Blog9
At the beginning of “Abina And The Important Men” slavery in British controlled parts of Africa is outlawed. However, slavery in not something that simply goes away overnight. African countries were still exercising the use of slavery despite the British presence. This is somewhat because there was still a demand for labor. Also, there was the fact that this practice has been around so long that simply abandoning it did not sit well with everyone.
Yet the British still tried to enforce the non-slavery laws in African colonies. This offered a place for African slaves to escape to and gain access to freedom. Court systems could be used to gain a license if that is the right term as proof of freedom.
The problem with this is that there are several cultural differences that get in the way. Not to mention the loop holes that could be exploited to make this system useless.
As displayed in the book “ABINA AND THE IMPORTANT MEN” there are certain criteria that the British use to determine if someone is a slave. If these criteria are not met than the labor form might be disregarded as slavery.
Such questions must be answered to line up with the British understanding of slavery. An example a deal of purchase had to have been witnessed specifically with money. Second the individual in bondage must be referred to as a slave when being referenced. There is also the concept of beatings to consider since threats and harm are often used to keep slaves in submission. Last would be if the laborer worked in the fields or not as the British associated field workers as slaves often.
A British judge would of course start with these questions as he would not be as knowledgeable on African culture.
Magistrate Melton in the book asks questions like these with Abina. This line of thinking goes to show the difference in cultural between the Gold Coast of Africa and England. In the mind of Magistrate Melton, a slave is held against their will. Abina is a native African and was not educated on how to talk in a court.
Nor is Abina or any other non-British educated African culturally aware of such standards.
There is also the trouble of the language barrier which can confuse certain terms. Terms such as free will and Master that are clear in English do not translate into other languages the same way. The reason this matters is because that some forms of African slavery resemble British labor. A common apprentice in England does roughly the same work as a domestic African slave. The work of an African slave could be easily misunderstood as basic labor.
A conversation between two of the book’s characters goes as far as to point this out.
Then there are the misconceptions about African societies. They could get away with saying that their slave is merely an apprentice. They could also say that a woman that they own was bought to be a wife not a slave. It is doubtful that a Magistrate would bother to consider such an issue if such an explanation was given.
This cannot be stated enough; the conception of slavery is too different for a foreign judge to determine accurately.
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Blog #9 Abina and the Important Men
Blog 9: Abina and the Important Men
