Abstract

Recent trans-Saharan migrations have reawakened older imaginaries of travel and trade across the Sahara. Several years ago, I set out to study the history of these imaginaries as a step toward understanding contemporary racial dynamics in North Africa. Little did I know how structuring trans-Saharan slavery had been for Moroccan society, or how my own family was implicated in it. This essay is an attempt at articulating the web of questions that arose from that process.