Abstract

Female Slaves, the Slave Exodus, and the Population Increase in the Colonial City of Kayes, French Sudan (1900-1912)

Marie Rodet
(Institut für Afrikawissenschaften, Universität Wien)

The slave exodus in the larger Kayes region was often presumed to be insignificant, and has therefore been largely neglected in historical studies of French Sudan, whereas the Banamba exodus has been extensively analyzed. African historical literature has neither regarded this exodus as a proper migration pattern, nor has the literature ever seriously considered a significant participation of female slaves in this exodus. The historiography of these migratory movements has been inclined to presume that these migratory movements were mainly male ones. In this paper, I specifically examine the participation of women in the slave exodus from and within the region of Kayes at the time of slave emancipation (1900-1912). I demonstrate that female slaves were the “first migrants” to the colonial city of Kayes.