Session Abstract

This panel examines the links and transfer of warfare and slavery practices from West and West Central Africa to the Americas. Our goal is to examine the relationship between warfare and slavery on both sides of the Atlantic, with the aim of establishing meaningful connections. 

All four papers explore and discuss aspects relating to these transfers and connections. They al focus in different geo-cultural areas and therefore complement each other. Barcia's paper on the Yoruba, links warfare in West Africa with two specific territories of the New World: Bahia and Cuba. Mobley's contribution looks into the participation of Central African slaves in the Haitian Revolution. While the first two papers have a similar lay out, the last two go from the particular to the general. Krug's piece focuses on a specific group of Central Africans, the Kisama, and their relationship with Atlantic warfare. Finally, Cameron's contribution discusses -from a comparative anthropological perspective- the nature of warfare and enslavement among indigenous groups in pre-colonial and colonial times.

To conclude we propose to start with the relationships to see the parts, so the conventional approaches eliminate the problem and the processes that constitute it and then find some way of stitching it all back together.  Particular locations or local histories are part of an Atlantic world where warfare and slavery were fundamental elements from the outset. The point is to see the interrelation of global and local as specific historical outcomes.