/ Postmodern Culture Volume 30, Number 3, May 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press Article Viewed Save View Citation Additional Information So-Called Indigenous Slavery: West African Historiography and the Limits of Interpretation Sara-Maria Sorentino Abstract This essay explores the mobilization of so-called "indigenous slavery" in the historiography of slavery in West Africa in order to expose the limits of historiographical interpretation and the tensions between black studies and African studies, which are here constituted around a shared negativity. This discussion provides some context for the debates of historians Walter Rodney and J.D. Fage, while also bringing these concerns into explicit conversation with a line of thought in radical black studies, namely Afro-pessimism. Considering indigenous slavery through the critical analytic of Afro-pessimism exposes the role of the paradigm of racial slavery in determining how slavery comes to be understood in relation to nation building in Africa, with Ghana serving as a particular example. Had Rawlings asked, 'Are we yet free?' most Ghanaians would have answered with a resounding, 'No.' This 'no' resonated on both sides of the Atlantic. It was the reminder of what abolition and decolonization had failed to deliver. This 'no' was the language we shared, and within it resided a promise of awiliation better than that of brothers and sisters. ( Hartman 172) Postmodern Culture (bio) —