Publications

AFRAB’s research focuses on the history of African and global abolitionism. The publications listed below explore African anti-slavery ideas and strategies, and African approaches to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade.  

Three collective publications showcase research findings from researchers focusing on different African regions.
 

Special Issue: ‘African Approaches to the Abolition of Slavery.’ Slaveries & Post-slaveries / Esclavages et Post-esclavages, Volume 10 (2024). Dedicated to Professor Ibrahima Thioub.

1. Benedetta Rossi, Introduction: African Approaches to the Abolition of Slavery /
Introduction: approches africaines de l’abolition de l’esclavage.
2. Cheikh Sène, Le décret de l’émancipation des esclaves de 1848: une application difficile au Sénégal (1848-1905)
3. Samuel Nyanchoga & Michelle Liebst, Rethinking liberated Africans as abolitionists: Bombay Africans, resistance, and ritual integration in coastal Kenya, 1846–1900.
4. Michael Ehis Odijie & Emmanuel Saboro, Towards an Understanding of Local African Abolitionism: George Ekem Ferguson, an Unexplored Abolitionist in 19th Century Ghana.
5. Yonas Ashine, Abolition and manumission in the Beherawi and Betasabawi realms in early 20th century Ethiopia.
6. Oumarou Moussa, Abolitions légales et persistance de l’esclavage dans les sociétés nigériennes : des réformes coloniales inachevées à l’activisme de la société civile (1905-2023).

Special Issue: ‘African Legal Abolitions.’ The Law & History Review 2024, Volume 42, Issue 1 (2024).
Articles: 
1. Benedetta Rossi, Introduction: The Abolition of Slavery in Africa’s Legal Histories.
2. Ismael Musah Montana, Ahmad Bey’s 1846 Abolition Decree: Its Legislative Framework and Socio-Cultural Context.
3. Michelle Liebst, The Sultans of Zanzibar and the Abolition of Slavery in East Africa.
4. Michael Ehis Odijie, Exploring Fante Abolitionism: Local Perspectives on Domestic Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Gold Coast.
5. Takele Merid & Alexander Meckelburg, Abolitionist Decrees in Ethiopia: The Evolution of Anti-Slavery Legal Strategies from Menelik to Haile Selassie, 1889-1942.
6. Salvatory Nyanto & Felicitas Becker, In Pursuit of Freedom: Oaths, Slave Agency, and the Abolition of Slavery in Western Tanzania 1905-1930.

Special Issue: ‘Slavery and Marriage in African Societies.’ Slavery & Abolition, Volume 43, Issue 2 (2022).
1. Benedetta Rossi & Joel Quirk, Slavery and Marriage in African Societies.
2. Ettore Morelli, Bonded: Elite Marriage and Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho.
3. Sarah Delius, The Same in All but Name? The Intersections of Marriage and Slavery in Sierra Leone, 1890–1930.
4. Morenikeji Asaaju, ‘They Gave me Nothing’: Marriage, Slavery and Divorce in Twentieth-Century Abeokuta.
5. Toni Smith, Liberators or Perpetrators? Co-Opting, Committing, and Condoning Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in the Early Belgian Congo
6. Samuel Lempereur, ‘The Land is Asking for History’. Marriages, Land, and Post-Slavery in Southern Benin.
7. Eleanor Seymour, Eunice Apio & Benedetta Rossi, Captive Wives or Conjugal Slaves? The Slavery-Marriage Nexus in Northern Uganda Since the Mid-Nineteenth Century.

Selected articles in peer-reviewed journals (in chronological order):
 

Michael Ehis Odijie, ‘Francis Fearon’s Ideas and Hidden Network of African Antislavery in Nineteenth-Century Gold Coast.’ The Journal of African History. Published in Firstview on 20 February 2025,1-15.

Michelle Liebst, ‘Brokering Abolition by Land and Sea: Africans in the British Consulate and Navy in Zanzibar, c. 1860–1907.’ Slavery & Abolition, published in FirstView on 19 February 2025, 1–23

Alakarbo, Hassimou, ‘Les femmes dans le mouvement abolitionniste au Niger: un véritable parcours d’accommodation.’ Revue Enclume d’Ivoire, tome 3, vol. 1, no. 1 (2025), 97-123. (scroll to p. 98)

Michael Ehis Odijie, ‘Evolving Abolition: Historical and Contemporary Anti-Slavery Movements in Southeast Nigeria.’ International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 57, no. 2 (2024): 169-184.

Michael Ehis Odijie and Uzoamaka Nwachukwu, ‘Colonial-Imposed Slavery and African Abolitionism: The Early Twentieth- Century Lagos Elites’ Campaign Against the Native House Rule Ordinance.’ Slavery & Abolition, Published in Firstview in May 2024, 1–23.

Benedetta Rossi, ‘An Abolitionist Vicious Circle: Slaving, Antislavery, and Violence on the Shores of Lake Tanganyika at the Onset of Colonial Occupation.’ Slavery & Abolition, vol. 45, no. 4 (2024): 870–910.

Michael Ehis Odijie, ‘Emancipation in the Gold Coast: The Abolitionist Views of James Hutton Brew.’ Slavery & Abolition, vol. 44, no. 1 (2022): 109-130.

Becker, Felicitas, Salvatory S. Nyanto, James Giblin, Ann McDougall, Alexander Meckelburg, and Lotte Pelckmans, ‘Researching the Aftermath of Slavery in Mainland East Africa: Methodological, Ethical, and Practical Challenges.’ Slavery & Abolition, vol. 44, no. 1 (2022): 131–56. 

Selected reference articles in encyclopaedias:

Benedetta Rossi. ‘Global Abolitionist Movements.’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, published online on 19 Jul. 2023

Alexander Meckelburg and Giulia Bonacci. ‘Routes to Emancipation in Ethiopia.’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, published online on 30 Jan. 2024

Michael Odijie. ‘Ritual Enslavement in West Africa.’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, published online on 23 Aug. 2023

Giulia Bonacci and Alexander Meckelburg. ‘Slavery and the Slave Trade in Ethiopia and Eritrea.’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, published online on 31 Jan. 2023
 
Michelle Liebst, ‘Urban East African Slavery,’ in: Pargas, D.A., Schiel, J., eds, The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Benedetta Rossi, ‘Slavery in Francophone West Africa,’ in: Pargas, D.A., Schiel, J., eds., The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery throughout History (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Michelle Liebst & Felicitas Becker, ‘Routes to Emancipation in East Africa.’ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, published online on 28 Jan. 2022

An edited volume with over fifty contributors from fifteen different nationalities published in French and German:

German edition, 2023: 
Paulin Ismard, Benedetta Rossi, Cécile Vidal, eds. Welten der Sklaverei. Eine vergleichende Geschichte (Berlin: Jacoby & Stuart, 2023). 

French edition, 2021:
Paulin Ismard, Benedetta Rossi, Cécile Vidal, eds. Les Mondes de l’Esclavage: Une Histoire Comparée (Paris: Seuil, 2021)