Unbroken Chains

Slavery has torn apart African societies since at least 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape; from Mauritania to Somalia. Yet most writing covers just one fraction of this history: the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Historians and commentators long neglected the equally sizeable, far more protracted phenomenon of Indian Ocean slavery, and all but passed over Africa’s internal practices—from Ethiopian kingdoms enslaving conquered peoples, to the Sokoto Caliphate capturing non-Muslims on a scale matching that of the US plantations.

Yet overlooked stories of enslavement matter. In 1794, Congress authorised construction of the US Navy’s first six ships—in response to civilian vessels being seized by North Africa’s Barbary corsairs, who raided as far as Britain and the Caribbean, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Europeans. And, since abolition of the trans- Atlantic trade, international concern has moved from traditional to ‘modern’ forms of slavery, leaving Africans enslaved as chattel today with few champions abroad. The UN and African Union are too embarrassed to confront the African leaders still permitting this practice.

Unbroken Chains offers readers a full, accessible history of the myriad bondage systems that have devastated African communities over the millennia. It is a haunting, sensitive, powerful read.