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Abolition and the Lasting Effects in East Africa

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Abolition and the Lasting Effects in East Africa
Unlike the Atlantic world, slavery in East Africa looked a little different. Slavery in Africa portrayed a complex use of labor, the exercise of rights in person, and of exploitation and coercion tempered by negotiation and accommodation. However the most common features on slavery in East Africa is the fact that it varies overtime and place. For instance, according to Miers and Roberts, “Slaves might be menial field workers, downtrodden servants, cherished concubines, surrogate kin, trusted trading agents, high officials, army commanders, ostracized social group dedicated to a deity…( 5). Perhaps the largest difference between slavery in East Africa versus slavery in the Atlantic world or …show more content…

However, before any further discuss, it is pertinent to provide the background or the motivation towards abolition of slavery.

According to Jay Milbrandt in his book, “Livingston and the Law,” The proclamation by the British missionary explorer David Livingstone “Satan has his Seat” in the East African slavery in the mid nineteen century, rejuvenates the movement of anti-slavery rhetoric both by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) and the international humanitarian group like the German Afrika-Verein der deutschen Katholiken. Most anti-slavery groups have been pushing the colonial government to abolished slavery in the East Africa. While it could be easily argued that the call for abolition by the anti-slavery group such as the Quakers, Catholics, Protestants and the BFASS arose from a humanitarian concern, it is also true that there were both economic and religious motivation behind the clamor for abolition. According to Opolot Okia, in his book, “The Windmill of Slavery” the ideological attack of the BFASS emphasized free labor. They sought to influence government to use ‘free grown produce as far as practicable, in preference to slave grown and to promote the adoption of fiscal regulation in favor of free labour “(9). Moreover, the German colonial government portrayed the resistance against

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