Emancipation without Abolition in German East Africa c.1884-1914 (Eastern African Studies) - Hardcover

Jan-Georg Deutsch

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0852559860 ISBN 13: 9780852559864

Publisher: James Currey Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

This study examines the complex history of slavery in East Africa, focusing on the area that came under German colonial rule. In contrast to the policy pursued at the time by other colonial powers in Africa, the German authorities did not legally abolish slavery in their colonial territories. However, despite government efforts to keep the institution of slavery alive, it significantly declined in Tanganyika in the period concerned. This book highlights the crucial role played by the slaves in the process of emancipation. The book is divided into three parts. The first explores the rise of slavery in Tanganyika in the second half of the nineteenth century when the region became more fully integrated into the world economy. This is followed by an analysis of German colonial policy. The authorities believed that abolition should be avoided at all costs since it would undermine the power and prosperity of the local slave owning elites whose effective collaboration was thought to be indispensable to the functioning of colonial rule. The final part recounts how slaves by their own initiative brought the 'evil institution' to an end. This comprised both highly disruptive moments of wholesale flight and, depending on the possibility of escape and individual circumstances, more subtle changes in servile relationships. North America: Ohio U Press

About this title

About the Author:

Jan-Georg Deutsch is Lecturer in Commonwealth History in the University of Oxford. He was an Editor of African Modernities (James Currey 2002)

Review:

Does a great service of providing a cogent account of the workings of German colonial rule both at the highest and lowest levels. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW This is a social history of Africa firmly situated in a tradition of scholarship which stresses African agency as the primary force shaping historical change. Yet it does this while paying full attention to the colonial sources, both those produced in Germany and in German East Africa, sources which have been under-utilized by historians to the detriment of our understanding of the history of German colonialism in Tanzania which rewards careful reading. - Emma Hunter in TANZANIAN AFFAIRS A useful contribution to the large literature on the decline of slavery under colonial rule. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HSITORICAL STUDIES

About this edition

• Publisher: James Currey Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0852559860
• ISBN 13: 9780852559864
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320