Slavery and the Muslim Diaspora: African Slaves in Dar Es-Salam

The African Diaspora was a consequence of the enslavement in the interior of West Africa. Facilitated by the political structures existing in the region, political and religious issues in the central Sudan (land of the blacks) led to the subjugation of whole communities. Many were transported across the Sahara Desert to the Maghreb and the Ottoman Empire and also across the Atlantic to the Americas, especially Brazil. Enslaved Muslims and non-Muslims who were brought into the world of Islam reinforced or invented cultural features that were central to their identities as people from the central Sudan. Spirit possession cults (bori) spread wherever the enslaved were found. This book examines the conditions of slavery facing Muslims and converts to Islam both in the central Sudan and in the broader diaspora of Africans. It considers the consequences of European colonialism in undermining the institution of slavery.