Mamdani - Trans-African Slaveries Thinking Historically [9cd7ee97]

Tags: problems and methods

• Talks about how slavery cannot be defined solely as chattel slavery
• Argues against the notion put out by Orlando Patterson and Bruce Hall
• Islamic forms of slavery were actually a part of the slave market that eventually turned into chattel slavery
• Chattel slavery and free people were two sides of the same coin, examples where the people were the most free (like Athens) also had the most chattel slavery
• Shift of greeks and romans from half free people to reliance on chattel slaves from outside was the emergence of the idea of freedom

• Argues that Patterson, in his attempt to find a coherent definition of slavery, overlooked many differences

  • In Islam, Mamaluks
  • In Ethopia, various other groups
• Early data about #s of slaves were largely anecdotal and basically wild guesses

• Zanj rebellion in Iraq, lead by Ali

  • Large, spartacus like revolt from Southern iraq of free people and poors
  • Lasted over 15 years

• Race based slavery was a western import, largely allowing for racialized taxonomies with colonialization

  • previously one could "become" an arab, just as you could convert to islam
• Haterin in northern Morocco
• Universal definitions of slavery is a fool's errand, too difficult to actually conceptualize
• Segregation produces a clear divide between slave and non-slave, while the dominant discourse on slavery has been defined as the meeting point of abolitionist and Orientialist