Editing Imprisonment (section)

=== Africa ===
Before colonisation, imprisonment was used in sub-Saharan Africa for pre-trial detention, to secure compensation and as a last resort but not generally as punishment, except in the Songhai Empire (1464–1591) and in connection with the slave trade.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Sarkin|first=Jeremy|date=December 2008|title=Prisons in Africa: An Evaluation from a Human Rights Perspective|url=https://sur.conectas.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/sur9-eng-jeremy-sarkin.pdf|journal=International Journal on Human Rights|volume=5|page=24}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Isaac Weldesellasie|first=Kebreab|title=The International Criminal Court and Africa|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|isbn=9780198810568|editor-last=Chernor Jalloh|editor-first=Charles|pages=253–254|editor-last2=Bantekas|editor-first2=Ilias}}</ref> In the colonial period, imprisonment provided a source of labor and a means of suppression.<ref name=":0" /> The use of imprisonment has continued to the present day.<ref name=":1" />