38 - The Testimony of Lamine FilalouA Young Man’s Experience of Enslavement and His Struggle for Freedom in French West Africa

Summary

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, a number of enslaved men and women in Senegal, Guinea, and the French Soudan sought freedom in the town of Saint Louis, Senegal's colonial capital. Slave testimonies contained in missionary reports offer valuable insight into the first-hand experience of slavery through the voice of the enslaved themselves. In Lamine Filalou's testimony one can learn that his father died when Lamine was young and that authority over the family fell to his brother. This chapter explores the question of whether this brother is the child of his mother and father, a distant relation, or simply someone with high authority in the village. Lamine's story indicates that he was discovered and brought to the mission by another member of the Protestant community, Moussa Sidibé.