bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comments on the Thesis that there was a Major Centre of Plant Domestication Near the Headwaters of the River Niger
Authors: Baker H. G.
Published: January 2009

In his book, Africa; its peoples and their culture history, ethnographer G. P. Murdock has undertaken a tremendous interpretive task based upon a survey of the literature. Of consequence here is his thesis that

… agriculture was independently developed [at about 5000 B.C.] by the Negroes of West Africa. This was, moreover, a genuine invention, not a borrowing from another people. Furthermore, the assemblage of cultivated plants ennobled from wild forms in Negro Africa ranks as one of the four major agricultural complexes evolved in the entire course of human history … The invention of agriculture in Negro Africa is most probably to be credited to the Mande peoples around the headwaters of the Niger in the extreme western part of the Sudan, less than 1,000 miles from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Analysis of the Present Distribution of Varietal Variation in Maize, Sorghum, and Cowpea in Nigeria as an Aid to the Study of Tribal Movement
Authors: Stanton W. R.
Published: January 2009

The conservation and study of the variation in indigenous crop plants is an integral part of a crop improvement programme. Investigation of the manner in which the ‘observed’ distribution of the variation has developed is also essential in understanding how to direct the further evolution of the crop in the desired direction.
Linguistic Clues to African History
Authors: Wrigley Christopher
Published: January 2009

This is note will not deal with the evidence from glottochronology, which is the subject of Professor Armstrong's paper, nor with the evidence from linguistic borrowings, but with the inferences which may be drawn from the general linguistic configuration of Africa. It consists of a few miscellaneous observations, which are not intended to do more than stimulate interest in this line of inquiry.
Blood Group Maps of Africa
Authors: Garlick J. P.
Published: January 2009

In very few regions of Africa are the blood group distributions known in detail—even for the ABO system—and the maps must therefore be treated with reserve. Small-scale maps are useful for showing general trends, such as the rise in O frequency from the Middle East to Central Africa, but they cannot do justice to the considerable local fluctuation which detailed surveys have revealed (especially in Liberia and in the Eastern Congo).
Islam and National Movements in West Africa
Authors: Hodgkin Thomas
Published: January 2009

This is a topic which I discussed in a series of five lectures given under the auspices of the Program of African Studies at Boston University, in April 1961. It had previously been the theme of a seminar conducted during two terms in 1960–1 at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal.
The Sub-Imperialism of the Baganda
Authors: Roberts A. D.
Published: January 2009

Among all the African kingdoms to survive the Partition intact, Buganda is conspicuous for the way in which European overrule, so far from obstructing, positively accentuated the pattern of her pre-Colonial history. With regard to Buganda's political development, this continuity has already received a good deal of comment. Less emphasized, but intimately related to her internal continuity, is the perpetuation of Buganda's imperialist past, especially in the guise of Ganda participation in the extension of British influence throughout the Protectorate of Uganda.
Commander Glover and the colony of Lagos, 1861–73
Authors: McIntyre W. D.
Published: January 2009

The nameof John Hawley Glover is not often included among the founders of Nigeria. In fact, when he left Lagos in 1872 after fifteen years' service in the region he may well have felt that he had been dismissed under a cloud. Yet in the 1870s Glover was regarded as one of Britain's greatest African proconsuls. It was said that he was the most successful African negotiator since Maclean, that he was as well known in West Africa as Livingstone in the east. After Yoruba was brought under British control in the 1890s, Sir Gilbert Carter said he had only fulfilled what Glover had attempted over a quarter of a century before.
Mary Kingsley — a reassessment
Authors: Flint J.E.
Published: January 2009

The purpose of this article is to examine the ideas of Mary Kingsley, not merely in abstract, but as the political theory of certain groups active in Late Victorian colonial affairs. A ‘surgical’ approach of this kind is almost certain to reduce concepts which at first sight seem brilliant and original to more mundane proportions, so perhaps at the outset this woman's outstanding achievements should be emphasized. Among contemporaries of her sex few achieved more; at a time when women were struggling to create merely the elementary conditions in which to express themselves, Mary Kingsley overshadowed the male competitors in her chosen field, sometimes in physical and almost always in intellectual achievement.
Italy and Africa: colonial ambitions in the First World War
Authors: Hess Robert L.
Published: January 2009

Inaccordance with the secret Treaty of London of 26 April 1915, Italy entered the First World War in exchange for certain promises made to her by Great Britain and France. The treaty provided for concessions to Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Africa, but the concessions to which Great Britain and France agreed were not regarded by the Italians as the limit of their demands.
Radiocarbon dates for Sub-Saharan Africa (from c. 1000 B.C.)—II
Authors: Fagan B. M.
Published: January 2009

This is the second list of radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa which are considered to be of interest to historians and others working on the pre-colonial history of Africa. The first list was published in vol. II, no. I, of the Journal.
The Iron Age Sequence in the Southern Province of Northern Rhodesia
Authors: Fagan Brian M.
Published: January 2009

The Iron Age cultures of Northern Rhodesia have until fairly recently remained unknown, whilst work in Southern Rhodesia and in South Africa has revealed a long sequence in both those territories. Mr R. R. Inskeep undertook some excavations in 1958, and since 1959 Iron Age research has expanded considerably. Work has been concentrated in the Southern Province of the territory with the aid of a grant from the Nuffield Foundation, and a number of large scale excavations have been carried out. This paper gives an outline of our general conclusions as they appeared at the completion of the fieldwork.
The Foundation of the Kingdon of Kasanje
Authors: Vansina Jan
Published: January 2009

In 1890 H. Carvalho published an oral tradition which told how Kinguri, a son of the Lunda chief Yala Mwaka, quarrelled with his sister Lueji and with her husband Kibinda Ilunga, a Luba who had taken over the government of the Lunda chiefdom. Kinguri migrated to Angola where he offered his services to a governor who was called Manuel. This governor used the immigrants as auxiliary troops to fight the Ngola. After the war he allowed Kinguri to settle near Ambaka. A few years later Kinguri emigrated and went to found the state of the Imbangala, better known as the kingdom of Kasanje, between the Lui and the Cuango.
Harriette Colenso and the Zulus, 1874–1913
Authors: Marks Shula
Published: January 2009

Harriette Emily Colenso, oldest of the five children of the famous Bishop John Colenso of Natal, was born in Norfolk, England, in 1847, and died in Natal at the age of 85, after a life of outstanding activity and purpose. Although the average Natal colonist regarded her as fanatically prejudiced, even the local Natal Witness, the mouthpiece of colonial views, was forced to acknowledge her ‘personal and intellectual qualities’. At the height of her unpopularity in 1907, when she was defending Dinizulu, it wrote:

There is probably no person in the colony whose influence on the natives is greater, and there is none who, should she but exert her power in that direction could exercise a more pacifying effect upon the native mind. Miss Colenso is strongly endowed with the judicial faculty and … her grasp of the intricate points of trials and cases in which natives have been involved has often astonished able and experienced lawyers.
The United States and the African Peace Settlement of 1919: The Pilgrimage of George Louis Beer
Authors: Louis Wm. Roger
Published: January 2009

‘It has constantly been asserted that the determining principle … should be the welfare of the natives.’

GEORGE LOUIS BEER, American Colonial Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference.
The Purge of Christians at Mwanga's Court
Authors: Rowe J. A.
Published: January 2009

Mwanga's persecution of the Christians in 1886 was an isolated event, but it set the seal of judgement on subsequent interpretations of his character, his policy and his reign. He was said to have an anti-Christian policy which could be variously ascribed to religious traditionalism, or the political danger of an organized Christian party, or external threats of European encroachment. But closer examination reveals two apparent anomalies. Most Christians were spared during the brief persecution, including many prominent leaders. And shortly afterwards these same Christians were given extraordinary powers which they exercised, with the Kabaka's warm approval, at the expense of the traditional chiefs. The conclusion reached is that while Mwanga had no very consistent policy, he did have a consistently strong motivation—the desire to achieve a secure position of authority independent of those powerful old chiefs who had placed him on the throne. In this he saw the ambitious young Christians as a useful ally. Thus, despite the persecution, during part of his reign Mwanga was, for his own purposes, not anti-Christian but pro-Christian.
The Kingdom of Wambu (Huambo): A Tentative Chronology
Authors: Childs Gladwyn M.
Published: January 2009

Wambu (Huambo) was one of the more important of the Ovimbundu Kingdoms of central Angola, the histories of some of which were treated in Part III of Umbundu Kinship and Character (1949) q.v.

The tradition of Wambu begins with Feti, the Adam of the Ovimbundu. Through the vaNganda it is definitely linked with the cattle-complex peoples of south-west Angola, and it is also connected with the ‘Jagas’ described by Battell. This latter link provides a chronological starting point early in the seventeenth century. Thus, beginning with the ‘Jaga’ Wambu Kalunga, the fourth king named, tradition and historical reference are followed through the reigns of twenty-five kings, until independence ended with the capture by the Portuguese forces of two strongholds and their capital town of Samisasa during the ‘Bailundu War’ of 1902. The chief occupation of the kings and the men of Wambu (as of practically of all the Ovimbundu Kingdoms) during most of this time, was raiding their neighbours, those of other tribes and those of European descent.
The ‘Mad Mullah’ and Northern Somalia
Authors: Hess Robert L.
Published: January 2009

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the affairs of northern Somalia were dominated by the politico-religious movement led by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan. The ‘Mad Mullah’, as he was styled by the British, proved to be an elusive adversary and at one time forced the British to evacuate their Somaliland Protectorate. The Italians too were concerned about the Mullah's dervishes, who disturbed the peace of Italy's two nominal protectorates, the sultanates of Obbia and the Mijertein, and of their colony in southern Somalia. At one time the Italians found a temporary solution to the problem by granting the Mullah the Nogal Territory in northern Italian Somaliland. For the Ethiopians the Mullah's movement posed a threat to their Empire's expansion eastward to the Indian Ocean because of its appeal for support from among the Ogaden Somalis. Although the Mullah's recruits were mostly Darod Somalis, for Somalis of other tribes he was not only the agent of a not always acceptable religious movement, but also the symbol of political revolt against foreign domination of any kind. Today the Mullah is regarded as a forerunner of contemporary Somali nationalism.
The Alafin in Exile: A Study of the Igboho Period in Oyo History
Authors: Smith Robert
Published: January 2009

During the reign of Alafin Onigbogi, probably in the early sixteenth century, the Oyo capital, Oyo-ile, was abandoned to the Nupe from across the Niger. It was reoccupied only after an exile lasting some three-quarters of a century. During their exile the Alafin settled at several places in the marches of Borgu and Yorubaland, and finally founded a new capital at Oyo-Igboho.

This essay, after referring to the oral traditions of the Yoruba on which it is mainly based, describes the withdrawal of the Oyo into Borgu and attempts to identify the various halting places of the Alafin. The traditions about the founding and settling of the new capital at Igboho under Egunoju, and the existing remains of the new capital, are examined, and then the reigns of the four Alafin of Oyo-Igboho. Under Orompoto (who may have been a woman) and Ajiboyede, military successes were scored against the Borgu and Nupe, and under Abipa the Alafin's internal authority was decisively asserted. The period seems to have been one of both military and constitutional reform, and the morale of the Oyo was further improved by the introduction of new forms of religion. Under Abipa the Oyo were able to return to their former capital, and in the succeeding reigns the kingdom began to expand until it became probably the most important of the Guinea States.

Tentative suggestions are made in the essay about the chronology of the period. In particular it is postulated that Oyo-ile was abandoned about 1535, Igboho founded about 1555 Oyo-ile reoccupied about 1610.
The Career of Domingo Martinez in the Bight of Benin 1833–64
Authors: Ross David A.
Published: January 2009

The career of Martinez provides a guide to the economic and political fortunes of the Brazilians in the coastal States of the Bight of Benin in the eighteen-forties, fifties, and early sixties. The first phase of his career took place while the Brazilian slave trade was still at its height; the second phase covered the successful Brazilian adaptation to the new commercial patterns involved in the introduction of the palm oil trade; the third phase took place when Brazilian commerce was in decline following increased British intervention and growing contact between European merchants and the African States. The graph of his political influence follows exactly that of his commercial affluence. In the early eighteen-forties he was a prominent figure in the confused politics of the Bight. In the late forties he was as influential in Dahomey as Francesco Felix De Souza had been in the previous decade. At the end of his life his importance had declined so much that he was unable to prevent the King of Dahomey entering into an agreement which would have dealt a final blow to his commercial position.
Radiocarbon Dates for Sub-Saharan Africa (from c. 1000 b.c.)—III
Authors: Fagan Brian M.
Published: January 2009

The third list of radiocarbon dates for Sub-Saharan Africa later than 1000 b.c. is considerably longer than its predecessors. As new laboratories commence operations, so more and more dates become available. During the last eighteen months, many more dates from Rhodesian Iron Age sites have been processed, where the earliest Iron Age peoples are now dated to the fourth century a.d. if not earlier. The Kalomo culture in Zambia is now securely dated. Iron smelting furnaces were being operated on the Witwatersrand in South Africa by a.d. 1000, and it is now known that Iron Age peoples were living by the Kuene river in Angola by the eighth century. Recent dates from Katanga have shown that there was a flourishing copper trade there by the same period. An important series of dates have been processed from Saharan Neolithic sites, indicating that the Sahara was suitable for pastoral peoples in the fourth century b.c. Another date for the Nok culture in Nigeria places the later stages of the culture in the third century a.d.

By a resolution of the Cambridge Radiocarbon Conference, all dates are now calculated relative to a.d. 1950.
On the Problem of Sea Voyages of Ancient Africans in the Indian Ocean
Authors: Kobishchanow Yu. M.
Published: January 2009

Ancient and early Byzantine authors: Diodorus (II, 55), ‘Pseudo-Callisthenes’, Cosmas Indicopleustes and Procopius Caesarensis—mention the navigation of the Indian Ocean by ‘Ethiopians’ of the African Horn and the Axumite Kingdom in their own ships. The hoard of Kushana gold moneys found at Dabra-Dammo confirms this. The legend in the Kebra Nagast of Ethiopian military expeditions to India incorporates reminiscences about sea voyages to India by ancient Axumites.
Palmares: An African State in Brazil
Authors: Kent R. K.
Published: January 2009

Without slaves from Africa, reported an early Portuguese source, ‘it is impossible to do anything in Brazil’ Although prior arrivals are suspected, the first known landing of slaves from Africa on Brazilian soil took place in 1552. In 1580, five years after the founding of Loanda and on the eve of Brazil's sugar boom, there were no fewer than 10,000 Africans in Brazil. Fifty years later, Pernambuco alone imported 4,400 slaves annually from Africa. It also contained 150engenhos, or a third of the total sugar-mill and plantation complex in Brazil. In 1630, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) captured Pernambuco, and within a decade Portugal had abandoned Brazil to the Dutch. It was ultimately the decision of local settlers, themoradores, to fight the West India Company that led to restoration of Portuguese control in 1654. The Dutch retreat from Brazil, however, was secured through a joint Afro-Portuguese effort which gave the Black Regiment of Henrique Dias its colonial fame. If early settlement and a sugar-based economy could not have been sustained without the African labourer, neither could the Portuguese continue to hold Brazil without the African soldier. The subsequent evolution of Brazil is no less a story of Euro-African enterprise. Exploitation of gold and diamonds in the eighteenth century, pioneering shifts of population from the coast to the interior, dilution of monoculture, formation of mining states or advent of an abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century were all dependent on the same combination. The blend of race, language and culture in contemporary Brazil confirms this evolution.
Assimilation in Eighteenth-Century Senegal
Authors: Hargreaves John D.
Published: January 2009

This preliminary discussion of the process of assimilation in eighteenth-century Senegal considers how Africans were drawn into the French colonial community through employment; trade; marriage and concubinage; and also through the Portuguese Creole communities to the south of Cape Verde. The extent of their assimilation is discussed with reference to religion; participation in civic institutions; and the acceptance of certain European values. Finally the question of how deeply the colonial community was influenced by African values is briefly raised.
Article 17 of the Treaty of Uccialli
Authors: Giglio Carlo
Published: January 2009

By Article 17 of the Treaty of Uccialli, the Italian Government did not intend to establish a protectorate over Ethiopia, but only to preponderate among all the other Nations by obliging Menelik to use the Italian channel as portalettere (postman); even so, Antonelli was authorized to modify or even to suppress this article. When Antonelli discussed the matter with Menelik, the latter refused to accept an obligation; both negotiators agreed that the text of the Article should reflect only an option. This agreement was correctly transcribed in the Amharic text, but not in the Italian one. Antonelli, giving more weight to oral than to written understandings, left unchanged the original wording of the draft he had brought from Rome, i.e. consente (Menelik binds himself to use Italy as postman).

Against the opinion of Antonelli, Crispi decided to take advantage of Article 17, using the opportunity created by the General Act of Berlin, 1885. In October 1889 he notified the Article to the signatories of the said Act, in spite of the fact that Ethiopia was not on the African coast and that Article 17 was not a formula on which a protectorate could be based. The acknowledgement of such a notification gave birth to the Italian protectorate. It was at this moment that the imbroglio was created, by Crispi and not by Antonelli.
The ‘Shirazi’ Colonization of East Africa
Authors: Chittick Neville
Published: January 2009

The paper puts forward a new interpretation of aspects of the early history of the East African coast, and in particular maintains that the immigration of the ‘Shirazi’ took place some zoo years later than the date in the latter part of the tenth century which has hitherto been accepted.

After a brief summary of the Arabic sources bearing on the history of the coast, and of the received history of Kilwa before the beginning of the fourteenth century, the two versions of the Kilwa Chronicle are examined. The Arabic version is concluded to be more reliable than the Portuguese, though very little reliance should be placed on the regnal years of the sultans as given in either.

The archaeological evidence, based chiefly on recent excavations at Kilwa, is examined, with particular reference to the coins minted on the coast. Certain types of these coins are found to have been hitherto wrongly attributed, notably those of 'Ali bin al-Hasan, which are shown to be the earliest.

An outline of the history of the coast is presented, based on the combined historical and archaeological evidence. No satisfactorily attested relics of the period of trade with the Graeco-Roman world have yet been found. The earliest settlements discovered date from the eighth to ninth century A.O., most or all of which were probably pagan, but already trading with the Muslim world. By about i ioo there were several Muslim towns on the coast. This period is related to the Debuli of the traditions.

The arrival of the ‘Shirazi’ is related to the appearance of coins of 'Au bin al-Hasan, who is identified with the first ruler of the ‘Shirazi’ dynasty at Kilwa (about A.0. I 200); Mafia was of equal importance at this time. A marked cultural break in the latter part of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century is thought to be related to a change in dynasty at Kilwa, a fresh settlement of immigrants, and the gaining of control of Sofala and the gold trade.

It is suggested that the Shirazi settlement consisted not of a migration of people from the Persian Gulf direct to Kilwa and other places, but rather a movement of settlers from the Banadir coast.
Life on the Manor in Gisaka (Rwanda)
Authors: Gravel Pierre Bettez
Published: January 2009

As late as 1960, in the hinterland of Gisaka (Rwanda), community life was strangely reminiscent of what we know of life in the early continental European manor. The Rwandese manor was largely self-sufficient. The relationships of the peasant to lord of the manor were of a privi legis nature. Competition for chiefly (or lordly) favours was keen. The necessity to court the chief had caused courtship to be institutionalized. The successful courtesans, usually of the nobility, attended the chief directly and were often part of the administrative staff of the manor.

The practice of commendation was usual; homage was paid with the identical gesture as in Europe, and the functional equivalent of the don annuel appeared in the form of an institution called kubaka inkike (‘to repair the enclosure’).
The Bayajida Legend in Hausa Folklore
Authors: Hallam W. K. R.
Published: January 2009

The various Bayajida legends in Hausa folklore describe how Bayajida, son of the king of Baghdad, came to Bornu and married the ruler's daughter. He later fled and came to Daura, fathering the founders of the seven Hausa states. The legends seem to be describing events which happened during the tenth century A.D. and Bayajida may be identical with the Ibāḍite sectary Abū Yazīd who resisted the Fāṭimids of Tunisia until he was killed by them in 947. The debris of his army may have fled across the Sahara and arrived in Bornu, then north of Lake Chad. After some time a part of this rabble which had remained unassimilated moved south-west and interbred with the indigenous inhabitants round Daura, forming the Hausa aristocracies. Different ingredients of the legends may be folk memories of events near Mecca, Berber myths of origin and perhaps Greek mythology, as well as accounting for the introduction of horses and the sinking of wells in rock by the incoming Berbers.
Firearms, Horses and Samorian army Organization 1870–1898
Authors: Legassick Martin
Published: January 2009

The army of Samori Ture in 1887 was recruited from four sources: the regular army of sofa (infantrymen with firearms), the conscripted reserve of kurustigi, detachments sent by chiefs under Samori's protection, and a cavalry force consisting in part, perhaps, of volunteers. The emphasis on infantry rather than cavalry differentiated it from the armies of other nineteenth-century Islamic reformers.

Among the factors which influenced the structure and tactics of the army, as well as the diplomatic and military strategy of the Samorian state, were the supply of firearms and horses. Initially the Samorian army was armed with muskets from the coast, primarily Freetown, and horses from the north-western part of the Sudan. From mid-1891 to mid-1892 the muskets were replaced with breechloaders and repeaters obtained by direct negotiation between Samori and Freetown traders, and during this period or before it an indigenous firearms industry was established. After this, the French advance cut Samori off, partially at least, from his sources of supply; from 1893–98 the search for new supply areas was a major preoccupation of the Samorian regime. Arms came from the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast, and horses from the Mossi states. Here, as formerly in the west, Samori was able to use existing trade routes.
A Preliminary Report on the Recent Archaeology of Ngonde, Northern Malawi
Authors: Robinson K. R.
Published: January 2009

The area involved is located at the northern end of Lake Malawi, near Karonga, and includes Mbande Hill, the ancient capital of the Ngonde people under their paramount chiefs, all of whom bore the title ‘Kyungu’.

Three Iron Age Industries are described:

(a) The Lufira Industry. This is so far represented only by pottery, but it was possible to obtain charcoal associated with it. The pottery appears to have some affinity with the Kalambo material. All the sites occur within cassava cultivation near the Lufira river.

(b) The Rukuru Industry. This is represented by buried hut remains, pottery, glass beads, iron, charred millet and sorghum seeds, and bone fragments. The huts which may have been conical were daga coated. They were built in one instance on a terrace of the North Rukuru river, and subsequently silted over. This area is at present under cultivation. Another site occurs on the east bank of the same river buried below hill wash. The glass beads suggest affinities with Rhodesian beads dated as early as a.d. 700, and a date before the Portuguese dominance of the east coast trade is expected. The pottery consists of gourdshaped pots and simple bowls decorated mainly with rounded point impressions. There is a certain amount of material which may be of Kisi origin from across the lake.

(c) The Mbande Industry. This represents the period of rule by the Kyungus as revealed by excavation on Mbande Hill and by examination of a number of related sites. A considerable amount of oral tradition was recorded some years ago which refers to this period. The pottery and beads differ from the material described in the Lufira and Rukuru industries, but pottery which may be of Kisi make again occurs. The glass beads resemble some of the beads from Rhodesian ruin sites (ca. 1500–1800), but there are three from the upper levels of Mbande Hill which are probably of nineteenth century date. The pottery seems to possess some features which occur in Uganda pottery.

General. No stamp or channel decorated pottery was found within the area examined, but the Lufira Ware may be a late derivative of the Channel-decorated pottery recorded from Kalambo.

The Rukuru Ware may form a link in a migration route beginning in Kenya and ending far south of the Zambezi.

Trade with the east coast before the sixteenth century is suspected with regard to the Rukuru sites, and this continued during the Kyungu period of rule. The pottery suggests that the Kisi may have been trading across the lake from an early date.

An earthwork which appears to have formed part of a wooden stockade exists on Mbande Hill. Ceremonial pottery was found in the vicinity.
Natal, The Cape and the Indian Ocean, 1846–1880
Authors: Le Cordeur B. A.
Published: January 2009

Attempts to promote closer relations among the states of Southern Africa in the third quarter of the nineteenth century were thwartedinter aliaby intense rivalry between the two British coastal colonies, Natal and the Cape. The sources of this struggle have usually been sought in the strenuous efforts made by each colony to monopolize the transit trade to the interior and in their attempts to develop in the hinterland those markets which the metropolitan countries of Europe did not offer them. But Natal's geographical situation tempted her also to seek economic salvation in the Indian Ocean. At various stages of the colony's history, Natal's businessmen and politicians showed considerable interest in the commercial potential of the region, in its labour resources, and in the creation of steamship and telegraphic lines of communication through the Ocean to the East and Europe. These, it was believed, would not only be of economic advantage to Natal but would also afford her greater independence in many ways from the older-established and far wealthier sister colony. Yet these conflicting ambitions and policies—particularly the commercial connexions of each colony with Mauritius—did much to exacerbate relations between them. Both in 1866 and in 1876, proposals merely for a free trade treaty in each other's produce were easily defeated. The divergence of interests and sympathies between the two colonies, so evident at the National Convention in 1909, stemmed from a great variety of sources—political, economic, geographical and others. Their rivalry had a long history, but was seldom so pronounced as in the earliest years of their relationship.
Carrier Corps Recruitment in the British East Africa Protectorate 1914–1918
Authors: Savage Donald C. , Munro J. Forbes
Published: January 2009

The outbreak of the First World War made unprecedented demands on the manpower resources of the British East Africa Protectorate (Kenya). To meet military requirements for labour, the colonial government followed a policy of recruitment of Africans, in which there was initially some confusion over method and the degree to which compulsion could be utilized. Criticism of the policy by European settlers and the press, part of a larger agitation for more settler influence in the war effort and for greater control over the labour potentiality of the African population, led to a clarification of policy in the Native Followers' Recruitment Ordinance of 1915, which finally established the conscription of African males for the carrier corps. African reluctance to serve was heightened by complaints about conditions, and there frequent attempts to evade conscription. The campaigns of 1917 made particularly heavy demands for military labour, and the government attempted to recruit as many able-bodied male Africans as possible, under the ‘Grand Levy’ organized by John Ainsworth. The settler community, aroused by the consequent labour shortage, renewed its campaign for measures to ensure a flow of labour from the reserves and for a greater degree of government control over the African population, setting the scene for post-war squabbles about labour. For the carriers, conditions at the front were very bad in 1917–18, and the problems of carriers returning home in poor health, only partly relieved by the welfare organization set up by Ainsworth, were complicated by famine and an influenza epidemic. The events left a lasting impression in the minds of the Africans of Kenya.
Introduction et Diffusion du Fer au Tchad
Authors: Huard Paul
Published: January 2009

On admet généralement que la diffusion du fer dans la savane joignant le Nil à l'ouest africain à hauteur du lac Tchad a été un puissant facteur de civilisation, mais les considérations sur ce thème s'appuient davantage sur des analogies ou sur des survivances culturelles, des traditions ou des comparaisons ethnologiques que sur des documents archéologiques et historiques correctement mis en place.
Oral Tradition among the Ijo of the Niger Delta
Authors: Alagoa Ebiegberi Joe
Published: January 2009

Ijo oral traditions were generally remembered by elders and a small number of specialists, such as priests and drummers. All members of an Ijo community were also expected to know the traditions of origin of their lineage and Ibe. The institutions and rituals for the ancestors (kings and founders of lineages) also served as concrete reminders of the past.

Chronological distortions alleged to characterize Ijo traditions are shown to derive from a failure to take a sufficient number of samples of the various traditional sources and types.

Analysed for content, Ijo traditions of origin suggest a number of centres of dispersion. Instead of migrations from the hinterland, a fringe belt occupied by Ijo and hinterland peoples is revealed. Bronzes discovered at a number of sites indicate early contacts with Benin and other neighbours. But these bronzes as well as the dispersion centres call for archaeological investigation.
Professor Giglio, Antonelli and Article XVII of the Treaty of Wichalē
Authors: Rubenson Sven
Published: January 2009

Contrary to Professor Carlo Giglio I maintain that article xvII of the Wic̣halē treaty was in the Italian text worded in such a way that it, if legally valid, limited Ethiopian sovereignty and created a relationship which in substance amounted to a protectorate. The Italian negotiator Antonelli who had drafted this text could hardly be ignorant of its implications, and by allowing it to remain unchanged at the same time as he signed a different Amharic version he created the imbroglio, whether he intended to do so or not, and whether he actually tried to hinder the notification of the protectorate or not.

On the other hand, once it is established that the Italian version of article xvII was void, then there is no basis whatsoever for the Italian claim to a protectorate over Ethiopia. Article XVII was the ‘act’ on which the notification and the acknowledgements were based. The latter are therefore legally meaningless without article xvII. De jure the protectorate did not exist. Since the Italian government failed to gain control over Ethiopia's foreign relations or internal affairs, the protectorate never came into any de facto existence either. Professor Giglio's proposition that an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia was legally established regardless of the validity of article XVII, and functioned from 1889 to 1896 is not tenable.
Cattle-Keeping and Milking in Eastern and Southern African History: The Linguistic Evidence
Authors: Ehret Christopher
Published: January 2009

Cattle have been known in northern East Africa for a long time. A single people initiated the spread of cattle farther south through southern East Africa, and partly into southern Africa, at a time prior to the expansion of Bantu-speakers into these regions. This spread was not accompanied by knowledge of milking. The milking of cattle, although very likely practised by some northern East African peoples since a very early period, diffused to Bantu peoples after their advance into eastern and southern Africa was well under way. The practice was probably borrowed from Southern Cushites first by Bantu in northern Tanganyika and through them transmitted to the rest of the eastern and southern Bantu.
Migrations of the Bantu-Speaking Peoples of the Eastern Kenya Highlands: A Reappraisal
Authors: Munro J. Forbes
Published: January 2009

Historians have frequently included the Bantu-speaking peoples of the eastern Kenya Highlands—Kikuyu, Embu, Mbere, Kamba, Meru, etc.—in the general migrations of the North Eastern Bantu from Shungwaya. The most authoritative statement in support of this view is set out in H. E. Lambert's The Systems of Land Tenure in the Kikuyu Land Unit: Part 1, History of the Tribal Occupation of the Land. However, only the Meru have oral traditions pointing to a Shungwaya origin, and chronological and linguistic evidence which Lambert presents himself suggests that the Meru experience may not be typical of this group of peoples. As evidence is lacking in their own traditions, proof of the migrations of the Kikuyu–Embu–Kamba from Shungwaya can only come from archaeology.
An Archaeological Appraisal of Early European Settlements in the Senegambia
Authors: Wood W. Raymond
Published: January 2009

The data on early commercial European establishments in Senegal and the Gambia from 1488 to about 1800 are summarized, with particular attention focused on two of them: the French Fort St Joseph on the Senegal River, and the English factory at Yamyamacunda on the Gambia River. These data provide brief but useful histories of their construction and occupation, and each is evaluated for its archaeological potential. The excavation of these and other early settlements discussed should provide trade goods which will be useful in identifying and dating native villages which were contemporaneous with them, thus establishing firm chronological horizons and the identification of native cultural units. It would also provide the basis for permitting more accurate estimates of the rate and nature of the culture change in the historic tribal groups.
A Reconsideration of the Mane Invasions of Sierra Leone
Authors: Rodney Walter
Published: January 2009

As a contribution to an already considerable historiography, it is suggested here that the Mane invaders of Sierra Leone comprised two principal elements —a ruling élite originating in the southern section of the Mande world of the Western Sudan, and numerical forces drawn from the area around Cape Mount. The first stage of movement took place in the first half of the sixteenth century, carrying Mande clans to the Liberian coast from the region around Beyla and perhaps even from the hinterland of modem Ghana. There then followed a number of incursions into Sierra Leone during the third quarter of the sixteenth century.

A new ruling class was established in Sierra Leone and adjacent regions, bringing increased exploitation and causing the destruction of the indigenous ivory-carving skills. On the other hand, the Manes brought improved military techniques and advances in the manufacture of iron and cloth. They also profoundly influenced religious and social patterns, particularly with respect to the secret societies of the area.
The East African Ivory Trade in the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Beachey R. W.
Published: January 2009

The East African ivory trade is an ancient one: East African ivory is soft ivory and is ideal for carving, and was always in great demand. It figures prominently in the earliest reference to trading activities on the East African Coast. But the great development came in the nineteenth century when an increased demand for ivory in America and Europe coincided with the opening up of East Africa by Arab traders and European explorers. The onslaught on the ivory resources of the interior took the form of a two-way thrust—from the north by the Egyptians who penetrated into the Sudan and Equatoria, and by the Arabs from the east coast of Africa. The establishment of European protectorates and a settled administration in the 1890s ended this exploitation.

During the nineteenth century ivory over-topped all rivals in trade value— even slaves. The uses of ivory were wide and novel—it played the same part in the nineteenth century as do plastics in the mid-twentieth—but it was always a much more expensive article.
The Transvaal Labour Crisis, 1901—6
Authors: Denoon D. J. N.
Published: January 2009

One of the crucial reasons for the failure of British policy in South Africa during the Reconstruction period was an acute shortage of African labour for the mines, which were therefore unable to support a large English-speaking immigrant community. According to the prevailing economic beliefs, there was a fairly rigid ratio between the numbers of unskilled coloured workers and of skilled white workers which the mines could employ, so that the scarcity of African labour did inhibit the mines from expanding their white labour force.

The reasons for this scarcity include the deplorable physical conditions in which labourers lived and worked, and the unusually large demands for African labour in other sectors of the economy. British policy also, inadvertently, put less pressure on Transvaal Africans to take industrial or agricultural employment. However, the scarcity of labour was noticeable not only within British South Africa, but more especially outside its borders, where Africans seem to have been more reluctant than usual to take employment in the mines. It is possible to argue that the shortage was caused partly by the disillusionment of the workers as a result of their experience of British administration, and partly by a fairly extensive determination to withhold labour until conditions were improved. Such an interpretation is compatible with the facts of the case, though impossible at this stage to prove.

Whatever the reasons for the scarcity, the result was the importation of Chinese labour to supplement the existing unskilled labour force. The well-documented complaints of the Chinese labour throw some light on the treatment of African labour. The Chinese also undercut the wages paid to Africans, who lost their commanding position as unconscious arbiters of the success of mining. Further, the Chinese were employed in terms of a very restrictive contract, whose terms were later extended to cover African labour as well, with the result that the industrial colour-bar was solidified at a time when white labour was in control of an unusually large area of employment.
Radiocarbon Dates for Sub-Saharan Africa: V
Authors: Fagan Brian M.
Published: January 2009

This list contains many scattered dates, most of them from sites either provisionally dated from other sources, or recently excavated. An important series of dates from the Sahara confirm earlier readings for food production in that area. The Daima sequence from Nigeria is dated from the middle of the first millennium A.D. to the closing centuries of the Iron Age.

In East and Southern Africa, two important early Iron Age dates from Kenya have been released. Four dates for Ivuna salt-pans place the site as slightly later than the closing stages of the Kalambo Falls sequence. Two more problematical dates for Engaruka have been announced, as well as a date of A.D. 410 for the Iron Age in Swaziland.

All dates given in this and subsequent lists are radiocarbon ages, rather than readings in calendar years.
The Swahili Community of Mombasa, 1500–1900
Authors: Berg F. J.
Published: January 2009

The Swahili community of modern Mombasa is composed of an amalgam of the descendants of the city's early ‘Shirazi’ settlers and more recent immigrant Swahili groups, most of which migrated south to Mombasa Island during or after the sixteenth century. It appears likely that the ‘Shirazi’. dynasty and its retainers were themselves derived from older Swahili settlements along the southern Somali coast.

After the ‘Shirazi’ polity was destroyed by. the Portuguese and their local allies in 1591–93, Mombasa's accretions of foreign Swahili gradually reorganized themselves into twelvemataifaor ‘tribes’. These twelvemataifagrouped themselves into two separate and sometimes hostile confederations, theThelatha Taifa(The Three) and theTisa Taifa(The Nine). Political unity was maintained by means of a loosely structured state system in which foreign dynasties of Omani Arabs, first the Mazrui and later the Busaidi, bridged the gap between the two confederations.

During the Mazrui period (approximately 1735–1837), Mombasa was an independent city-state which enjoyed political hegemony over much of the Kenya and north Tanzania coasts. Under Busaidi rule (1837–95) the city lost its independence and was incorporated in the Zanzibar Sultanate. Differences between theThelatha Taifaand theTisa Taifaslowly faded during the Busaidi period and have almost disappeared since 1900. Though precolonial social and political structure is still perceptible in the modern Swahili community of Mombasa, it has for the most part become vestigial.
Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa
Authors: Lonsdale J. M.
Published: January 2009

This paper attempts to provide a frame of reference for evaluating the role of ordinary rural Africans in national movements, in the belief that scholarly preoccupation withéliteswill only partially illumine the mainsprings of nationalism. Kenya has been taken as the main field of enquiry, with contrasts and comparisons drawn from Uganda and Tanganyika. The processes of social change are discussed with a view to establishing that by the end of the colonial period one can talk of peasants rather than tribesmen in some of the more progressive areas. This change entailed a decline in the leadership functions of tribal chiefs who were also the official agents of colonial rule, but did not necessarily mean the firm establishment of a new type of rural leadership. The central part of the paper is taken up with an account of the competition between these older and newer leaderships, for official recognition rather than a mass following. A popular following was one of the conditions for such recognition, but neither really achieved this prior to 1945 except in Kikuyuland, and there the newer leaders did not want official recognition. After 1945 the newer leadership, comprising especially traders and officials of marketing co-operatives, seems everywhere to have won a properly representative position, due mainly to the enforced agrarian changes which brought the peasant face to face with the central government, perhaps for the first time. This confrontation, together with the experience of failure in earlier and more local political activity, resulted in a national revolution coalescing from below, co-ordinated rather than instigated by the educatedélite.