Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion & Society in Precolonial Senegambia

by Robert M. Baum

Book Overview

In this groundbreaking work, Robert Baum seeks to reconstruct the religious and social history of the Diola communities in southern Senegal during the precolonial era, when the Atlantic slave trade was at its height. Baum shows that Diola community leaders used a complex of religious shrines and priesthoods to regulate and contain the influence of the slave trade. He demonstrates how this close involvement with the traders significantly changed Diola religious life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195123921
• ISBN13: 9780195123920
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

The Fascinating scope of African Religion.

Baum has done an excellent job at capturing the impact of slavery on traditional African religion. The fact that an often ignored subject is gaining insightful scolarly attention is great and represents a definite progression within the feild.