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158 Mbaye Gueye

the middle of the nineteenth century, El Hadj Omar took up the combat and
islamized the Nigerian Sudan.^38 All these wars, which furthered the expansion
of the internal slave trade, coincided with the decision by the Western European
nations progressively to put an end to the slave trade.^39 In 1807 Great Britain,
and in 1815 France decided to abolish it. Finding no outside market for their
slaves, the Africans were compelled to use them at home. Slavery was the natural
ransom that conquering armies would demand of those they had defeated.
The sudden slackening of European demand presented the serious prob-
lem of how to dispose of the slaves. Around 1843, after a war between the
Bambara and the Sarakole in which the latter were defeated, the Bambara
king arrived in Bakel with 800 prisoners for sale. But he found no market for
them. Not knowing what to do with his prisoners, he

ordered the unfortunate wretches to be systematically slaughtered. As was customary,

they were lined up, tied down firmly and gagged so that they could not spit on the

executioner, in which case he would have been unable to kill them. The executioner

slew nine of them and spared the tenth' who was the executioner's tithe.^40

In the Podor region, 'laptots' witnessed a similar massacre. Dervish Moors,

unable to sell their prisoners for lack of prospective customers killed off the

children and cripples.^41

In spite of the anti-slavery laws, however, the British and the French

continued to trade in slaves in order to meet some of their manpower problems.

Thus in order to provide Senegal with new sources of income, the French had

recourse to agricultural resettlement projects, 'the success of which would add

a huge continent to France's possessions'.^42 Since the American colonies had

been developed by African labour, there would surely be no dearth of willing

workers to do the same in plantations on African soil.^43 France followed the

example set by Great Britain and in 1822 established a system of indenture by

virtue of which slaves could be used in the European areas by those who had

redeemed them. The planters could thereby procure cheap labour for their

concessions.

All they needed to do was to buy slaves inland, where they were assured that the slaves'

lives were in danger from the harsh treatment they had been subjected to ever since

the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade had made it impossible for the African

merchants to dispose of their merchandise.^44

The colonial service also bought indentured slaves for military purposes. In

spite of the measures taken by Faidherbe to reorganize the battalion of Tirail-

leurs Sénégalais (an infantry battalion), most of the conscripts were in fact

young slaves who had been purchased and were enlisted for fourteen years in

the French army. They were given an intensive military training and were