By the1940s, capitalist influences and a burgeoning cash economy worked to transform the institution of child pawning in West Africa by increasing the prevalence of pawned young girls from impoverished areas of the interior. This paper addresses these important changes through an analysis of a case from August of 1941 ...
(Show more)By the1940s, capitalist influences and a burgeoning cash economy worked to transform the institution of child pawning in West Africa by increasing the prevalence of pawned young girls from impoverished areas of the interior. This paper addresses these important changes through an analysis of a case from August of 1941 in which three girls characterized as ‘Busanga’ ages eleven, fourteen and ten appeared before the British colonial administrator in the northeastern border town of Bawku, Ghana. The three girls were providing testimony as to their status as slaves or ‘pawns’ and the testimonies intended to establish whether they were indeed victims of a persistent trade in northern children to the Gold Coast.
Although much has been written about slavery in West Africa, especially the fitful decline of male slavery following the introduction of wage-labor, few historical studies have focused on pawning, the increase of pawning female children, or the messy business of dis-entangling pawning from other transactions (such as slavery and marriage) in the colonial courts. As early as 1927, British officials declared that slavery, in a European sense, did not exist in the Gold Coast. While acknowledging that pawning was “still practiced to some extent” officials were quick to distinguish pawning from slavery in the courts stating, “there is no criminal intention behind it and will diminish in time”. This paper situates these questions of slavery, gender, and pawning in the context of testimonies given by the three young girls – Atawa, Abnofo, and Kibadu - and their own interpretations of servitude and migration amidst these economic transformations in West Africa.
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