event
Book Launch Unbroken Chains by Martin Plaut
16 October 2025
Times
Thu, 16 Oct 25
18:00 - 19:00
Martin Plaut, the BBC World Service's former Africa Editor, has published extensively on African affairs. An adviser to the Foreign Office and the US State Department, he is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
Please note that Martin Plaut will not be here in-person, but will be livestreamed in the lecture theatre.
RSVP: in person event to ems@uct.ac.za
Book Launch Unbroken Chains by Martin Plaut
Date: Thursday 16 October 2025
Time: 18:00 to 19:00
Venue: Kramer Law building, Lecture Theatre 2,
University of Cape Town
RSVP: in person event to ems@uct.ac.za
Martin Plaut has combined his journalist’s eye with scholarship and depth of understanding of Africa to bring to life, through the words of the enslaved, a compelling analysis ofthe complexity and scale of African enslavement and its continuing impact on current African areas of conflict.’ — Mark Bowden, former UN Assistant Secretary General
‘In masterly fashion, Unbroken Chains sweeps from the trans-Saharan slave trade through indigenous slavery in Ethiopia and Nigeria to the Indian Ocean trade and slav-ery today. A must-read for anyone interested in African enslavement.’ — Christopher Saunders, University of Cape Town
Join us for a discussion with Martin Plaut, the author of the new book Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement. To consider the full picture of African enslavement, Martin will explore the history of slavery from since at least 2,500 BCE, from Egypt to the Cape; from Mauri-tania to Somalia. Overlooked stories of enslavement matter. Martin considers the Indian Ocean trade, slavery within the Ethiopian kingdoms and in then Sokoto Caliphate, among others.
We will also consider that since abolition of the trans-Atlantic trade, international focus on ‘modern’ slavery has left Africans enslaved as chattel today with few champions. The UN and African Union are too embarrassed to confront leaders still permitting this practice.
‘An important introduction to a controversial subject. As usual Martin Plaut pulls no punches and provides evidence from ancient Egypt to the modern day to make a compelling case against Africa’s rich and powerful.’ — Hakim Adi, author of African and Caribbean People in Britain