Unbroken Chains
A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement
Published on 28. August 2025
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-80526-402-6 (ISBN)
Description
A Spectator 'Book of the Year'
A new, full history of slavery in Africa, from the Pharaohs to the present.
Slavery has ravaged African societies since at least 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape; from Mauritania to Somalia. Most writing covers just one fraction of this history: the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Yet Indian Ocean slavery was equally sizeable, and far longer-lived. Historians often neglect the continent's internal practices, too--Ethiopian kingdoms enslaving conquered peoples; the Sokoto Caliphate capturing men and women on a scale matching the US plantations.
Overlooked stories of enslavement matter. In 1794, Congress authorised construction of the US Navy's first six ships--to protect civilian vessels from North Africa's Barbary corsairs, who raided as far as Britain and the Caribbean, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Europeans. And, since abolition of the trans-Atlantic trade, international focus on 'modern' slavery has left Africans enslaved as chattel today with few champions. The UN and African Union are too embarrassed to confront leaders still permitting this practice.
Unbroken Chains is the first full account of the bondage systems that have scarred African communities over the millennia. It is an illuminating, powerful read.
A new, full history of slavery in Africa, from the Pharaohs to the present.
Slavery has ravaged African societies since at least 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape; from Mauritania to Somalia. Most writing covers just one fraction of this history: the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Yet Indian Ocean slavery was equally sizeable, and far longer-lived. Historians often neglect the continent's internal practices, too--Ethiopian kingdoms enslaving conquered peoples; the Sokoto Caliphate capturing men and women on a scale matching the US plantations.
Overlooked stories of enslavement matter. In 1794, Congress authorised construction of the US Navy's first six ships--to protect civilian vessels from North Africa's Barbary corsairs, who raided as far as Britain and the Caribbean, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Europeans. And, since abolition of the trans-Atlantic trade, international focus on 'modern' slavery has left Africans enslaved as chattel today with few champions. The UN and African Union are too embarrassed to confront leaders still permitting this practice.
Unbroken Chains is the first full account of the bondage systems that have scarred African communities over the millennia. It is an illuminating, powerful read.
Reviews / Votes
'The former BBC World Service Africa editor places the now well-documented horrors of the transatlantic slave trade in a wider historical context. Plaut points out that slave trading across the Indian Ocean went on far longer. It was not a foreign import: enslaving prisoners was standard practice in Sokoto and Ethiopia's kingdoms and elsewhere. And slavery is still being practised on the continent today.' * <b>Michela Wrong, <i>Spectator</i> 'Books of the Year'</b> * 'This is a game-changing and potentially controversial contribution to academic and popular discourse around slavery and slave trades (note trades, plural) that should inform debates around reparations, although it ranges well beyond them.' * <b><i>The Round Table</i></b> * 'A superb history ... this book is a South African classic, and it will win readers in Africa and globally for decades to come.' * <b><I>Politics Web</I></b> * 'Disrupts the narrative that the history of slavery stems from the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade.' * <b><I>Wits Review</I></b> * '[An] extraordinary, uncomfortable book on the dismal history of the trade in human souls.' * <b><I>The House</I></b> * 'Unbroken Chains strips away the comforting myth that African slavery began and ended with Europeans. Author Martin Plaut traces a far older, continent-wide system of enslavement involving African, Arab and European actors, forcing a reckoning with history as it actually happened. His book is rigorous, unsparing and deeply uncomfortable-exactly what an honest account should be.' * <b><I>Troy Media</I></b> * 'Guilt over slavery and its inheritances rightly grips Europe and America. But this electrifying history of its brutality runs deeper and longer across Africa, still now, still hidden away. This erudite book is an eye-opening revelation and a transfixing read.' -- <b>Polly Toynbee, <i>Guardian</i> columnist</b> 'Expansive and sophisticated, Martin Plaut's book is absolutely essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the long history of slavery, and its ongoing life.' -- <b>Kris Manjapra, author of </i>Black Ghost of Empire</i></b> 'An immense, bold undertaking, placing the dominant trans-Atlantic narrative as one part of a jigsaw that stretches across five millenia and involves the enslavement and trade in humans within Africa itself and across multiple oceans.' -- <b>Mary Harper, BBC Africa Editor, and author</b> 'An important introduction to a controversial subject. As usual Martin Plaut pulls no punches and provides evidence from ancient Egypt to the modern day to make a compelling case against Africa's rich and powerful.' -- <b>Hakim Adi, author of <i>African and Caribbean People in Britain</i></b> 'Martin Plaut has combined his journalist's eye with scholarship and depth of understanding of Africa to bring to life, through the words of the enslaved, a compelling analysis of the complexity and scale of African enslavement and its continuing impact on current African areas of conflict.' -- <b>Mark Bowden, former UN Assistant Secretary General</b> 'A powerful narrative that reads like a thriller. Martin Plaut's meticulous research provides a much-needed correction of the myths and misperceptions around a most sordid aspect of our common humanity.' -- <b>Mukesh Kapila, author of <i>Against A Tide Of Evil</i></b> 'In masterly fashion, Unbroken Chains sweeps from the trans-Saharan slave trade through indigenous slavery in Ethiopia and Nigeria to the Indian Ocean trade and slavery today. A must-read for anyone interested in African enslavement.' -- <b>Christopher Saunders, University of Cape Town</b> 'This important book covers the vast canvas of Africa's enslaved peoples, underlining that the abomination of slavery was not confined to the trans-Atlantic trade.' -- <b>Sue Onslow, Visiting Professor, King's College London</b>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
10 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
654 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80526-402-6 (9781805264026)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2025
Hurst Publishers
€23.49
Available for download
Person
Martin Plaut, the BBC World Service's former Africa Editor, has published extensively on African affairs. An adviser to the Foreign Office and the US State Department, he is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. His other titles from Hurst include Understanding Ethiiopia's Tigray War, Understanding Eritrea and Understanding South Africa.
Content
1. Introduction 2. Trans-Saharan slavery 3. Internal slavery 4. West Coast, Trans-Atlantic slavery 5. East Coast slavery 6. Eliminating the slave trade 7. Slavery today Conclusion Index