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I'm interested in researching slavery between African tribes. Did Africa tribes keep slaves? The starting point, there's a word shared by the Luhya and Luo "musumba/misumba" - it meant a man held as a captive worker in the homestead. He was not allowed to marry or build a home
From Luo folklore, misumba seem to be someone captured after a conquest or offered in payment of a debt. He was mostly utilized to undertake household chores and never allowed to participate in warfare.
The next closest to a "slave" was Jodak (foreigner). Luo clans often fought over land, the defeated clan became Jodak (by force) among the conquerors and were offered land on a usufructuary basis. They had to take their instructions from the conquerors
Musumba is a surname of the Bemba tribe in Zambia and DRC meaning a person who belongs to another area. It has a "slavery" connotation since slaves were mostly from other tribes.
1. "Nearly all the tribes in the Congo Basin either are or have been cannibals; The preference of different tribes for various parts of the human body is interesting. Some cut long steaks from the flesh of the thighs, legs, or arms; others prefer the hands and feet..."
2. "... and though the great majority do not eat the head, I have come across more than one tribe which prefers this to any other part. Almost all use some part of the intestines on account of the fat they contain."
3. "A young Basongo chief came to our Commandant while at dinner in his tent and asked for the loan of his knife, which, without thinking, the Commandant gave him. He immediately disappeared behind the tent and cut the throat of a little slave-girl belonging to him."
The tribes in the Congo kept slaves, not for their labour but as cattle who would be sacrificed in ceremonies and also as a meal https://www.heretical.com/cannibal/congo1.html #Cannibalism
This article illuminates the inter tribal slave trade in the Congo https://www.heretical.com/cannibal/glave.html
According to the book "Husbanding the Land: Agrarian Development and Socio-technical Change in Luoland, Kenya" misumba is the word used to describe a servant or a slave in the proper sense of the word. Since slaves were not allowed to marry, the word evolved to mean bachelor
Three books confirm that the word "misumba" in Dholuo does indeed mean a slave, servant, or prisoner of war. They had limited rights
Among the Abagussi, an "omosomba" meant "a bought person" a.ka slave
Msumba became a derogatory word for someone who has refused to marry
Among the Kikuyu, the term is Ngombo
The Somali did enslave Bantu speaking tribes
