This article seeks to re-examine the contemporary evidence about the early history of the Maravi chieftaincies of northern Zambesia. It challenges the view that the Maravi were long established in Zambesia and became aggressive and expansionist in the late sixteenth century when the Portuguese interfered with the ivory trade. Instead it suggests that these chieftaincies were only formed in the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century by a number of different groups who migrated into the region north of the Zambezi and who conquered the existing population. Some of these intrusive groups crossed the Zambezi and attacked the wealthy Karanga states to the south, but these invasions were frustrated by the Portuguese who blocked all attempts to settle south of the river. Defeated in their efforts, the Maravi chiefs turned aside to invade the Mozambique lowlands. It was one of these incursions that in the 1580s gave rise to the legend of the marauding, cannibal Zimba.

The establishment of settled Maravi states occurred only as a result of the rise of Muzura in the first half of the seventeenth century. He defeated his rivals with Portuguese aid but was, in his turn, frustrated in his attempts to interfere in Karangaland, and in the end was badly defeated by the Portuguese in 1632. Thereafter he concentrated his activity on developing the ivory trade with the Portuguese on the Zambezi and in Mozambique Island, while the region south of the Zambezi became subject to Portuguese warlords and the trade monopoly of the captain of Mozambique.

Le trafic des esclaves en Libye au XVIIIe siècle représents une branche de commerce relativement importante dans un pays aux faibles ressources économiques.

Les esclaves provenaient du Soudan d'où ils étaient acheminés à travers le désert. La plupart rentraient en Libye par le Fezzan et, dans une bien moindre mesure, par Ghadamès. Le Fezzan jouait le rôle de plaque tournante. Une partie des caravanes était orientée vers la Cyrénaïque, puis l'Egypte, mais nous sommes fort peu renseignés sur leur importance. L'autre partie était acheminée à Tripoli. Les apports annuels d'esclaves dans cette ville, ont varié au cours du siècle. D'une moyenne de 500 à 600 au début, ils sont montés à 2,000 au milieu du siècle, pour redescendre à 1,000 et remonter à la fin à 1,500.

A Tripoli, un nombre réduit d'esclaves se trouvaient retenus sur place. La plupart étaient exportés au Levant, en particulier Constantinople, les régions en bordure de la mer Egée et la Crète. Les traitants tripolitains nolisaient à cet effet des navires européens, surtout français.

Nuer–Dinka relations are usually described as being based on constant mutual hostility. An examination of Nuer–Dinka relations along the Sobat and Zaraf valleys since the beginning of Nuer eastward expansion in the nineteenth century reveals a different pattern. Conflict during the immediate Nuer conquest of Dinka territory was followed by assimilation of individual Dinka into the Nuer social and political system. Through kinship ties connecting both communities a number of Nuer segments began to have closer relations with various Dinka groups than they had with related but more distant Nuer segments. Such relations inhibited the expansion of hostilities, and Nuer raids against the Dinka became increasingly selective. By the end of the nineteenth century a number of religious leaders deliberately fostered the growth of a Nuer–Dinka community. With the arrival of the Anglo-Egyptian administration an attempt was made to separate the Nuer and Dinka into discrete political units, and this policy exacerbated tensions between some of the neighbouring Nuer and Dinka settlements. The policy of separation ultimately failed due to the strength of the ties linking the two peoples. The model of structural opposition between Nuer and Dinka which Evans-Pritchard presented is based on data gathered during the early 1930s when separation was in force. It must now be modified by an examination of evidence covering a longer historical period.

The colonial authorities perceived Upper Volta as the most important labour reservoir in French West Africa. Koudougou, the most populous administrative subdivision of what was Upper Volta during the colonial period, was probably also the most densely settled. Various types of colonial labour policies are examined. These include forced labour in its forms of annual ‘prestations’ and longer-term, large-scale recruiting for major public works, as well as military conscription and the use of the ‘2è portion’ in the public and private sectors. Based on archival research in West Africa, this study traces changes in the size of the labour force and the impact of the forced extraction of labour on the African populations. Finally, the wider significance of colonial labour policies is analysed.