European slaves(Saqalibas) in Kanem Bornu(Borno)

EdJo

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The full text is big, and it is in French.

In French:

"Dans les années 1670, un esclave français retenu à Tripoli raconte avoir rencontré un prince du Borno. Ce dernier avait été fait esclave durant des troubles qui agitèrent la région et fut envoyé dans l’île de Djerba, en Tunisie actuelle. Le sultan du Borno envoya une ambassade au Pacha de Tripoli pour qu’il le retrouve, le rachète et le renvoie chez lui. Ce même auteur témoigne par ailleurs de l’envoi d’esclaves européens au Borno, où ils étaient très recherchés. Au siècle précédent, un ambassadeur du Borno, nommé al-Ḥāǧǧ Yūsuf, traverse, en l’espace de dix ans, onze fois le Sahara et six fois la Méditerranée pour accomplir ses missions à Istanbul et au Maroc."


In English:

"In the 1670s, a French slave detained in Tripoli reported having met a prince of Borno. The latter had been enslaved during disturbances that agitated the region and was sent to the island of Djerba, Tunisia today. The Sultan of Borno sent an embassy to the Pasha of Tripoli to find him, buy him back and send him home. The same author also testifies to the sending of European slaves to Borno, where they were in great demand. In the previous century, a Borno ambassador, named al-Ḥāǧǧ Yūsuf, crossed, in the space of ten years, eleven times the Sahara and six times the Mediterranean to accomplish his missions in Istanbul and Morocco."



Africa4 - Borno du lac Tchad à La Mecque (XVIe-XVIIe siècles) - Libération.fr



Some of the sources:

Dewière, Rémi, Du lac Tchad à La Mecque. Le sultanat du Borno et son monde (xvie-xviie siècles), Paris, Editions de la Sorbonne, 2017 ;

Fauvelle-Aymar, François-Xavier, Le rhinocéros d’or. Histoires d’un Moyen-Âge africain, Paris, Alma éditeur, 2013 ;

Hiribarren, Vincent, A History of Borno: Trans-Saharan Empire to Failing Nigerian State, Londres, Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2017;

Lefèbvre, Camille, Frontières de sable, frontières de papier. Histoire de territoires et de frontières, du Jihad de Sokoto à la colonisation française du Niger, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 2015 ;

Seignobos, Christian, Des mondes oubliés. Carnets d’Afrique, Marseille, Editions Parenthèses, 2017.
 
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EdJo

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I am trying to find more info about this. Any of you have it?

I was able to find similar information, but still not much. All it says, is that this happened for centuries.

If we think about it, trade between Tripoli(Libya) and Kanem happened for centuries. Well, Fezzan, in Southern Libya, at some point, was conquered by the Kanem Empire.

And European slaves were traded in markets in Tripoli, for centuries...Hummm
 

mbewane

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Interesting link, I'll read it later.

But yeah it's well known (I think) that Europeans were slaves around the Mediterrannean, so it's not really a suprise that some would end up further down south. The Sahara was (still is actually) a big area of communication/trade.
 
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