IV.5. THE NEW PRODUCERS WIN, THEN CRUMBLE

 4.5. PRODUCERS WIN THEN CRUMBLE

SLAVE RAIDERS SWEEP THE SAVANNAH

When the end of the Atlantic slave trade* diminishes the resources of traditional states, leaders whose wealth comes from slave-based production blow them away. 

*Between about 1850 and 1870.

Their resources come from long distance trade and slave-grown produce sold on the markets. They obtain it by the intense exploitation of slaves, obtained by massive raids.

Gone from web

These savannah horsemen resemble the raiders.

In brief

• Destruction, slavery and economic growth

• Adapting Islam to the need for labor

• Samory's legend skips the raided

• Detour: Nationalist history hides modern issues

• Samory and the Senufo Judas

• Colonial conquest does not bring economic control

• Islam, a non-Western topic? 

• Africans take center-stage

*      *      *

Next,

4.5.1. 

Destruction, slavery and economic growth

4.5.1. DESTRUCTION, SLAVERY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

RAIDS BECOME MASSIVE AND EFFICIENT

Once meant to maintain the status quo, their goal becomes seizing land and labor for production.

• 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 the huge new estates where labor is intensive :

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

*     *

Eliminating communal societies allows establishing commercial estates: Djimini production greatly expands during the brief rule of raider Samory Ture (1894-98) —

• Kong and villages in small print are destroyed, but those in large print spring up or become largetr: "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.

*    *

When with deliberate naiveté I asked the elders of Darhala

what was the work of slaves,

their chief said their were no slaves

and ended the conversation. 

*     *     *

Next,
4.5.2. 

Adapting Islam to the need for labor 

4.5.2. ADAPTING ISLAM TO THE NEED FOR LABOR

PRODUCERS INTERPRET THE FAITH TO JUSTIFY MASSIVE RAIDS AND INTENSE EXPLOITATION

They use it to impose private land ownership, and Muslim terms come to mean...

• "Keffir:" evil doer, unbeliever — animist
• "Jihad:" war against the keffirs — slave raids. 

Those terms allow turning communal lands into estates for commercial production while enslaving their people.

*    *

"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,

4.5.3. 

Samory's legend skips the raided

4.5.3. SAMORY'S LEGEND SKIPS THE RAIDED

AS AN OPPONENT OF COLONIAL CONQUEST SAMORY IS LEGENDARY.

For the French he is a fighter whose bravery highlights their army and makes him worthy of respect:

When his son and chosen successor returns from a mission to France and says that resistance is hopeless, he lets him starve to death. The real figure: cruelty, courage, sadness and dignity: place him in his world, not ours. 

 Prisoner, 1898 

 "West Africa -- Samory -- a Soudanese Dyula become a powerful Almamy, enemy of France, captured 1898"  (Emphasis mine).

For Africans  —  except Senufo — he is a hero.

• A statue: Please click and scroll down.

• A  song: 

-- 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

• A stamp:

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

• A legend:

 

But Senufos recall him with terror.

Zoom

After his passage on September 26, 1898. 

*     *

 The accent on conquest and colonialism

 leaves out the massive raids

and the economy due to captive labor. 

*    *     *

Next,

4.5.4.

Detour: 

Nationalist history hides modern issues

4.5.4. DETOUR: NATIONALIST HISTORY HIDES MODERN ISSUES

 

IT LETS POLITICIANS APPROPRIATE THE PAST

Statue in Conakry / zoom

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

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 a absence of Western education that excluded youth from jobs?  

The journalist does not mention the particular violence the explorer mentions. Either he has not read the account, or, as so often, he leaves out what he does not understand. 

But he is one of the few to menton raids by Africans at all.  

Ignoring the raided hides

what outsiders ignore 

and that victims do not forget. 

*     *     *  
Next,

4.5.5. 

Samory and the Senufo Judas

4.5.5. SAMORY AND THE SENUFO JUDAS

WHEN SAMORY IS PUSHED BACK FROM A FIRST EMPIRE HE ESTABLISHES ANOTHER IN DJIMINI 

(IN 1891-1894)

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

The changes that have taken place in the 50 years since the cowrie currency adoption have brought the appearance of a new social class of grain-producing, slave-owning "Sonnangui." 

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, have profited from the victor's friendship to exploit the Senufo, toward whom they display an arrogance and a 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.

*    *

The Senufo remember 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 Samory near it Pelegayon 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

*    *    *
4.5.6. 

Colonial conquest does not bring economic control

4.5.6. COLONIAL CONQUEST DOES NOT BRING ECONOMIC CONTROL

LOCAL PRODUCTION BLOCKS SALES OF WESTERN GOODS  

The victors' goods do not sell. Take textiles, motor of commerce:  Why should locals buy flimsy manufactured cloth when elites could have this...

Please click.

And others, woven bands of excellent cotton last indefinitely, and whose look on dark skin is spectacular. 

Almamy photos: zoom 

 

Haussa weaving 

 

*    *

The colonial powers never take over that African market,

which goes to the Dutch 

when Ghanaian soldiers in Indonesia

bring the dramatic prints home.

*     *     *

Next,

 4.5.7.

Slaves are freed and economies collapse