Into the shadows: life-histories of slave descendants in twentieth century urban Gambia

In the years of World War II, two young men of slave ancestry – whom I shall call Fally Kebbeh and Mamadi Kumba – left the rural areas of the Gambia River to move into Bathurst, the capital of the colony of the Gambia. By reconstructing their trajectory, I shall raise two questions, one historiographical and the other methodological. The first relates to the possibility (or not) of erasing slave ancestry by migrating to cities. The second addresses the sources that scholars can use when issues of social stigma prevent men and women of slave ancestry from overtly discussing that part of their past.