From Slaving to Neoslavery: The Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po in the Era of Abolition, 1827-1930 [Hardcover]

Ibrahim K. Sundiata (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1996

Fernando Po, home to the Bantu-speaking Bubi people, has an unusually complex history. Long touted as the “key” to West Africa, it is the largest West African island and the last to enter the world economy. Confronted by both African resistance and ecological barriers, early British and Spanish imperialism foundered there. Not until the late nineteenth century did foreign settlement take hold, abetted by a class of westernized black planters. It was only then that Fernando Po developed a plantation economy dependent on migrant labor, working under conditions similar to slavery.   
    In From Slaving to Neoslavery, Ibrahim K. Sundiata offers a comprehensive history of Fernando Po, explains the continuities between slavery and free contract labor, and challenges standard notions of labor development and progress in various colonial contexts. Sundiata’s work is  interdisciplinary, considering the influences of the environment, disease, slavery, abolition, and indigenous state formation in determining the interaction of African peoples with colonialism.
    From Slaving to Neoslavery has manifold implications. Historians usually depict the nineteenth century as the period in which free labor triumphed over slavery, but Sundiata challenges this notion. By examining the history of Fernando Po, he illuminates the larger debate about slavery current among scholars of Africa.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ibrahim K. Sundiata is professor and chair of the African and Afro-American Studies Department at Brandeis University. His books include Black Scandal: The United States and the Liberian Labor Crisis, 1929-36, and Equatorial Guinea: Colonialism, State Terror, and the Search for Stability.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (June 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299145107
• ISBN-13: 978-0299145101
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,310,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > History > Africa > Equatorial Guinea

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.