4.6. PRODUCERS WIN, THEN CRUMBLE

 4.6. PRODUCERS WIN THEN CRUMBLE

SLAVE RAIDERS SWEEP THE SAVANNAH

When the end of the Atlantic slave trade weakens traditional kingdoms, raiders seize the lands and labor that commercial production needs.  

Gone from web

Horsemen who resemble the raiders.

In brief

• Destruction, slavery and economic growth

• Adapting Islam to commercial production

• Samory's legend skips the raided

• Detour: Nationalist history hides modern issues

• Samory and the Senufo Judas

• Colonial conquest does not bring economic control

• Slaves are freed and economies collapse

*      *      *

Next,

4.6.1. 

Destruction, slavery and economic growth

4.6.1. DESTRUCTION, SLAVERY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

 

ONCE MEANT TO MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO, SLAVE RAIDS NOW SEIZE AS MANY LANDS AND CAPTIVES AS THEY CAN

Rifles replace the deliberately poor trade guns.

 Muslim raid in the 1880's by Harry Johnston / zoom

Populations are massively displaced to provide labor for huge estates: Think of the transformation near Ségou.

Arab slavers in East Africa  / zoom

Second Journey to Discover the Sources of the Nile, 1861-1862, by John Speke (French ed.),  zoom

"He cultivates his vast estate by bands of slaves chained together..."

 

Speke, color added by Almamy

*     *

Djimini production develops during the brief rule of raider Samory Ture (1894-98) —

• Kong and villages in small print are destroyed, but those in large spring up or grow.

Map from my doctoral thesis

 

• "Marabadiassa which replaced Kong after its destruction, is an important commercial center." 

 -- Abidjan archives, 1899

 

• Rice production expands, yams are introduced, markets grow from 2000 people to 5000 and the new center of Dabakala attracts 7000. 

-- Same source.

All interlocutors confirmed that expansion.

*     *     *

Next,
4.6.2. 

Adapting Islam to commercial production

4.6.2. ADAPTING ISLAM TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION

THE FAITH IS TAILORED TO JUSTIFY MASSIVE RAIDS AND INTENSE EXPLOITATION

"Keffir" —  evil doer, unbeliever — means animist and "jihad," war against the unbelievers, means slave raids. Those terms fit turning communal lands into private properties for commercial production obtained by captive labor.

*    *

"Though a good man at heart..." a Tukulor warlord attacks an animist village that has given his men water. When an explorer objects, he answers, "They are keffirs, with them all means are fair."  

-- Lt. de vaisseau Mage, Voyage dans la Sénégambie occidentale, 1868, p. 623. 

*     *

A slave's descendant reacts: 

In Ségou, the son of an animist slave owner agreed to speak to me about slavery. He invited the descendant of one of his father's captives to attend our conversation.

My host said that his father had treated his slaves well, and had even left one in charge of the family during an absence. But, he said, the Tukulor cared only for money and treated their slaves like animals.

I then asked,"Weren't they ruined when the French freed the slaves?"

The visitor, who so far had said nothing, 
suddenly sat up and joyfully exclaimed, 

 "They even cried about it!" 

-- Dongougou Bouaré, Ségou

 *      *      *

Next,

4.6.3. 

Samory's legend skips the raided

4.6.3. SAMORY'S LEGEND SKIPS THE RAIDED

AS AN OPPONENT OF COLONIAL CONQUEST SAMORY IS RENOWNED

His resistance makes the French glorious and Africans heroic.

Capture of Samory by lieutenant Jacquin

       Instagram / zoom                        

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jean-Jacques David, 1801 / zoom

*    *

The legend

The Intrepid Warrior who Defied French Colonisation / video: zoom (in French)

-- By Alpha Blondy, 1984; YouTube, 2013

Bori, bori Samory

Run, run Samory

Toubabouhou bikôh oko obi faga

The whites are coming, they have sworn to kill you

 

*    *

But Senufos recall him with terror.

Zoom

After his passage on September 26, 1898. 

*     *

Samory sent his son and heir to France for a first-hand view of the enemy. When on his return he said that defeating the French would be impossible, Samory had him starved to death.

 Prisoner, 1898

The real figure: cruelty, sadness and dignity.

And slave raider.

Ask the Senufo.

*    *     *

Next,

4.6.4.

Detour: 

Nationalist history hides modern issues

4.6.4. DETOUR: NATIONALIST HISTORY HIDES MODERN ISSUES

 

POLITICIANS APPROPRIATE THE PAST

Statue in Conakry / zoom

The paunch, an invention, is a sign of wealth and prestige when food is scarce and separates the leader from the people. 

And what might help understand the present vanishes: Take Boko Haram and its impact on Mandara, hinterland of Bornu and Logone, where adult male prisoners were killed by cutting off a leg. 

A man remembers, "My uncles were taken as slaves. We don't forget, and Boko Haram recalls the time that our elders described."

-- Donald Tada, 

cited in  Au Cameroun, la montagne des persécutés de Boko Haram 

by Joan Tilouine, "Le Monde," May 23 2018 

Indo-Asian News Service

Boko, book; haram, forbidden: The government of Southern Nigeria built few schools in the North. Were memories of slave-raiding a reason? Does the choice of name, "forbidden book" recall the absence of instruction that excluded youth from jobs?  

The journalist says nothing of the violence the explorer mentions. He has not read the account or leaves out what he does not understand. 

But at least he mentions the raids. 

*    *

Ignoring the violence of the past 

erases for the victors

what the vanquished do not forget.  

*     *     *  

Next,

4.6.5. 

Samory and the Senufo Judas

4.6.5. SAMORY AND THE SENUFO JUDAS

WHEN THE FRENCH PUSHED SAMORY AWAY FROM A FIRST EMPIRE HE ESTABLISHED ANOTHER IN DJIMINI 

(IN 1894-1898)

Adapted from African History Extra, "The Empire of Samori Ture on the Eve of Colonisation" by Isaac Samuel / zoom

Use of the cowrie currency opened commerce to all and a new social class had emerged: the "Sonnangui," who used slaves to produce grain for the new markets.

They are "indigenous people who have adopted the language the customs, the ways and the external aspects of the Dyulas' religion while keeping the Senufo tattoos [...].

They have neither the elevation of ideas nor the education of the Dyula, but having opened their arms and land to Samory. They have profited from the victor's friendship to exploit the Senufo, toward whom they display an arrogance and despotism that the Dyula ignore."

-- Abidjan archives

Now indistinguishable from other Senufo, they are remembered for a "curious" Islam that brought them closer to the conquerors and separated them from their animist slaves.

*    *

Their siding with Samory is remembered through the story of a traitor, Pelegayan, "who wanted to be king, but did not have the right." 

He grew millet for the new market of Foumbolo on Samory's route.

When the Djimini forces stopped near Samory's camp

Pelegayan got up at night, found Samory and said,

-- "Don't be discouraged, you'll win this battle. 

-- How?

-- Oh, don't worry, I am a child of this country and I will show you its secrets.

-- You tell me not to be discouraged, but I've been here for three months and I'm not getting anywhere. 

-- Oh, don't worry, I am a child of this country, I know the secrets, you will win out." 

"He gave the secrets and told his army not to load its guns.

-- Serisio Coulibali, farmer

*    *

Commercial producers like the Sonnangui must have backed the raiders throughout the savannah.

They appear, to my knowledge,

in oral tradition alone.

*    *    *
4.5.6. 

Colonial conquest does not bring economic control

4.6.6. COLONIAL CONQUEST DOES NOT BRING ECONOMIC CONTROL

LOCAL PRODUCTION BLOCKS SALES OF WESTERN GOODS  

The victors want to open new markets but their most important export, textiles, do not sell. 

Why should Africans buy flimsy manufactured cloth? Elites  have robes with magnificent embroidery and others, spectacular bands of excellent cotton that last indefinitely:

• At Paris's primal arts museum 

• Daily wear

•  Textiles woven in the street 

                                                                                                          Zoom

 

Haussa weaving 

 

*    *

The colonialists never occupy the African market. When Ghanaian soldiers in Indonesia bring striking "wax" prints home, sales go to the Dutch.

They are worn all over West and Central Africa, 

and the Dutch make most of them still. 

*     *     *

Next,

 4.6.7.

Slaves are freed and economies collapse