This book is an edited collection of information about the major sources and markets for slaves in East Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century, published by the French historian Étienne-Félix Berlioux. It includes an introduction detailing the nature and extent of the East African slave trade, and chapters on each of the major 'theatres' of action from which slaves were taken: the Sudan, Nile valley, and the East coast of Africa, and the major destinations: Zanzibar, North Africa, the Middle East. It was translated into English two years later. Berlioux wanted to publicise the most recent discoveries by European travellers and testimonies against the East African slave trade, hoping to benefit from interest in the region generated by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 (x). His stated aim was that European public opinion should be as well informed about the "infamous war" (5) and slave trade in East Africa, as it was about slavery and the slave trade to the Americas.

Includes a map of Africa with the East African slave trade marked. The English translation of this text is prefaced by Joseph Cooper, abolitionist and future author of 'The Lost Continent' (1875).