Description du projet
L’abolition de l’esclavage en Afrique du Nord comme phénomène social mondial
Les chercheurs ont essentiellement attribué l’abolition de l’esclavage en Afrique du Nord au XIXe siècle à la fin de l’influence impérialiste, et, dans une moindre mesure, au monde musulman. En outre, l’étude des communautés d’esclaves d’Afrique du Nord est limitée à des cas nationaux uniques au lieu de proposer une perspective globale. Le projet SlaveVoices, financé par l’UE, propose une nouvelle approche basée sur des témoignages écrits d’esclaves et de leurs enfants. Il étudiera les sociétés d’esclaves, non dans des États individuels d’Afrique du Nord, mais en tant que phénomène social globalisé qui tient compte du rôle de différents acteurs d’Afrique, d’Asie et d’Europe.
Objectif
SLAVEVOICES has two main groundbreaking scientific goals. First, it aims at fully renewing our approach of the end of slavery, a crucial social transformation in North Africa as a part of the Muslim world. So far historians have explained the abolition and slow vanishing of slavery in this region either as the outcome of European imperialistic interventions or to a lesser extent as resulting from debates among Muslim scholars and leaders who were owning slaves. SLAVEVOICES will instead interpret the end of slavery through the testimonies of the ones who experienced and acted for the end of slavery: namely the testimonies of the slaves and their descendants written in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and European languages.
Second, by studying together –and not apart as is often the case– the various groups of slaves in North Africa hailing from Africa, Europe and Asia, SLAVEVOICES will propose a new way of conceiving and writing the history of North Africa. Instead of studying each historical phenomenon according to each national part of this region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt) as it is has often been the case, SLAVEVOICES will be a concrete attempt at writing a globalized and connected history of modern North Africa. It will explore the reshaping of the connections that groups of slaves built up within North African societies and between this part of the Muslim world and other adjoining societies in Africa, Asia and Europe in the abolition era. SLAVEVOICES will innovate in resituating slave testimonies within a broader history of literacy in North Africa throughout a long nineteenth century, a period in which literacy and written sources underwent major changes in Ottoman and colonial North Africa.
Finally through a website, a book, a play, and videos SLAVEVOICES will bring back the voices, the speeches and emotions of nineteenth century slaves to a present audience as new forms of enslavement and social dependency are resurfacing across the Mediterranean.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
75341 Paris
France