Unlike African slavery in Europe and the Americas, slavery in the Sudan and other parts of Africa persisted well into the twentieth century. Sudanese slaves served Sudanese masters until the region was conquered by the Turks, who continued the practice on a larger, institutional scale. When the British took over the Sudan in 1898, they officially emancipated the slaves, yet found it impossible to replace the contribution of their labor to the country's economy.

This pathfinding study explores the process of emancipation and the development of wage labor in the Sudan under British colonial rule. Ahmad Sikainga focuses on the fate of ex-slaves and dislocated people in Khartoum and on the efforts of the colonial governments to transform them into wage laborers. He probes into what the establishment of colonial rule and city life meant for slaves and ex-slaves and what the city and its people meant for colonial officials.

This investigation sheds new light on the legacy of slavery, the status of former slaves and their descendants in African and Middle Eastern societies, and the fate of ex-slaves in the cities. It also reveals how the legacy of slavery underlies the current ethnic and regional conflicts in the Sudan, in which thousands of people have died.

It will be vital reading for students of race relations and slavery, colonialism and postcolonialism, urbanization, labor history, and African and Middle Eastern studies.