Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement – Martin Plaut

12 October, 2025 at 2:00 pm

A new history of slavery in Africa from the Pharaohs to the present that considers the reparations debate in context, and the continuing impact of modern slavery. Slavery has ravaged African societies since 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape, from Mauritania to Somalia. Most writing covers just one fraction of this history. To complete the picture, Martin Plaut also considers the impact of other systems of enslavement, such as the Indian Ocean trade and modern slavery within Africa. Unbroken Chains is an account of the bondage systems that have scarred African communities over the millennia.  

Martin Plaut is the BBC World Service’s former Africa Editor. An adviser to the Foreign Office and the US State Department, he is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

Martin Plaut