This handbook places emphasis on modern/contemporary times, and offers relevant sophisticated and comprehensive overviews. It aims to emphasize the religious, economic, political, cultural and social connections between Africa and the rest of the world and features comparisons as well as an interdisciplinary approach in order to examine the place of Africa in global history. "This book makes an important contribution to the discussion on the place of Africa in the world and of the world in Africa. An outstanding work of scholarship, it powerfully demonstrates that Africa is not marginal to global concerns. Its labor and resources have made our world, and the continent deserves our respect." - Mukhtar Umar Bunza, Professor of Social History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and Commissioner for Higher Education, Kebbi State, Nigeria "This is a deep plunge into the critical place of Africa in global history. The handbook blends a rich set of important tapestries and analysis of the conceptual framework of African diaspora histories, imperialism and globalization. By foregrounding the authentic voices of African interpreters of transnational interactions and exchanges, the Handbook demonstrates a genuine commitment to the promotion of decolonized and indigenous knowledge on African continent and its peoples." - Samuel Oloruntoba, Visiting Research Professor, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University

A work of synthesis on plantation slavery in nineteenth century Sokoto caliphate, engaging with major debates on internal African slavery, on the meaning of the term "plantation," and on comparative slavery A large-scale study of plantation slavery in West Africa with a focus on the nineteenth-century Sokoto caliphate, this book draws on diverse sources including oral testimony, Arabic material, and extant scholarly works about the caliphal state. Plantation Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Historical and Comparative Study offers new views on various fundamental issues including the definition of blackness in the Sokoto caliphate, the meaning of theterm "plantation," the significance of plantation slavery in the caliphal state, and the role of slavery in the context of African states. Author Mohammed Bashir Salau analyzes key themes in the history of plantation slavery, especially plantation management and the acquisition, treatment, and control of slaves. Building on this analysis, Salau points to previously unknown ways in which the caliphal state prevented the development of serfdom, arguing that while social and economic factors played a role in the rise of slavery in the Sokoto caliphate, conscious political choice was the major factor for the rise and maintenance of plantation slavery. This study will be of major interest to students and scholars of slavery in Africa in general and in the Sokoto Caliphate in particular; in addition, through its comparative discussion it contributes to the literature on second slavery. Mohammed Bashir Salau is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Mississippi.