Um escravo já viu o mundo: Viajar como um escravo para a Central Sudão (século XIX)

Central Sudan in the 19th century is shaped by an intense mobility of people through complex networks of circulations. Within this organized space, the rules are not the same for everyone. The ability of Individuals and groups to move depends on the social status of each one, without following simply social hierarchies. In fact, the narratives of European explorers in the area, recount roads full of slaves, men and women, in groups or alone, chained or free to move. This extreme mobility of slaves, call for questioning the individual and collective ability of enslaved people to move and to control their movements. To access their experience and practices of mobility, the historian can draw upon the corpus of life stories or slave narratives. These testimonials from individuals who were slaves in central Sudan were collected by linguists or amateur scientists in the first half of the 19th century in London, Sierra Leone, Massachusetts, Rio or Bahia. Fifteen stories from one page to ten pages offer a counterpoint endogenous intimate and personal to understand the complexity of mobility experiences in context of enslavement. In these societies where those who travel are considered and admired, Slaves who have experienced abduction, capture, exile and an accumulation of travel experiences are often considered more suitable for mobility and it leads some of them to pursue careers in the largely professionalized world of long-distance trade. Soudan central, Sahel, Sahara, esclavage, mobilité, 19e siècle, voyage.Central Sudan in the 19th century is shaped by an intense mobility of people through complex networks of circulations. Within this organized space, the rules are not the same for everyone. The ability of Individuals and groups to move depends on the social status of each one, without following simply social hierarchies. In fact, the narratives of European explorers in the area, recount roads full of slaves, men and women, in groups or alone, chained or free to move. This extreme mobility of slaves, call for questioning the individual and collective ability of enslaved people to move and to control their movements. To access their experience and practices of mobility, the historian can draw upon the corpus of life stories or slave narratives. These testimonials from individuals who were slaves in central Sudan were collected by linguists or amateur scientists in the first half of the 19th century in London, Sierra Leone, Massachusetts, Rio or Bahia. Fifteen stories from one page to ten pages offer a counterpoint endogenous intimate and personal to understand the complexity of mobility experiences in context of enslavement. In these societies where those who travel are considered and admired, Slaves who have experienced abduction, capture, exile and an accumulation of travel experiences are often considered more suitable for mobility and it leads some of them to pursue careers in the largely professionalized world of long-distance trade. Soudan central, Sahel, Sahara, esclavage, mobilité, 19e siècle, voyage.No século XIX, o Sudão central é caracterizado por uma alta mobilidade de pessoas por meio de redes complexas de circulação. Dentro deste espaço organizado e padronizado, as regras não são as mesmas para todos. A mobilidade, individual ou de grupo, é determinada pela posição social de cada um, sem que a possibilidade de mover-se não seja um simples reflexo das hierarquias sociais. De fato, à leitura de fontes, fica-se impressionado pela onipresença de escravos, homens e mulheres nas estradas. Isto nos convida a questionar as capacidades individuais e coletivas daqueles que são subjugados a mover-se e exercer um controle sobre seus movimentos. Para encontrar o momento vivido, as práticas e a experiência daqueles que são submissos, o historiador pode contar com o corpus, limitado mas rico, de narrativas de escravos. Estes testemunhos oferecem um contraponto endógeno, íntimo e pessoal que permitem compreender a complexidade das experiências de mobilidade em contexto de escravidão. Nas sociedades que respeitam e admiram aqueles que percorreram e viram o mundo, a experiência fundadora do rapto, da captura, do exílio e o acúmulo de experiência de deslocamentos vividos por escravos levam a considerá-los como mais aptos para a mobilidade e conduz alguns a seguir carreiras no mundo do comércio de longa distância amplamente profissionalizado