A Path from Slavery to Freedom

Abstract

What can family biographies, life stories and memories of individuals tell us about the sociohistorical transformations of domestic slavery in Benin? By focusing on the generational dynamics among the Ologoudou, a family of former slaves, this article attempts to shed some light on how economic, social and school trajectories have influenced the situation of descendants of slaves in Benin over the generations. The case of the Ologoudou family, descended from a Yoruba slave who arrived in Ouidah in the mid-nineteenth century, shows that domestic slaves, placed under particular conditions, may have had the capacity to take their fate into their own hands and not only to be passive beings as they are often described.