The slave trade in the Indian Ocean 203At Bangui, in Africa, J. L. Miège collected oral evidence from living
witnesses about the slave trade which had been carried on across the continent,
from the Kano region as far as Zanzibar, Jedda and Muscat. Inquiries made of
old people in Réunion seem to warrant situating the arrival of their forebears
at the time of a clandestine traffic, which is later than one would have suspected
from the texts.
These remarks lead me, by way of conclusion, to venture a hypothesis :
even when there are no texts concerning a slave-trade phenomenon, the historian
can sill proceed with his work. He will have to go to the spot himself, i.e. to the
land whence the slaves departed and to the one where they arrived. It is essential
for him to glean information from the local inhabitants, to search their memo-
ries and their land. His archaeology should extend to the sites inhabited by
the Maroons. Perhaps then we shall understand better how far the slaves, and
more particularly the rebel slaves, have kept Africa alive in the ' Indian Ocean '
area. The absence of studies does not necessarily mean the absence of a subject
requiring study. The Atlantic side of the continent alone has produced the Boni
Negroes of Guyana, the Vodun Creoles of Haiti, and American jazz, whereas
the Indian Ocean slave has not so far made history. The sega (dance of the
Mascarene Islands), short stories, proverbs, Creole languages, cooking recipes
and religious beliefs can teach us a great deal about the qualitative and quan-
titative impact of Africa. Even anthropological blood-group research may shed
1 ight on the dominant features of a particular population. And so at the level
of forms of research we find this converging of human sciences which I suggested
was necessary when I was endeavouring to identify the problems inherent in
defining the coverage of a study of the slave trade. In the Indian Ocean, as
in the Atlantic, Africa has probably survived the convoys, the plantations and
cultural alienation. ' Mediterranean seas—and the Indian Ocean is one such—
have always been centres of civilization ', writes M. Mollat. The slave made his
own contribution to this centre. As part of the 'cultural continuum', he trans-
ported Africa eastwards for centuries. As his Odyssey drew to an end, hordes of
Indian and Chinese 'coolies' began to flow in the opposite direction. The trade
in 'free employees' and slaves was an insult to civilization but it was also a
feature of civilization; more effectively than ivory, gold, pottery of spices,
it forged between the shores of the Indian Ocean a living link—man. Above
and beyond disruption, violence, bloodshed and tears, there was acculturation.
The islands are beginning to bear witness to this. As for the continental coast
lines, scarcely any stones have yet been scabbled in this quarry of history.
Notes- Meeting of Experts on the Historical Contacts between East Africa and Madagascar
on the One Hand, and South-East Asia on the Other, Across the Indian Ocean,
Port Louis, Mauritius, 15-19 July 1974.