Unbroken Chains - A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement

The Anglo-Ethiopian Society was formed in 1948. The object of The Society is to advance public education and knowledge concerning Ethiopia.

The Anglo-Ethiopian Society

A new, full history of slavery in Africa, from the Pharaohs to the present.

Ethiopian Community in Britain

<h3>Book Launch: Unbroken Chains - A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement.</h3><h3>Martin Plaut</h3>Slavery has ravaged African societies since at least 2500 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.<a href="https://africanslavery.org/" title="https://africanslavery.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Unbroken Chains</a> is the first full account of the bondage systems that have scarred African communities over the millennia.<a href="https://martinplaut.com/" title="https://martinplaut.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Martin Plaut</a>, 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.Unable to attend the event in person? <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1606933424129" title="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-event-the-abiy-project-god-power-and-war-in-the-new-ethiopia-tickets-927893573657">Register for an online ticket</a> to be sent a link to a Zoom broadcast of the live event.

<a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/unbroken-chains/" title="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/unbroken-chains/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Unbroken Chains - A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement</a> by Martin PlautHurst, 28 August 2025ISBN: 9781805264026 (hardback), UK RRP £25:00Also available as an eBook.

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Unbroken Chains - A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement

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