Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | The Concept of Honour and the Persistence of Servility in the Western Soudan |
| Author: | Klein, Martin A. |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
| Volume: | 45 |
| Issue: | 179-180 |
| Pages: | 831-851 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | West Africa |
| Subjects: | honour social stratification slavery colonialism History and Exploration Labor and Employment Law, Human Rights and Violence Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.5572 |
| Abstract: | This article asks why vestiges of slavery continue to exist in the Western Soudan (Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso and most of Mali and Guinea). It reviews French policy toward slavery and the massive departure of slaves from the sites of their servitude in the early 20th century. Change in their legal situation also made it possible for slaves to have some control over their family lives and the way they worked. In spite of this, many continued to remain subservient. The absence of history provided an ideological basis to this subservience. The former masters also remained strongest in areas where they controlled access to land, but the key was the question of honour. The hierarchical societies of the region had codes which demanded of the noble generosity and self-control, especially in manners and in sexual conduct. It was often advantageous for the former slaves to act within the system by begging or behaving in a loud crude manner, but in doing so, they affirmed their subservience. Many slaves contested this, some by leaving the sites of their servitude, some by refusing to beg or by behaving like a noble, but most importantly by seeking legitimation as a Muslim. Bibliogr., notes, ref, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
