Date: Friday 23 September 2011
Time: 13.30-17.00
Venue: Room 3A06, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52,
Leiden
Speakers: Mahaman Tidjani,
Eric Hahonou,
Lotte Pelckmans
You are kindly requested to register for this seminar.
Scholars in the field of slavery studies in Africa will present
their recent findings on the persistence of' slave-master relations in
West Africa at this seminar, which is being organized to coincide with
the defence of Lotte Pelckmans’s PhD thesis entitled ‘Travelling
Hierarchies: Moving In and Out of Slave Status in a Central Malian FulBe
Network'. Her recent study of slavery, which approached the subject in
the context of globalization from the angle of everyday life, analyzed
how some forms of hierarchical relationships between former masters and
slaves have persisted in ritual labour and how specific forms of
dependency have continued in the division of resources, kinship
structures and political office. Her work has helped to explain the
persistence of slave-master relations in West Africa regarding the
relationship between self-identification based on historical patterns of
identity and belonging as well the 'success' of these relations as
coping strategies for otherwise marginalized former slave groups. Many
former slave families are today migrating to urban areas in Africa and
Europe but, even in cities, some of these 'former' slaves still prefer
to act out roles based on old patterns of dependency. Why have they not
stepped out of these patterns? Or have the people who have withdrawn
from such relationships become invisible? These are important questions
in human-rights debates not only in the African context but also in the
African diaspora. The presenters at this seminar will reflect on the
reality and memories of slavery in the urban contexts of today’s
globalizing world both in Africa and beyond.Programme
13:30- 13:45 Introduction: Mirjam de Bruijn (ASC), chair
13:45-14:30 Presentation by Mahaman Tidjani (Université Abdou Moumouni,
Niamey)
Discussion led by Klaas van Walraven (ASC)
14:30-15:15 Presentation by Eric Hahonou (Roskilde University):
Claiming
ethnicity: reconfiguration of slave status, emancipation and citizenship
in Benin (Adobe PDF)
Discussion led by Peter Geschiere (University of Amsterdam)
Coffee break
15:30-16:15 Presentation by Lotte Pelckmans (Radboud University):
Social
movements of slave descendants in Mali: the case of TEMEDT
(Adobe PDF)
Discussion led by Peter Pels (Leiden University)
16:15-17:00 General discussion
Drinks
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