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33 1 w฀฀ Domestic Violence, Colonial Courts, and the End of Slavery in French Soudan, 1905–12 emily burrill and richard roberts between 1905 and 1912, upward of one million slaves throughout French West Africa left their masters. Some headed back to their homelands; others moved to the expanding commercial centers scattered throughout the region along the lines of rail being built, along the major rivers, or simply away from their former masters.1 Not all slaves left their masters; many slaves remained near their masters, if no longer with them. But in all cases, the end of slavery set in motion sets of social, cultural, and economic changes that transformed the worlds in which Africans lived. The degree and meanings of these changes remain hotly debated.2 In this chapter, we examine how immediate post-emancipation social transformations in French Soudan affected households and how these adaptations contributed to domestic violence in the regions of Banamba, Gumbu, Kita, and Sikasso.3 These four regions are distinct: Banamba and Gumbu were centers of slave production; Sikasso was an area ravaged by wars of conquest and slave-raiding in the near past; and Kita was a growing population center based on French colonial enterprise and protection of freed and runaway slaves. As a result of these variations, the linked transformations of colonial conquest, the end of slavery, and the operation of the new courts in early twentieth-century French Soudan affected these regions differently. These linked transformations were certainly momentous, but they were also contested and uneven. Not only was there localized resistance to French rule, but slavery persisted and justice in the new courts was inconsistent. These transformations nonetheless challenged relationships of authority at many levels and threatened the obligations and expectations that bound people together in hierarchical relationships. At the same time, some people—slaves and free alike—chose to take risks in an 34 w฀ Emily Burrill and Richard Roberts effort to form their own family units and new social networks, thereby breaking away from relationships bounded by slavery.4 Although both of us have explored these interconnected historical changes elsewhere,5 we have yet to consider the ways in which they affected or reflected incidents of domestic violence in African households. Most certainly, the decline of slavery and the early colonial period throughout Africa were periods of significant violence and social change, as Africans struggled over labor, dependents, and access to economic and political resources. Households and families were not immune to these societal ruptures and conflicts; in many instances, the contested nature of the relationships of slavery and bondage manifested itself within the courts as household conflicts and violence . Our argument is that slavery influenced relationships within African households—including those between free members of the household—and that the end of slavery contributed to efforts to redefine those relationships. Sometimes these efforts were smooth and frictionless; at other times, the end of slavery increased tensions within households, resulting in acts of domestic violence. This chapter addresses the connections between the end of slavery, domestic violence, and the moral economy of marriage in French Soudan during early colonial rule. The patterns of violence and domestic desertion that took place in Banamba, Gumbu, Kita, and Sikasso were part of larger patterns of slave migration and the resultant redistribution of labor and power within households.6 Such shifts in gendered labor obligations upset balances in the moral economy of marriages and frequently resulted in domestic desertion and violence within the household. d o m est ic v io l en c e an d t h e moral economy of marriage i n frenc h s ou dan E. P. Thompson first introduced the idea of a moral economy in 1971, but James Scott’s later intervention would lend the expression more currency in African studies.7 Whereas Thompson used moral economy as a tool for explaining the motivations and actions of a working-class crowd in eighteenthcentury England, Scott turned to moral economy as a conceptual framework for understanding peasant uprisings in Southeast Asia, particularly in the face of subsistence crises. There was nothing “moral” about the moral economy. It describes a system of exploitation in which individuals accepted exploitation in expectation of protection and subsistence. Moreover, the limits on exploitation were generally understood and accepted. Most scholars of African history who use moral economy apply the concept in similar ways: as an organizing principle for understanding the actions of male peasants and agrarian workers in struggles...

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