Slaves : inequality and sustainable agriculture in pre- colonial West Africa

The relation between social and economic inequality and the environment is one of the most central research questions in historical political ecology. This chapter addresses the issue from the perspective of a specific social form (slave soci­ eties), with a focus on a specific environmental issue (soil degradation). It discusses the measures that people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries took to ensure sustainable yields through investments in landesque capital. The central question is how slavery was related to soil and water conservation in West Africa during the period of the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath. There are two underlying arguments. First, while we have indisputable examples of how exploitative social and economic systems have led to degraded environments and to environmental load displacement, this relation needs to be examined critically and empirically, rather than taken for granted. Second, in the current urge to highlight “traditional” soil and water conservation practices for development purposes, there is a need for a better understanding of the political economy and social structures in which these practices once developed