Definition: Manumission
(often misspelled as manumution) refers to the act of a slave owner releasing or freeing their slaves from slavery, servitude, or bondage. It is a formal, historical term used to describe the voluntary liberation of an enslaved person by their master.
Manumission in Massawa, Eritrea, by Taylor and Francis
During the late 19th century (specifically 1873–1885) was a significant, documented phenomenon during the period of Egyptian rule (1865-1885). A study of 239 manumission acts revealed that 276 slaves were freed, with a strong, state-driven effort to liberate slaves, often in response to international pressure
. Key aspects of manumission in Massawa include:
The Nature of Slavery: Slavery in Massawa was both domestic and linked to the broader Red Sea trade, with slaves serving local residents, commercial visitors, Egyptian officers, and the state.
Demographics: The majority of manumitted slaves were female (approximately 64%) and often in their teens, mostly originating from modern-day south-western and western Ethiopia, the Eritrean borderlands, and Sudan.
Role of the Egyptian Government: The Egyptian government was responsible for half of the registered manumissions. The court records (mahkama) of Massawa show a high volume of liberation acts, particularly in 1874, which acted as a way for the Egyptian authorities to show their suppression of the slave trade.
Post-Manumission Life: While liberated, many slaves remained vulnerable. Some were absorbed into wage labor, while others maintained links with their former owners, or were at risk of re-enslavement.
Context: Massawa served as a major, yet changing, port hub where slaves were either working locally or in transit to the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East.
This period of manumission shows a transition in the region's labor dynamics during increasing colonial pressure.
Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 012.693302
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Re: Islamic Arab Slavery in Massawa, Eritrea and freed slaves
The shocking truth about slavery in the Islamic world today
by Justin Marozzi, Telegraph, July 05, 2025
Up to 17 million people have passed through the slave trade in the Muslim world since the 7th century. Tragically, the practice lives on
I began my research into the history of slavery in the Islamic world in Bamako, the capital of Mali, in 2020. Yes, you read that right. Not 1820 or 1920, but five years ago, during a harrowing encounter. Sitting cross-legged on the mud floor of a temporary shelter, a man in his late 50s called Hamey told me how he and his ancestors had been enslaved to a slave-owning family in the western region of Kayes for many generations. It was only two years earlier, after a savage public beating, that he’d managed to escape his enslavement. He broke down repeatedly as he described the near-impossibility, now that he was free, of finding somewhere to live and providing for his family in one of the poorest countries on earth.
Slavery is officially illegal in Mali, but it continues, a hereditary and racialised system, as it does in Mauritania and other parts of west Africa. Nor is the problem unique to the region. In recent years, the Arab world, especially the Gulf, has become a hub of modern slavery – defined by Walk Free, the international human rights and anti-slavery group, as “situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power”.
Read here
https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/ ... rld-today/
Read: The key findings from the Global Slavery Index, Walk Free
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by Justin Marozzi, Telegraph, July 05, 2025
Up to 17 million people have passed through the slave trade in the Muslim world since the 7th century. Tragically, the practice lives on
I began my research into the history of slavery in the Islamic world in Bamako, the capital of Mali, in 2020. Yes, you read that right. Not 1820 or 1920, but five years ago, during a harrowing encounter. Sitting cross-legged on the mud floor of a temporary shelter, a man in his late 50s called Hamey told me how he and his ancestors had been enslaved to a slave-owning family in the western region of Kayes for many generations. It was only two years earlier, after a savage public beating, that he’d managed to escape his enslavement. He broke down repeatedly as he described the near-impossibility, now that he was free, of finding somewhere to live and providing for his family in one of the poorest countries on earth.
Slavery is officially illegal in Mali, but it continues, a hereditary and racialised system, as it does in Mauritania and other parts of west Africa. Nor is the problem unique to the region. In recent years, the Arab world, especially the Gulf, has become a hub of modern slavery – defined by Walk Free, the international human rights and anti-slavery group, as “situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power”.
Read here
https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/ ... rld-today/
Read: The key findings from the Global Slavery Index, Walk Free
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