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From
Slaving to Neoslavery
The Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po in the Era of Abolition,
1827–1930
Ibrahim K. Sundiata
"From Slaving to Neoslavery is a first. No other
books exist on Fernando Po in English. The work is original and
the scholarship impressive. It will be a must in studies about
late slavery, contract labor, and Creoledom. It is a well-researched
history of another big plantation island, and its ties with the
Caribbean, especially Jamaica, are well handled."—Jan
M. Vansina, University of Wisconsin
Fernando Po, home to the Bantu-speaking Bubi people, has an unusually
complex history. Long touted as the "key" to West Africa,
it is the largest West African island and the last to enter the
world economy. Confronted by both African resistance and ecological
barriers, early British and Spanish imperialism foundered there.
Not until the late nineteenth century did foreign settlement
take hold, abetted by a class of westernized black planters.
It was only then that Fernando Po developed a plantation economy
dependent on migrant labor, working under conditions similar
to slavery.
In From Slaving to Neoslavery, Ibrahim K. Sundiata offers
a comprehensive history of Fernando Po, explains the continuities
between slavery and free contract labor, and challenges standard
notions of labor development and progress in various colonial
contexts. Sundiata's work is interdisciplinary, considering the
influences of the environment, disease, slavery, abolition, and
indigenous state formation in determining the interaction of
African peoples with colonialism.
From Slaving to Neoslavery has manifold implications.
Historians usually depict the nineteenth century as the period
in which free labor triumphed over slavery, but Sundiata challenges
this notion. By examining the history of Fernando Po, he illuminates
the larger debate about slavery current among scholars of Africa.
Ibrahim K. Sundiata is professor and chair of the African and Afro-American
Studies Department at Brandeis University. His books include
Black Scandal: The United States and the Liberian Labor Crisis,
1929-36, and Equatorial Guinea: Colonialism, State Terror,
and the Search for Stability.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
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June 1995
LC: 94-039082 DT
256 pp. 6 x 9
5 maps, 1 figure
ISBN-10: 0-299-14510-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-14510-1
Cloth $49.95 s
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