Female Slavery and Gender Division of Roles in Traditional African Societies

Abstract: Female slavery and gender division of roles are some traditional African practices which have impacted negatively on both state formation and modern nation building in the continent. Yet gender division of roles was not female slavery in Africa. Though the two practices are related in the ways they assigned roles to the women folk in the society they are essentially different. Division of roles according to gender is an ancient practice which assigned tasks in most Black African societies strictly according to gender. On the other hand female slavery was the manifold exploitation of enslaved women by masters in Africa. It is shown in the article how African slavers perpetrated the gender division of roles through female slavery thus inhibiting both enslaved and free women from effectively contributing to development in Africa.

Key words: Female, gender, development, roles and slavery