard Roberts and the editors of this journal for their comments on this article, and Mark Waggoner for assistance in producing the map. Funding for this project was provided by the Fulbright-Hays program for dissertation research abroad. Research was conducted during 1992–3.