Children of hope - The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa (Paperback)

UCT Press is delighted to announce its latest title, Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa. In this book, historian Sandra Rowoldt Shell traces the lives of 64 Oromo children who were enslaved in Abyssinia (old Ethiopia) in the late nineteenth century. They were crammed into dhows bound for Arabia, liberated by the British navy and ultimately sent for their safety to Lovedale Institution, a Free Church of Scotland mission in the Eastern Cape, which became famous as an educational institution for black teachers. Because Scottish missionaries in Yemen interviewed each of the Oromo children shortly after their liberation, using a questionnaire, we have 64 structured life histories told by the children themselves. This is a unique group biography, or prosopography.