Slavery, Emancipation, and Memory: Exploratory Notes on Western Ethiopia

... The legacy of slavery is a complex web of social relations based on historical dependency, inequality, and transmitted racial stereotypes. As an institution, slavery is undisputed in the history of Ethiopia but is overshadowed by discourses about social stratification and feudalism.1 Slaves are outsiders who are regarded as property within the owner society that sanctions their status by judicial or other means.2 The master theoretically has total control over the slaves, which deprives the slaves of their history and dignity. In this respect it is different from feudal master-serf relations, typical of the gäbbar-system,3 a prominent feature of the economic history of Ethiopia. The latter system was itself exploitative, yet it forced the landlord to provide a certain security against slave raiding from outside.4 It also tied the peasant to the land. As the Abyssinian Empire expanded into the southern peripheries, the people of the newly conquered lands were subjected to its feudal order. If the peasants were unable to pay their tribute, sometimes the landlord would also take children in return.