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The slave trade and the population drain

from Black Africa

165

from Timbuktu rose up in the name of Islamic law and even had the audacity
to demand an explanation from the Sultan, who eventually freed him.
In 1611, Ahmed Baba was approached by his admirers from the region
of Tuat. They were appalled by the enormous consignments of'ebony' passing
through their oases, and spoke to him of their misgivings.^2
Could one be involved in this kind of traffic without putting one's soul
in peril? In the Sudan, they knew, there were many Muslims ; was it not to be
feared that there might be some 'brothers' among those poor wretches torn
from their families?
In reply to these questions, Ahmed Baba drew up a treatise entitled
Frame-work for an Appreciation of the Legal Position of Sudanese Taken as
Slaves. It contains a wealth of quotations, good intentions, and reservations,
and in it the Sudanese jurisconsult declares that although it is difficult to dis-
tinguish Muslims from non-Muslims, it is nonetheless a crime for a Muslim
to buy a Muslim. Slavery, he goes on to say, is admissible in the context of the
Holy War if the slaves are non-Muslim, but the forms must be respected. First,
pagans must be called upon to embrace the Muslim religion. If they refuse,
they have the option of paying capitation, in exchange for which they are
allowed to keep their religion. Only if they refuse to comply with either of
these alternatives can they be taken as slaves.
It can be seen that the attitude of Islam to slavery and the slave trade
was, like that of Christianity, not very clear. Without going as far as Berlioux,
who maintained that to abolish slavery and the slave trade the Koran would
have to be torn up,^3 one is forced to face the fact that the Eastern slave trade
was carried on solely by the Muslims of the Maghreb and the Middle East.

Routes used to bring the black slaves back

Let us now look at the great routes along which The consignments of 'ebony'

were, for centuries, brought back to the Muslim countries via the same trade

routes as the other commodities (gold, ivory, etc.) that took the Muslims to

Nigritia. Four main routes were followed: the West-East route, from the

Maghreb to Western Sudan ; from Tripolitania to Central Sudan ; from Egypt

to the Upper Nile; and from the Middle East—Egypt to Waday-Darfur. Each

of these routes had its 'golden age' in the history of the slave trade.

Marcel Emerit has attempted to describe some of these overland routes.^4

Every two or three years, he writes, a great caravan would leave the Wad

Noun for Timbuktu, bearing a cargo of woollen or silk bands, spices and

incense. From the Wad Noun it took seven days to reach Seguiet el Haura, a

large river that flows into the ocean. Then for three days it would follow its

tributary, the River Butana. After another seven days it reached Ouadane.

From Ouadane some caravans went on to Senegal by a relatively easy route.