A History of Prison and Confinement in Africa Social History of Africa Series

Over the last 30 years, a substantial literature on the history of American and European prisons has developed. This collection is among the first in English to construct a history of prisons in Africa. Topics include precolonial punishments, living conditions in prisons and mining camps, ethnic mapping, contemporary refugee camps, and the political use of prison from the era of the slave trade to the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Precolonial societies generally ignored incarceration as a punitive device, while colonial governments jailed Africans on a massive scale to impose taxes, labors, and white domination. The installation of the prison contributed to urban planning, architectural designs, and an array of penal policies that reveal much about the colonial project.

After achieving independence, African states appropriated colonial penitentiaries and developed a new language of power and delinquency. Today, all African judicial orders rely on the penitentiary.