Slavery and its legacies

DASA’s interdisciplinary tradition supports comparative and country-specific research that contributes to the theorisation of freedom and un-freedom, and the documentation of different forms of slavery, abolition and emancipation around the world. A recent collaborative project tackled present-day manifestations and legacies of slavery in West Africa.

Researchers

Academic staff

• Benedetta Rossi - PI on LESLAN project on Legacies of Slavery in Niger
• Morenikeji Asaaju

Select recent publications

• 2022. Morenikeji Asaaju. ‘They Gave Me Nothing’: Marriage, Slavery and Divorce in Twentieth-Century Abeokuta, Slavery & Abolition 43 (2): 346-365
• Benedetta Rossi, Modern slavery, Brexit, migration, and development: connecting the dots
• Benedetta Rossi, Périodiser la fin de l’esclavage: Le droit colonial, la Société des Nations et la résistance des esclaves dans le Sahel nigérien, 1920-1930

Projects

• LESLAN: Legacies of Slavery in Niger
  

  LESLAN supports the activities of the Anti-Slavery Taskforce and Timidria, the main Nigerien anti-slavery NGO, in their efforts to improve the situation of people of slavery descent in the Republic of Niger. The specific objective of LESLAN is to change the way slavery and slave ownership are imagined, to end the stigma directed against the descendants of slaves and to engage in an unprecedented public dialogue on slavery in Niger.

  • Download the LESLAN report, Study on Slavery in Niger: Testimonies, Manifestations and Causes
  • View the LESLAN exhibition

Events

• SLAFNET workshop on Slavery, Post-Slavery and Gender Violence in Africa
• Professor Kristin Mann, ‘Transatlantic Lives: narratives of slavery, freedom, and diaspora in West Africa and Brazil. The Annual Fage Lecture 2022.

Find out more

• Research in African Studies and Anthropology
• Doctoral researchers
• Africa Talks seminars