Saturday, November 23, 2024

Jacques of the Mamou Nation


One of the unknown "nations" of enslaved Africans we've encountered in the Jacmel Quartier of Saint-Domingue is the Mamou. Assuming we are reading it correctly, Mamou may actually be a reference to the region of what became Futa Jallon in modern Guinea. In fact, the 3 slaves of the "Mamou" nation we encountered were living in Bainet as the chattel of the Saugrain family, indigo planters in the early 1700s. We wonder if the use of the name "Mamou" in 1720 may be a reference Jallonke peoples living in the area before the establishment of the Futa Jallon state in the 1720s? Historian Stewart King, for instance, found an example of a village-level specificity with the stated African "nations" of some Africans in colonial Haiti. Perhaps Mamou in this case later became the "Timbo" nation after the establishment of the Islamic state of Futa Jallon? 

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