Slaves into workers

Unlike African slavery in Europe and the Americas, slavery in the Sudan and other parts of Africa persisted well into the twentieth century. Sudanese slaves served Sudanese masters until the region was conquered by the Turks, who continued the practice on a larger, institutional scale. When the British took over the Sudan in 1898, they officially emancipated the slaves, yet found it impossible to replace the contribution of their labor to the country's economy. This pathfinding study explores the process of emancipation and the development of wage labor in the Sudan under British colonial…