Abolizionismo africano: nascita e trasformazioni dell’antischiavismo in Africa
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Attraverso la ricostruzione delle lotte e delle biografie di persone africane che si sono battute contro la schiavitù nel corso del XIX e XX secolo, la conferenza propone un nuovo sguardo al tema dell’abolizionismo in Africa. La maggior parte delle ricerche, infatti, si è finora concentrata sulla legislazione coloniale antischiavista e sulle azioni abolizioniste degli europei, mentre poco è stato scritto sui percorsi locali delle idee e delle strategie abolizioniste in Africa. La conferenza mira a colmare questa lacuna, evidenziando come le classi dirigenti africane, gli intellettuali, la gente comune, le persone ridotte in schiavitù e i discendenti degli schiavi abbiano contestato la legittimità della schiavitù all’interno delle loro stesse società.
BENEDETTA ROSSI | University College London
Scientific coordination:
Giacomo Ghedini (FBK-ISIG)
Federica Morelli (FBK-ISIG)
Cycle of seminars: “Storie in costruzione. Nuovi orizzonti della storia contemporanea“
ISIG is an accredited or qualified entity to carry out training activities for the staff of Trentino schools.
The talk will be held in Italian.
The presentation will be in-person in the FBK Aula Grande while seats last and online.
Registration by June 22, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. is required in order to arrange the connection.
***
Image: AFRAB Project, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/history/research/research-projects-and-centres/african-abolitionism-rise-and-transformations-anti-slavery-africa/exhibitions
Speakers
-
Benedetta Rossi is professor of history at UCL at the department of Social and Historical Sciences. Her research focuses on the African and global history of slavery and other forms of unfreedom, abolition and abolitionism, labour, and migration in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Her manuscript entitled Slavery and Abolition in African History since 1800 is forthcoming in the New Approaches to African History Series of Cambridge University Press. She is the author of From Slavery to Aid: Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800-2000 (CUP 2015). She is also the editor of numerous edited volumes and special issues. Benedetta is the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded research project African Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformations of Anti-Slavery in Africa (AFRAB, ERC-AdG-885418, 2020-2026) and of the AHRC-funded project Legacies of Slavery in Niger (LESLAN, AH/V01210X/1, 2018-2022).
Registration
Registration to this event is mandatory.
RegisterContacts
Organizers
The initiative was also realized thanks to the contribution of "Direzione generale Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali" of the Ministry of Culture.