Discerning the African Voice from Slave Identity conflicts in the Bight of Biafra 1750-1950
E.S.D. Fomin, University of Yaounde1, Cameroon
Abstract:
Slaving societies in the Bight of Biafra seemed to have grappled with slave identity conflicts for long even after the abolition of slavery. Enslaved persons in the area fought against the perpetration and use of slave identity as the basis for discrimination against them. This paper focuses on slave identity conflicts among the Banyang of Cameroon who as intermediary middlemen in slave trade between the Cameroon Grassfields and Atlantic coast at Bimbia, Rio del Rey and Calabar built a slavery system characterized by the perpetuation of slave identity for all generations of slaves. The paper shows that the perpetuation of slave identity made Banyang slavery conflict prone and unique. Accounts on Banyang slave identity conflicts give us the voices of slaves and masters vividly. They show how conflicts which pitted slaves against masters in Banyang country on political, social and economic matters had their origins in slave identity perpetration.
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