Samia Errazzouki | Racialized Rupture: How the Battle of Three Kings and the Songhai Invasion Redefined Enslavement in Northwest Africa (1578, 1591)

Stanford History Lecturer Samia Errazzouki will present her work-in-progress, which examines a critical moment of rupture in early modern Northwest African history when the justification for enslavement shifted from religious differences to racialized distinctions. Her analysis focuses on two key events—the Battle of Three Kings (1578) and Morocco's invasion of the Songhai Empire (1591)—to explore how these moments catalyzed the transition toward race-based systems of enslavement.