In 1889, the British colonial official Sir Harry Johnston published
The History of a Slave, a story of an archetypal slave based on
Johnston's extensive knowledge of North and West Africa from his
travels there. The tale follows the fictitious slave from the
grasslands of Cameroon northward through the commercial centres of
the Sudan, at the time part of the Sokoto empire in what is now
Nigeria. Eventually, the slave is taken across the Sahara to North
Africa, where he recounts his experiences to his Muslim master. The
details of life as an African slave come from accounts given
personally to Johnston by slaves in the Barbary States and in West
Equatorial Africa, particularly by Mbudikum people -- slaves who
witnessed cannibalism, brutal public executions, rape and torturous
forced migrations, but also the inner workings of the Sultan's
court and the Sultan's army. The original book was published
together with some 47 illustrations of scenes in Africa that were
drawn by Johnston, and are reproduced in this edition with a new
introduction and annotations by Paul Lovejoy.
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