Book chapters by Lotte Pelckmans
Oxford Research Encyclopedia for African History, 2023
Post-slavery is an academic analytical concept that signifies the fragmented legacies and continu... more Post-slavery is an academic analytical concept that signifies the fragmented legacies and continuities of past slavery and slave trade in contemporary societies after its formal legal abolition, and beyond emancipation processes. Legacies can take the form of discourses based in collective memories and ideologies of past slavery, while continuities can take the shape of continued relations of social hierarchy and dependency between people of slave descent and the descendants of slaveholders and other people of free descent, to the disadvantage of the formerly enslaved and their descendants. The social mechanisms of exclusion that uphold post-slavery situations include the invisibility of such situations to outsiders; structural racism and other forms of stigmatization; struggles surrounding gender relations; the social importance of genealogy, marriage, and family formation across the historical free-unfree divide; uneven access to physical and social capital, such as land and positions of authority; and the politics of history and memory. Post-slavery legacies and continuities form points on a continuum, ranging from explicit forms of exploitation that could qualify as slavery outside the law (de facto, but not de jure slavery), via structural racism and other forms of structural exclusion in society (post-slavery continuities), to the residual histories and memories that can continue to mark differences between the descendants of slave and free today (post-slavery legacies).
Chapter 12. In Invisibility in African Displacements, edited by Jesper Bjarnesen and Simon Turner. London: Zed Books., 2020
book chapter in :
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/invisibility-in-african-displacements-978178699... more book chapter in :
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/invisibility-in-african-displacements-9781786999207/
See also a blogpost on this chapter:
https://ammodi.com/2021/06/23/post-slavery-and-the-invisibility-of-female-emotions-in-migration-displacement-and-refugee-studies/
This chapter analyses the flow – or ‘undercurrent’ – of forced displacement of low status women from central-south Niger who are contracted as ‘concubines’ in northern Nigeria. While these displacements are small scale, highly individual and low density in terms of quantity, I take a special interest in them for their ignored longue durée, intergenerational and qualitatively disruptive impact on families and more specifically women, with slave status. The practice of what I will call ‘concubinage’ can have different connotations and is valued differently by different individuals in the predominantly Islamic Sahel and beyond. While some strands in Islamic ideology describe ‘concubinage’ as the most honourable and dignified chance to marry up for slave women, legally offering viable ways to emancipation, reality seems to not always conform to this ideal to the women themselves, or to their offspring. Indeed, on the other side of the spectrum, some human...
(DOI to the chapter : 10.5040/9781350225510.ch.012)
In book: African Slaves, African Masters, Africa World Press: Trenton, NJ Publisher., 2017
Names and naming practices are inscribed in power politics: what names mean and to what extent na... more Names and naming practices are inscribed in power politics: what names mean and to what extent names (are supposed to) “fit” with the legal, moral, and social requirements of the societies involved are defined by those in power. While any free person had the right to decide on a name for himself, slaves, for example, could not name themselves nor their children. Thus the power to name and the responsibility for naming (where, when, and how) is culturally defined.
Among the social groups in West Africa that have been undergoing rapid social changes in the twenty-first century are those categorized as descen-dants of slaves. Rossi has analyzed the ways in which these groups contin- ue to “reconfigure” power relations vis-à-vis their former masters. Here, I wish to demonstrate that scholars should add the analysis of individual naming and renaming practices as part and parcel of various other emancipation strategies. More specifically I address the name changes made by Fulɓe slave descendants in Central Mali.
Chapter 4 in "The Bitter Legacy". Marcus Wiener Publishers, 2013
This article describes the ongoing practice of issuing manumission documents for people of slave ... more This article describes the ongoing practice of issuing manumission documents for people of slave descent who want to free themselves from the status of being of slave descent and become 'freed'. The text contains two examples of such written documents as issued by a local imam in the Haayre region (surroundings of Douentza) and discusses the local uses and impacts of such documents.
In book: Slavery, migration and contemporary bondage in Africa. Africa World Press: Trenton, NJ Publisher. ISBN (print) 9781592218776, 2013
As in many other parts of the world, a large number of domestic workers in (urban) West Africa as... more As in many other parts of the world, a large number of domestic workers in (urban) West Africa assist middle and upper class families with the “dirty work”1 in often lamentable, marginalized conditions. Human rights organizations (UNICEF, Anti-Slavery International, Save the Children) problematize the worst cases such as child trafficking, (sexual) abuse and labor exploitation. When considering the scale of the use of female domestic workers (maids) in Africa, the academic literature is relatively scarce, especially in comparison to a much larger body of literature on Latin American and Asian domestic workers.
Most existing work on West Africa focuses on differ-ences between so-called “related” versus “unrelated” domestic workers, the sexual abuse and violence against young female domestics who lack protection in the face of neo-liberalization or due to transnational migration, which makes some authors consider domestic workers as “modern slaves” or “disposable people.”
This text describes how Fulbe families of Central Mali who settled in urban areas have a preference for recruiting domestic labor among the most vulnerable families with slave status in their home villages. Slave status seems an anachronism in a country where slavery was officially abolished in 1905. However, several ethnic groups in the contemporary Sahel used to be slave societies in which around twenty to fifty percent of the economy was based on the surplus production by slaves. In these societies, slave descendants continue to be marginalized based on a dominant aristocratic ideology of slavery. Several studies repeatedly demonstrated that the marginalization of people of slave descent in West Africa did not end with either colonialism or with postcolonial policies. The story of domestic workers in this chapter, is in line with these findings and describes how the memory of slavery impacts the movements of young rural girls towards urban settings.
Slavery, Memory and Identity. London (UK), Vermont (USA) : Pickering & Chatto Publishers., 2012
This chapter adresses the silence that characterizes African domestic slavery in West Africa. Whe... more This chapter adresses the silence that characterizes African domestic slavery in West Africa. Whereas the transatlantic slave trade is remembered and commemorated, domestic slavery has long remained a taboo topic. The chapter sheds light on recent attemps by African people of slave origin to reconsider the contribution of slaves to the Construction of African former kingdoms and contemporary nation states. This implies a revision of both popular and official accoutns of African history in relation to slavery.
in Book: Mobile Phones: The new talking drums of Africa. Bamenda, Leiden, Langaa RPCIG., 2009
Communication technologies are increasingly playing a significant role in social and cultural int... more Communication technologies are increasingly playing a significant role in social and cultural interaction. Studies on the impact of information and communication Technologies (ICTs) on social life are emerging but focus mainly on western, urban contexts. With their inspiring study about the use of the cell phone in Jamaica, Horst & Miller (2006) called for an anthropology of communication, an innovative field that needs more elaboration. However, their study focuses on ‘Others’ as communicators. But what about the interaction between those others and their researchers as mediated by the phone? This seems to have been ignored. So far, there has been no analysis of the impact of the mobile phone on anthropological research as such. This chapter aims to address the consequences of the social appropriation of the mobile phone by both informants and researchers as end-users.
Strength beyond Structure, African Dynamics, Brill publishers., 2007
Papers by Lotte Pelckmans
Journal of Migration History (10) pp. 301-318, 2024
This special issue introduces the concept of e-motions in (post-)slavery Africa to analyse moveme... more This special issue introduces the concept of e-motions in (post-)slavery Africa to analyse movement or motion that is not so much driven by labour and economic survival but rather by relational/emotional (dis-)connection. We introduce the term e-motions to qualify the gendered mobilities mainly of subaltern girls and women who have been voluntarily or forcedly moving in the past and present to establish and consolidate emotional ties. These ties exist in intimate spheres that are profoundly entangled in histories of slavery and asymmetrical dependencies. In this special issue, we use the concept of e-motions to flesh out the link between small-scale and rural (im-)mobilities executed by subaltern women and girls, who are expected to fulfil important ritualised roles in various emotional stages of life through pathic labour and care work. While not denying we are living in a world with exponential digitisation, mobilities and extreme forms of exclusion, we wish to historicise less spectacular but acute, highly impactful and often implicitly violent e-motions that mostly women at the lowest echelons of their societies faced and continue to face in a male-dominated world.
Journal of Migration History, 2024
This special issue introduces the concept of e-motions in (post-)slavery Africa to analyse moveme... more This special issue introduces the concept of e-motions in (post-)slavery Africa to analyse movement or motion that is not so much driven by labour and economic survival but rather by relational/emotional (dis-)connection. We introduce the term e-motions to qualify the gendered mobilities mainly of subaltern girls and women who have been voluntarily or forcedly moving in the past and present to establish and consolidate emotional ties. These ties exist in intimate spheres that are profoundly entangled in histories of slavery and asymmetrical dependencies. In this special issue, we use the concept of e-motions to flesh out the link between small-scale and rural (im-)mobilities executed by subaltern women and girls, who are expected to fulfil important ritualised roles in various emotional stages of life through pathic labour and care work. While not denying we are living in a world with exponential digitisation, mobilities and extreme forms of exclusion, we wish to historicise less spectacular but acute, highly impactful and often implicitly violent e-motions that mostly women at the lowest echelons of
their societies faced and continue to face in a male-dominated world.
Item does not contain fulltex
Politique africaine, 2015
Social Anthropology, Jan 19, 2007
ABSTRACT
Ce dossier est consacré aux formes narratives du post-esclavage, cette période complexe suivant l... more Ce dossier est consacré aux formes narratives du post-esclavage, cette période complexe suivant l’abolition formelle de l’esclavage. Il interroge ce concept à travers des récits de vies individuelles (celles d’anciens esclaves), produits tant par la littérature, le cinéma, la traduction, la mobilité que par des associations militantes anti-esclavagistes. Les analyses croisent et confrontent les représentations fragmentées et normatives du post-esclavage, en en soulignant la polyphonie, voire la cacophonie. This special issue is devoted to the narrative forms of post-slavery, the complex period following the formal abolition of slavery. It interrogates this concept through the narratives of individual (ex-slave) lives, as they are (re-)circulated in literature, film, translation, movement and militant anti-slavery associations. The contributors cross-reference and confront fragmented and normative representations of post-slavery, thereby highlighting its polyphony, even cacophony
Anthropologie & développement, Dec 1, 2020
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Mar 22, 2023
International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2015
Several post-slavery societies in francophone West Africa may not quite be as "post" as... more Several post-slavery societies in francophone West Africa may not quite be as "post" as the term suggests. Does the "post" refer to the two key moments of 1) legal abolition in 1898 (abolition of the economic institution of slave trade and markets), and 2) the 1905 French colonial abolition of domestic slavery as a societal system of organization? If it does, then what of the argument made by some scholars that the 1905 abolition hardly impacted existing social norms1 and that domestic slavery continued well into the twentyfirst century2 in certain areas and often among nomadic groups? The majority of scholars working on nomadic groups in different parts of francophone Sahel areas confirm this. My first argument then is that the term post-slavery reduces the possibility of including continuities, complexity, and diversity of past-slavery forms in present African contexts. It obfuscates even further, for example, the already existing amalgamation of an extreme var...
Uploads
Book chapters by Lotte Pelckmans
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/invisibility-in-african-displacements-9781786999207/
See also a blogpost on this chapter:
https://ammodi.com/2021/06/23/post-slavery-and-the-invisibility-of-female-emotions-in-migration-displacement-and-refugee-studies/
This chapter analyses the flow – or ‘undercurrent’ – of forced displacement of low status women from central-south Niger who are contracted as ‘concubines’ in northern Nigeria. While these displacements are small scale, highly individual and low density in terms of quantity, I take a special interest in them for their ignored longue durée, intergenerational and qualitatively disruptive impact on families and more specifically women, with slave status. The practice of what I will call ‘concubinage’ can have different connotations and is valued differently by different individuals in the predominantly Islamic Sahel and beyond. While some strands in Islamic ideology describe ‘concubinage’ as the most honourable and dignified chance to marry up for slave women, legally offering viable ways to emancipation, reality seems to not always conform to this ideal to the women themselves, or to their offspring. Indeed, on the other side of the spectrum, some human...
(DOI to the chapter : 10.5040/9781350225510.ch.012)
Among the social groups in West Africa that have been undergoing rapid social changes in the twenty-first century are those categorized as descen-dants of slaves. Rossi has analyzed the ways in which these groups contin- ue to “reconfigure” power relations vis-à-vis their former masters. Here, I wish to demonstrate that scholars should add the analysis of individual naming and renaming practices as part and parcel of various other emancipation strategies. More specifically I address the name changes made by Fulɓe slave descendants in Central Mali.
Most existing work on West Africa focuses on differ-ences between so-called “related” versus “unrelated” domestic workers, the sexual abuse and violence against young female domestics who lack protection in the face of neo-liberalization or due to transnational migration, which makes some authors consider domestic workers as “modern slaves” or “disposable people.”
This text describes how Fulbe families of Central Mali who settled in urban areas have a preference for recruiting domestic labor among the most vulnerable families with slave status in their home villages. Slave status seems an anachronism in a country where slavery was officially abolished in 1905. However, several ethnic groups in the contemporary Sahel used to be slave societies in which around twenty to fifty percent of the economy was based on the surplus production by slaves. In these societies, slave descendants continue to be marginalized based on a dominant aristocratic ideology of slavery. Several studies repeatedly demonstrated that the marginalization of people of slave descent in West Africa did not end with either colonialism or with postcolonial policies. The story of domestic workers in this chapter, is in line with these findings and describes how the memory of slavery impacts the movements of young rural girls towards urban settings.
Papers by Lotte Pelckmans
their societies faced and continue to face in a male-dominated world.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/invisibility-in-african-displacements-9781786999207/
See also a blogpost on this chapter:
https://ammodi.com/2021/06/23/post-slavery-and-the-invisibility-of-female-emotions-in-migration-displacement-and-refugee-studies/
This chapter analyses the flow – or ‘undercurrent’ – of forced displacement of low status women from central-south Niger who are contracted as ‘concubines’ in northern Nigeria. While these displacements are small scale, highly individual and low density in terms of quantity, I take a special interest in them for their ignored longue durée, intergenerational and qualitatively disruptive impact on families and more specifically women, with slave status. The practice of what I will call ‘concubinage’ can have different connotations and is valued differently by different individuals in the predominantly Islamic Sahel and beyond. While some strands in Islamic ideology describe ‘concubinage’ as the most honourable and dignified chance to marry up for slave women, legally offering viable ways to emancipation, reality seems to not always conform to this ideal to the women themselves, or to their offspring. Indeed, on the other side of the spectrum, some human...
(DOI to the chapter : 10.5040/9781350225510.ch.012)
Among the social groups in West Africa that have been undergoing rapid social changes in the twenty-first century are those categorized as descen-dants of slaves. Rossi has analyzed the ways in which these groups contin- ue to “reconfigure” power relations vis-à-vis their former masters. Here, I wish to demonstrate that scholars should add the analysis of individual naming and renaming practices as part and parcel of various other emancipation strategies. More specifically I address the name changes made by Fulɓe slave descendants in Central Mali.
Most existing work on West Africa focuses on differ-ences between so-called “related” versus “unrelated” domestic workers, the sexual abuse and violence against young female domestics who lack protection in the face of neo-liberalization or due to transnational migration, which makes some authors consider domestic workers as “modern slaves” or “disposable people.”
This text describes how Fulbe families of Central Mali who settled in urban areas have a preference for recruiting domestic labor among the most vulnerable families with slave status in their home villages. Slave status seems an anachronism in a country where slavery was officially abolished in 1905. However, several ethnic groups in the contemporary Sahel used to be slave societies in which around twenty to fifty percent of the economy was based on the surplus production by slaves. In these societies, slave descendants continue to be marginalized based on a dominant aristocratic ideology of slavery. Several studies repeatedly demonstrated that the marginalization of people of slave descent in West Africa did not end with either colonialism or with postcolonial policies. The story of domestic workers in this chapter, is in line with these findings and describes how the memory of slavery impacts the movements of young rural girls towards urban settings.
their societies faced and continue to face in a male-dominated world.
'With her published dissertation, Travelling hierarchies, Lotte Pelckmans makes an important contribution to the study of slavery and dependency relations in West Africa. Pelckmans must be praised for the detail and thoroughness of her research. She presents the reader with a comprehensive methodological framework, in which the intricacies of slave trade and slavery studies are discussed. An important conclusion here is the scarcity of studies addressing indigenous African slavery in both an historical and contemporary context, due to the fact that the commemoration of slavery both inside and outside Africa focusses strongly on the victims of the Atlantic slave trade. Indigenous African slavery is not a priority in terms of African national policies, nor with international policy makers. Academically, the field has received ample historical attention, but not-perhaps with the exception of child slavery-in a more contemporary and social-institutional setting....'
read online here:
https://theconversation.com/mali-fails-to-face-up-to-the-persistence-of-slavery-147636
https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-l-esclavage-par-ascendance-subsiste-encore-au-mali-155226
in English:
https://theconversation.com/mali-fails-to-face-up-to-the-persistence-of-slavery-147636
Voir aussi le lien ci-dessous.
Website of Point sud: http://pointsud.org/upcoming-conferences/?lang=en
for the Journal Anthropology and Development,
In English see:
http://apad-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CFP_AnthropologyDevlopment_Deridder_Pelckmans_2019.pdf
In French: http://apad-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CFP_AnthropologyDevlopment_Deridder_Pelckmans_2019.pdf
The documentary movie River Nomads visualizes one group of nomadic fishermen that have moved internationally within West Africa for decades but seem to face increased challenges to continue doing so..
It documents internal African migrations and follows a group of about 200
(semi-)nomadic fishermen in their yearly seasonal/ circular migration towards their fishing grounds in Mali and Niger. Amongst the many fishermen that inhabit the riverbanks and islands scattered along the 4200 kilometers of the Niger river, the Kebbawa stand out for their peculiar transnational nomadic lifestyle. The central question is why they are giving up this lifestyle and the answers point towards multiple factors ranging from illiteracy to corruption, overfishing, shifts in religion and climate change.
For more background info: http://www.rivernomads.dk/river-nomads/