Courses

This seminar on pre-Atlantic Slavery in Africa and Asia will focus on the history of captivity and bondage in modern and the premodern Africa. Conceptually, what is the difference between a captive and a slave? How has captivity been central to the history of social difference and state formation in premodern Africa? By introducing the student to the history of trade in captives within Africa and across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the student will be encouraged to rethink premodern Africa as central to premodern world history rather than marginal to it.