Yoann Gauthier/Flickr. CC (by-nc)
“I do not know the day, and I do not know the time. I only know it will end one day!” said Mohammadou, while we were talking about the legacies of slavery in one of the rural communities of the Upper Gambia in 2008. After decades of travel and work out of The Gambia, Mohammadou was ageing at home. His comment referred to the marginalities associated with his slave ancestry and to the rather conservative attitude of his community in this respect.
His father settled in the village during the early part of the twentieth century, when the British colonial administrations had already declared the end of slavery and of the slave trade. He married a freed slave woman, who continued to serve the family of the former masters throughout her life. “Slavery is in the womb”, goes a local proverb. Mohammadou and his siblings inherited their mother’s status, while her labour obligations died with her.
