bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
William Smith the Plagiarist: A Rejoinder
Authors: Jones Adam
Published: May 2006

Poor William Smith must be squirming in his grave. After 250 years, his New Voyage to Guinea has been judged a fraud. Reviewing the reprint edition published in 1967, H.M. Feinberg writes that

the reprint publisher wasted its money, and the African history community is no more enlightened because of their effort. A fraud, however ancient, has been uncovered, and another old, “classic” description can now be struck from bibliographies of “valuable” works.

Feinberg gives a number of examples of how Smith plagiarized from Bosnian's New and Accurate Description of Guinea, published nearly forty years earlier. Each of the passages he quotes is evidently a rephrased version of a passage in Bosman. He makes no mention, however, of the many occasions when Smith has something new to say. Smith's personal observations on Conny's Castle, Dixcove, Sekondi, Komenda, Cape Coast, Elmina, Tantumquerry, Winneba and Accra are passed over in silence. In fact Feinberg himself has elsewhere cited Smith as an independent source on Elmina.

Probably Feinberg is most unfair to Smith by concentrating only on Smith's account of Gold Coast affairs. While this is admittedly Feinberg's area of expertise, it is precisely in areas of the coast to the windward of the Gold Coast that Smith is most valuable and least derivative. Here, too, some material is taken from Bosman -- for instance, on Cape Mount, Cape Mesurado and the “Quaqua Coast”. But almost everything else records Smith's own impressions of events which he himself witnessed. Among the most valuable passages are eight pages on the River Sierra Leone and a 48-page narrative of events at Sherbro, where the Royal African Company was losing its foothold on York Island.
Is Elegance Proof? Structuralism and African History
Authors: Vansina Jan
Published: May 2006

Despite its very visible career in anthropology and folklore, structuralism has been little used by historians of precolonial Africa. Only Ronald Atkinson has applied the method of Lévi-Strauss in the Edmund Leach variant, although a number of historians have attempted to elucidate symbolic meanings by other means. Rather surprisingly as well, given the two decades or so that have elapsed since Lévi-Strauss developed its axioms and analysis, no historian of Africa has ventured to discuss the validity of structuralism for coping with the interpretation of myths of origin or other oral traditions, except in passing. The topic has surfaced only here and there in the never-ending debate about traditions as expressions of the present, or of the past, or of both. Given the influence of structuralism elsewhere, though, it is due time that the approach be discussed for its own sake.

The reticence to do so became especially incongruous when a senior structuralist, Luc de Heusch, began to cover ground that historians had recently trod. In his Le roi ivre he discussed at length myths in the kingdoms of southeastern Zaire and adjacent areas. This did prompt publication of two articles about his Luba and Lunda interpretations, but no general assessment of this work in toto. Jeffrey Hoover faulted de Heusch's Lunda material but still praised his “provocative ideas” and the method, “which bore some good fruit,” while Thomas Reefe prefaced his critique of Luba material by calling the book “stimulating” and sidestepped the issue by noting that “no matter what the final assessment of this book will be by historians…” Others were equally bland in their references to this work, while still refuting de Heusch on specifics. Everyone felt, it seems, that a general assessment was beyond or outside their competence. Yet a general critique would have been of use for de Heusch is one of the oldest and most experienced structuralists in anthropology, perhaps the first disciple of Lévi-Strauss. Trained in Paris, he imbibed the approaches of the Griaule school, the protostructuralism of Georges Dumézil, and the early teaching of the master himself. Of all structuralists he remains the most faithful to the method of Lévi-Strauss.
Oral Tradition and Sierra Leone History
Authors: Fyle C. Magbaily
Published: May 2006

This paper attempts to examine specific problems encountered with the collection and interpretation of oral traditions in Sierra Leone and ways in which these were approached. I will suggest with examples that problems facing oral traditions are not always peculiar to them, as the researcher with written sources faces some similar problems.

Much has been said about methodology in collecting oral tradition for it to warrant much discussion here. One point that has been, brought out, however, is that methods which work well for one situation might prove disastrous or unproductive in another. It is thus necessary to bring out specific examples of situations encountered so as to improve our knowledge of the possible variety of approaches that could be used, while emphasizing that the researcher, as a detective, should have enough room for initiative.

For the past eight years, I have been collecting oral histories from among the Yalunka (Dialonke) and Koranko of Upper Guinea, both southern Mande peoples, and the Limba and Temne, grouped under the ‘West Atlantic.’ Extensive exploration into written sources has indicated that similar problems arise in both cases. In both situations, the human problem was evident. For the oral traditionist this problem is more alive as he is dealing first hand with human beings. A number of factors therefore, like his appearance, approach to his informants, his ability to ‘identify’ with the society in question, may affect the information he receives. These could provide reasons for distortion which are not necessarily present with written sources.
Yet More Serial Bibliographies
Authors: Henige David
Published: May 2006

This continues to update the basic list of serial bibliographies of possible interest to Africanists which appeared in the 1983 volume of History in Africa and which will continue to appear to the extent that new materials are noticed. Most of the following items are of only peripheral interest to Africanists but each is likely to contain at least some material which does not appear in other bibliographies at all, or at least not so quickly. Where available, I have included OCLC numbers, which may be useful for those with access to the OCLC data base.

Published by the Magyar Mezogazdasagi Muzeum in Budapest, the Bibliographia attempts to incorporate all materials relating to rural and agricultural history and related fields, a field not so fully covered, as far as I know, by any other bibliography. Unfortunately, publication is behind (and may even have ceased); materials for 1975 and 1976 were covered in the volume published in 1979. This included a total of 5790 items in 10 major and numerous minor categories, including economic and social history, history of agrotechnics, prices and wages, agrarian ethnography, and agricultural settlements. A list (obviously incomplete) of 90 to 100 journals is included and there are geographical and author indexes.
Femmes, servitude, et histoire: les traditions orales historiques des femmes de condition servile dans le royaume de Jaara (Mali) du XVe au milieu du XIXe siecle
Authors: Diawara Mamadou
Published: May 2006

Tandis qu'hommes et femmes de statut libre rivalisent pour la maîtrise des traditions orales relatives à leur histoire, les informations d'origine servile restent un domaine féminin par excellence. Ces données orales méritent une attention particuliére puisqu'elles concernent directement ou non une part importante de la population. D'aprés le Rapport sur l'esclavage dans le cercle du Sénégal-Niger (1904), les esclaves représentaient 40% de la population du cercle de Nioro (Klein, 1983:52) et 50% de celle de Gunbu (Meillassoux 1975:225), deux circonscriptions administratives au coeur du royaume de Jaara. Comment dans la société patrilinéaire soninke, ceux qui, habituellement considérés comme dépourvus de famillle, d'ancêtres et d'enfants, socialement parlant, produisentils, conservent-ils et transmettent-ils leurs propres documents d'histoire? En se limitant au cas des femmes, quel est leur impact sur ce document et le rapport de celui-ci avec l'appareil idéologique des dominants? La réponse à ces questions requiert une réflexion préalable sur: le probléme de la documentation, le cadre chronologique, le cadre spatial et le lieu social en questions.

La bibliographie concernant les femmes africaines en tant que source de l'histoire de leur société est d'une pauvreté désarmante. La mode des études féminines des années 1970 n'est pas passée par là. Sosne dans son étude consacrée aux Shi, une société patrilinéaire de l'est du Zaïre (Sosne 1979:225), démontre clairement ce qu'elle appelle la vision androgyne du monde grâce à une étude des structures politiques du pays. Perrot (1982:8,11) insiste sur le rôle des femmes en tant qu'érudites dans le domaine des traditions orales du Ndenye de Côte d'Ivoire. A propos du Bénin, Palau-Marti affirme que “les traditions les plus secrètes se transmettaient par les femmes dont quelques unes étaient les vraies historiennes du Dahomey” (Palau-Marti 1964:139). Barber souligne le rôle des femmes âgées dans la conservation des oríkì (textes à la fois littéraires et historiques) chez les Yoruba du Nigéria (Barber 1987:5). Selon l'auteur, ces personnages sont de loin plus compétentes que les hommes. Strobel (1983:119) insiste sur le rôle des femmes esclaves dans la transmission de l'idéologie qui soutend l'organisation de la société à Mombasa. A propos des généalogies “de maître en élève” (“academic genealogy”) des intellectuels de Sokoto, Boyd et Last (1985:298) constatent que lorsqu'il s'agit des hommes, on cite rarement les femmes dont ils tiennent leurs connaissances.
Studying the History of Those Who Would Rather Forget: Oral History and the Experience of Slavery
Authors: Klein Martin A.
Published: May 2006

Research on oral history tends to be concerned with two very different types of sources. I would refer to them as oral traditions and oral data. Oral traditions are formally preserved, not always as narratives, but in some fixed form. They can, for example, be passed on as songs, as drum names, or as proverbs. They are part of the collective memory of the group and get passed on from generation to generation. They serve a legitimating function and must of necessity be analyzed in terms of who and what they legitimate. There is also a large body of data at any time which individuals hold in memory, data about individual experience, data that consist essentially of things that people have seen and experienced. It is not preserved in any formal way because it is not deliberately structured for legitimation or communication. Popular writers in western countries have tapped this rather rich treasure trove in recent years to write about the Depression, two World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War among other things. Oral tradition is limited in what it passes on, and once the transition from generation to generation is made, the amount of data is forever circumscribed.

Oral data are largely concerned with people describing things they experienced. They are valid primarily during the lifetime of those being interrogated. They are absolutely essential for the reconstruction of the history of peoples without history, those low down in any social order who have little to legitimate.
The Slave-Trader as Historian: Robert Norris and the History of Dahomey
Authors: Law Robin
Published: May 2006

The Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy of Robert Norris, first published in 1789, is a history of the west African kingdom of Dahomey during the reign of Tegbesu (“Bossa”), dated by Norris to 1732-1774 (though the correct dates are now known to be 1740-1774). In addition to its separate publication in 1789, Norris' material was also included, in a revised form, in the more comprehensive History of Dahomy compiled by Archibald Dalzel, published in 1793. This second version incorporates numerous detailed alterations and elaborations, mainly stylistic but occasionally relating to matters of substance; according to the Editor of Dalzel's History, these revisions were the work of Norris himself, although he had died before the work was brought to publication. This incorporation of Norris' work into that of Dalzel has had the effect of diminishing his reputation and perceived importance, since his material has usually been cited through (and by implication attributed to) Dalzel, rather than directly under his own name. His Memoirs, however, clearly have immense historiographical significance, as the first serious attempt by a European to write the history of a west African state.

In addition to its purely historiographical interest, Norris' work remains an important source for the history of eighteenth-century Dahomey. Its value as a historical source, however, is problematical. On the one hand, Norris, as a slave trader who had operated in Dahomey for several years, had claims to be an exceptionally well-informed observer of Dahomian affairs.
Listening for Silences
Authors: Moore Donald , Roberts Richard
Published: May 2006

Talking with informants in the field lies at the methodological heart of Africanist history and anthropology. Historians and anthropologists rely on formal and informal interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and participant observation in order to generate data from Africans and to privilege an African perspective on society, culture, and change. Fieldwork serves both as a political statement empowering African voices and as a right of passage for Africanists.

Vansina's (1965) careful methodological considerations for mining and interpreting the African voice in the form of oral traditions has helped give Africanist history its distinctive character. Collecting and using oral traditions has not been unproblematic, however. Considerable debate surrounds the historicity of oral traditions (for example, Wrigley 1971; Henige 1974; Prins 1979; Miller 1980; Webster 1982; Vansina 1985).

In comparison, little attention has been paid to the interview as the encounter central to the production of knowledge. In hisOral Tradition, Vansina was concerned primarily with the chains of transmission of testimony and their possible distortions. Vansina recognized, but did not pursue, how the encounter between informant and researcher influenced the informant's testimony.
The Historiography of Yoruba Myth and Ritual
Authors: Apter Andrew
Published: May 2006

The historiography of African myth begins by documenting, comparing, and interpreting variant traditions. Where documentation is inscriptive and comparison descriptive, interpretation is notoriously complex, embracing a variety of approaches within two methodological extremes. The functionalist extreme -- what Peel calls “presentism” -- defines myth as a charter of political and ceremonial relations in society, and interprets variant traditions as rival political claims. Myth is by this definition a false reflection of the past because it is continually revised to fit the present. The historicist extreme regards myth as testimony of the past in oral societies, incorporating history into a narrative which resists revision and remains historically valid through fixed principles and “chains” of oral transmission. Variant traditions, according to this view, are dismissed as aberrations or contaminations of more authentic texts. Neither approach can evaluate the historicity of African myth unless both are somehow combined, for as the historiography of African oral traditions reveals, both tendencies are present in myth itself. This paper combines both approaches in an interpretation of variant Yoruba myths by examining the relationship between Yoruba myth and ritual.

The prevailing approach to variance within the Yoruba mythological corpus follows the historicist narrative of Beier's historiographic method. Beier interprets contradictory accounts of the same events or cultural figures by treating one of the versions, usually associated with the more local-level traditions, as a holdover from a pre-Yoruba aboriginal culture which was modified and assimilated by immigrant Yorubas who descended upon ancient Ife. Although some of his interpretations are plausible, he applies this approach indiscriminately to myth-ritual complexes which do not clearly support his aboriginal theory.
Archival Odyssey: A Study of the Problems of the Researcher in Using The Methodist Church Records of Nigeria
Authors: Alegbeleye G.B.
Published: May 2006

Methodism was introduced into Nigeria as a result of the separate missionary activities of the Primitive Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church, both from Britain. In 1962 the Nigerian Methodist Church gained her autonomy from the British Methodist conference. The checkered history of the Methodist church in Nigeria has affected the organization of the records of the church and consequently researchers' access to and utilization of these records. An attempt is made in this paper to examine critically the problems that might face the scholar who intends to use Methodist church records in Nigeria for research purposes. Ways of overcoming these problems are suggested.
The Bantu Expansion and the SOAS Network
Authors: Flight Colin
Published: May 2006

One difference between linguists and other Africanists seemed to be that others were prepared to jettison one part of their training to help other disciplines, but linguists apparently would not. Was this so, and if so, why?

The Bantu expansion has been a problem for historians ever since the recognition by linguists of a single startling fact. During the nineteenth century, the descriptions of African languages available to scholars in Europe grew steadily in number; they also tended to gain in detail, and in accuracy. It thus became increasingly clear that a sinuous line could be traced across the map distinguishing a zone of extremely high diversity in the north from a zone of low diversity in the south. By the 1880s a popularizing writer could claim that this contrast was generally recognized “by students of African languages.” The situation as he described it was

that in the northern half of the continent there are bewildering multitudes of diverse tongues belonging to many independent families, and apparently irreducible to a common origin. Yet cross the irregular boundary-line which runs over the continent from 6° N. on the west coast to the Equator on the east coast … and what do we find? Why that the whole of the southern half of Africa, with the exception of the Masai and Galla intrusion in the north-east and the Hottentot enclave in the south-west, is the domain of a single homogeneous family of languages, … differing perhaps less among themselves than do the many offshoots of the Aryan stock.
Les traditionnistes lettrés du Burundi a l'Ecole des Bibliothèques Missionnaires (1940-1960)
Authors: Chrétien Jean-Pierre
Published: May 2006

Dans les pays africains sous administration beige l'expression écrite des me'moires collectives qui apparalt dans les années 1940–1950 était inconcevable hors de la sphère d'influence des églises chrétiennes. La presse catholique en particulier a été le premier vecteur de cette forme moderne de l'affirmation des identités culturelles. Au Burundi il s'agit de Rusizira Amarembe, édité à Gitega de 1940 à 1954, et de son successeur Ndongozi, publié de 1954 à 1978. Comme leurs titres l'indiquent ces périodiques étaient rédigés en kirundi, dans le prolongement de la scolarisation assurée par les missions en langue vernaculaire. Le premier signifiait “le semeur de paix”, ou plus exactement “celui qui prépare le terrain de la prospérité”, et le second, plus simplement, “l'éclaireur.”

Comme nous l'avons déjà souligné ailleurs, ces publications devaient bénéficier de la double autorité de la chose imprimée et du parler quotidien, de la technologie des colonisateurs et de la culture des ancêtres, faisant écho aux préoccupations d'un nouveau milieu socioculturel, celui des Africains lettrés. C'est dans ce contexte que s'amorga l'écriture d'une histoire nationale, destinée à fixer de manière systématique les “choses du passé” (ivya kera) jusque là seulement narrées localement à l'occasion des veillées des enclos.
In Quest of Susu
Authors: Bühnen Stephan
Published: May 2006

The political history of the medieval Western Sudan was dominated by a succession of empires exerting their domination over the region: Ghana, Mali, and finally Songhay. Oral tradition is our only evidence for the existence of yet another empire. It was called Susu and exerted its supremacy after the decline of Ghana and before the rise of Mali. Most historical treatises locate enigmatic Susu in the Kaniaga region northwest of Segou. These treatises are mainly based on oral traditions and medieval Arabic chronicles.

After rereading the conventional historical sources and examining passages in Portuguese sources thus far untapped for the history of the Western Sudan, I feel induced to present a new identification for Susu. The Portuguese evidence appears to point to a vast but nearly forgotten kingdom in the Futa Jalon and Upper Niger region as the historical descendant of ancient Susu, thus indicating the latter's location. This kingdom was called Jalo and Concho. Its ethnic core were the Susu and Jalonke, and it was on its ruins that the Muslim Fula conquerors erected the state of Futa Jalon in the eighteenth century. My interpretation of oral traditions and Arabic sources also leads me to assume an identity of Susu with the kingdoms of Sankaran and Do. I will attempt to demonstrate the identity of the polities bearing these different names in sections introducing these polities, most of which have never been subjected to close historical investigation.
Reading Pictures: On the Value of the Copperplates in the Beschryvinghe of Pieter de Marees (1602) as Source Material for Ethnohistorical Research
Authors: Iselin Regula
Published: May 2006

The Beschryvinghe appeared in 1602 in Amsterdam under the title Beschrybinge ende historische verhael vant Gout koninckrijck van Gunea, anders de Gout-custe de Mina genaemt, liggende in het veel van Africa… The aim here is to ascertain whether the copperplates have ethnohistorical value as source material, i.e., whether they can be employed as source material relating to the history of Ghana at the beginning of the seventeenthth century, or whether their importance is restricted merely to their contribution to the history of ideas. The background necessary for the examination, description, and interpretation of the copperplates involves study of the genesis of the Beschryvinghe. The following discussion of the author, publisher, and printer, and copperplate techniques also points to questions of the intention, function, and reception—both of the Beschryvinghe and of the pictures.

Drawing a distinction between picture and illustration seems to me to be of little use. Even if every picture is not an illustration, every illustration is certainly a picture. In what follows I therefore consider the illustrative picture as a medium which, even if of a different quality, is comparable to the medium of language. This means that pictures, like texts, have to be read carefully. The method is thus one of precise and detailed examination and analysis of the content of the images. However, the comparability of language and image also implies that the pictures must be subjected to a rigorous critique of their status as source material, just as is the case with texts. In this context I have followed the “different stages Of ethno-historical source critique” developed by Miklós Szalay.
Conventional Museums and the Quest for Relevance in Africa
Authors: Eyo Ekpo
Published: May 2006

Although the Western world knows what a museum is, in many parts of Africa its purpose is an open question. To many Africans it is an alien institution introduced by colonialists. Their intentions were good: they wished to study and exhibit local works of art and artifacts and preserve them from deterioration and depredations by local and foreign traders. Yet collecting important art objects and artifacts, some of which were still part of active rituals, and locking them up in a building rather resembling a prison, was to many, Africans and foreigners alike, inimical in principle. Nor did many Africans show much interest in the displays within the glass cases, unless such exhibits pertained to their own particular ethnic heritage. The museums were therefore seen as white elephants staffed by eccentric colonialists, assisted by Africans glad of a job, and visited mainly by foreigners. If we trace the origin and development of the museum in Europe, we may discover why these African museums, as modeled on European institutions, failed to make an impact on the lives of Africans or to meet the needs of the communities they were meant to serve. However, we shall also see how in time certain projects have transformed them into cultural and social centers of great vitality.
New Thoughts on the Use of Chinese Documents in the Reconstruction of Early Swahili History
Authors: Shen John
Published: May 2006

For a long time, scholars have known that the ancient Sino-East Africantrade relationship produced valuable accounts of East Africa in the Chinese imperial archives. Particularly, the historical documents compiled during the T'ang, Sung, and Ming dynasties contain several insightful snapshots of East Africa over the span of 800 years. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of translating ancient Chinese texts, scholars have not been able to utilize these documents fully. In other cases, scholars have misused the translations to derive conclusions that may not be supported by the original text. In this essay I propose to re-examine the original Chinese sources and the way these sources have been used by subsequent scholars. Furthermore, I shall explore the real or potential contribution of these texts to our understanding of East African coastal history.

The primary source of Chinese knowledge about East Africa during the T'ang dynasty (618-907) comes from Ching–hsing Chi (“Record of Travels”) and Yu–yang Tsa–tsu (“Assorted Dishes from Yu–yang”). During the Sung dynasty (960-1279), most of the information is recorded in Chu-fan-chih (“Gazetteer of Foreigners”) and Ling–wai Tai–ta (“Information from Beyond the Mountains”). Finally, the record of the Ming (1368-1644) naval expedition into the western Indian Ocean is preserved in Wu–pei–chih (“Notes on Military Preparedness”), Hsing–ch'a Sheng–lan (“Triumphant Vision of the Starry Raft”), and Ming Shih (“History of the Ming Dynasty”).
The Slave Ship Fredensborg: History, Shipwreck, and Find
Authors: Svalesen Leif
Published: May 2006

During a violent storm the Danish-Norwegian frigate Fredensborg was wrecked on 1 December 1768, at Tromøy, an island outside Arendal in southern Norway. The long journey in the triangular route was nearly completed when the crew of 29 men, three passengers, and two slaves managed to save their lives under very dramatic conditions. The Captain, Johan Frantzen Ferents, and the Supercargo, Christian Hoffman, saved the ship's logbook and other journals. These, together with other documents which are in the national archives in Denmark and Norway, make it possible for us to follow the course of the frigate from day to day, both during the journey and after the wreck.

The Fredensborg was built in 1752-53 by the Danish West India-Guinea Company in Copenhagen. On its first journey in the triangular trade, and during five subsequent journeys to the West Indies, it sailed under the name of Cron Prins Christian. In 1765, when the Guinea Company replaced the West India-Guinea Company, taking over the forts on the Gold Coast and all trading rights and ships, the name was changed to Fredensborg, after the Danish-Norwegian fort at Ningo. At that time Denmark-Norway owned the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix in the West Indies and their need for slaves was growing.

They weighed anchor in Copenhagen on 24 June 1767 with 40 men on board, and anchored in the road at their main fort Christiansborg on the Gold Coast 100 days later, on 1 October 1767. Because of an inadequate supply of slaves, the Fredensborg remained in the road for 205 days. This had a very adverse effect on the health of the crew, with 11 deaths, including that of the Captain, Espen Kiønig. One of the deceased had drowned.
History, Oral Transmission and Structure in Ibn Khaldun's Chronology of Mali Rulers
Authors: Austen Ralph A. , Jansen Jan
Published: May 2006

The early history of the Mali empire is known to us from two sources: Mande oral literature (epic and praise poetry) recorded over the last 100 years and Ibn Khaldun's Kitab al-ʿIbar (Book of Exemplars) written in the late four-teenth century. The list of Mali kings presented by Ibn Khaldun is precise, detailed, entirely plausible, and recorded not too long after the events it purports to describe. For scholars attempting to reconstruct an account of this West African empire, no other medieval Arab chronicler or, indeed, any Mande oral traditions provide comparable information for its formative period.

There is, however, reason to question the historical reliability of Ibn Khaldun's account precisely on the grounds of its narrative richness. When read in relation to the general model of political development and decay which Ibn Khaldun worked out in the more theoretical Muqaddimah (“Prolegomena”) of Kitab al-ʿIbar, as well as the larger context of the work in which it is imbedded, the Mali kinglist takes on some characteristics of an instructive illustration rather than a fully empirical account of the past. Indeed Ibn Khaldun himself, in his contemplation of the basis for asabiyah (group solidarity) among bedouin peoples, cautions us against literal interpretation of genealogical accounts:

For a pedigree is something imaginary and devoid of reality. Its usefulness consists only in the resulting connection and close contact.

Ibn Khaldun is certainly not as ideologically engaged in constructing the royal genealogy of Mali as a bedouin spokesman might be in reciting the list of his own ancestors. Nevertheless, this great Arab thinker has something at stake in this story which needs to be given serious attention by all scholars concerned with either the events of the medieval western Sudan or the process by which they have been incorporated into more recent narratives.
ReassessingROBERT DRURY'S JOURNALas A Historical Source for Southern Madagascar
Authors: Pearson Mike Parker
Published: May 2006

In 1729 a book entitledMadagascar: or Robert Drury's Journal During Fifteen Years Captivity on that Islandwas published in London. It describes the shipwreck of an East Indiaman on the south coast of Madagascar, the enforced stay of the crew at the royal capital of the Antandroy people, the crew's escape and massacre, the survival of the midshipmen, including Drury, as royal slaves, and Drury's eventual escape to the English colony of St. Augustine. It purports to be his authentic account, digested into order by a transcriber or editor and published at the request of his friends. A certification of its authenticity is provided at the front of the first edition by Captain William Mackett, the ship's captain who brought Drury back to England, and the author states that if anyone doubts the veracity of his tale or wishes for a further account, he is “to be found every day at Old Tom's Coffee-house in Birchin Lane, London.”

The tale bears many superficial resemblances to Defoe'sRobinson Crusoeand Knox'sAn Historical Relation of Ceylonand the anonymous editor is at pains to state in the preface that the book was undoubtedly likely to be “…taken for such another romance as ‘Robinson Crusoe’…” whereas it was “…nothing else but a plain, honest narrative of matter of fact.” If this is the case, then Drury's account provides a fascinating insight into the world of an emergent Malagasy kingdom at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This was a crucial moment in Madagascar's history, when the European world of long-distance trade, slaving, and piracy was exerting a strong impact on the local people, culminating in colonization by France two centuries later.
The Pate Chronicles Revisited: Nineteenth-Century History and Historiography
Authors: Pouwels Randall L.
Published: May 2006

A few years ago I offered an assessment of the Pate “Chronicles” as a tradition-based source for the history of the East African coast. That paper drew on recensions and versions that were readily available at that time to researchers interested in their historiography. Reasons of length and scope, cited at the end of the paper, restricted discussion to Sultan Fumo Madi b. Abu Bakr and his predecessors (Sultan nos. 1-24), that is to say, up to the time of the Battle of Shela,ca. 1807-13. To reiterate, in that paper I established the following points:

(1) All recorded versions appear to have been based on an oral tradition that was extant in the mid- to late nineteenth century among Nabahani family members. The existence of a “Book of the Kings of Pate,” mentioned by Werner and Prins, is problematic (see 3 below).

(2) Despite the number of versions of the Pate “Chronicles,” they appear to have actually come from only two informants, Bwana Kitini and Mshamu bin Kombo, who was a relative or possibly, as Tolmacheva claims, Bw. Kitini's brother.

(3) Except for minor, though discernible, differences between the lists of the sultans given by both informants, most versions are consistent to a surprising degree. This seems attributable to the fact that there wereonlytwo informants, Kitini and Mshamu, who also were related, and who therefore themselves probably shared the same source(s). Given the differences of detail beyond the kinglists, if one of those earlier sources was a written one, such as an actual “Book of the Kings of Pate,” that source seems to have afforded the informants little beyond names and regnal dates.
Quilombos on São Tomé, or in Search of Original Sources
Authors: Vansina Jan
Published: May 2006

A few years ago I was reading a doctoral dissertation concerned with the history of São Tomé, when one particular word fairly leapt off the page. It came at the end of an episode telling how a particular ethnic group on the island today had arrived there. The story told how a number of Angolan slaves, later called Angolares, were shipwrecked just off the coast of São Tomé in 1544 (or 1554), “though (of course) no accurate date or account of the circumstances exists.” The survivors swam to shore and moved into the bush “building there a series of small villages called Quilombos.” It was that word, “Quilombos,” that made me jump to attention, for it is a very important word in Angolan history and a written record of it from either 1544 or 1554 would be sixty to seventy years earlier than the hitherto first-known mention of the word. If it were true, profound revisions to the accepted political history in Angola during the sixteenth century would be called for, and even the chronology of the onset of the Lunda (Ruund) kingdom far inland would have to be revised.
Sierra Leone and the Grand Duke of Tuscany
Authors: Hair P. E. H. , Davies Jonathan D.
Published: May 2006

In 1606 Philip II of Portugal (and III of Spain) granted to a faithful court official, the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Pereira, the captaincy of Sierra Leone in Guinea, subject to his establishing an effective settlement there. This was on the lines of previous royal grants of other areas of the Atlantic world—the fifteenth-century grants of the Portuguese Atlantic islands, the grants of segments of the coast of Brazil in the 1530s, and of the coast of Angola in the 1570s. These earlier grants had led to the extension of Portuguese domain, that is, conquista, confirmed in the earlier instances by settlement but the grant made to Pedro Álvares Pereira led to no permanent settlement at Sierra Leone and not even to Portuguese overrule of the African peoples of the district. A first attempt to carry out the terms of the grant, made in 1606 through the agency of a Jesuit missionary, Fr. Baltasar Barreira, lost its initial momentum because of a sudden decline in the fortunes of Pedro Álvares Pereira. In 1608 he fell out of favor at the court, accused of corruption and malpractice—a not uncommon happening in the jealously competitive arena of the Madrid court—and hence was unable to send ships and supplies to Sierra Leone to substantiate his grant. Eventually he returned to favour and between 1612 and 1616 tried again, but for reasons which are not entirely clear but apparently included the loss of agents in a marine disaster, he gave up the struggle and in 1621, just before he died, he relinquished the grant.
Reflections on Historiography and Pre-Nineteenth-Century History from the Pate “Chronicles”
Authors: Pouwels Randall L.
Published: May 2006

The period from 1500 to 1800 was a particularly busy phase in the history of the East African coast. It was a time which witnessed massive demographic shifts in the interior regions, as well as heavy southern Arab immigration and external meddling from Portuguese and Umani interlopers. It saw the destruction of the medieval entrepot of Kilwa Kisiwani and a decline, followed by a slow resurgence, in the fortunes of another medieval powerhouse, Mombasa. Throughout this phase, the ancient northern coastal city of Pate enjoyed a pivotal, even at times a paramount, role in the affairs of the coast. Before the middle 1500s the town seems to have been of insufficient consequence to attract much attention. Thereafter, however, the city-state capitalized on mainland alliances with powerful Orma confederations like the “Garzeda” to become a major center for regional trade, as well as a crucial strategic location in the competing religious and political ambitions of Portugal and various Arab states. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Pate clearly was the most important state in the Lamu archipelago. Arguably, too, it was the most powerful Swahili sultanate on the entire coast.

Given the significance of Pate in the affairs of the East African coast from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, scholars long have realized that a history of the sultanate is exigent to an understanding of the entire coast during this time. What would seem to be fortunate to this end is that historians have the Pate chronicles as a research aid. Taken together, these constitute the most detailed indigenous history of any coastal city-state up to the onset of the colonial era. However, as attested by the difficulties Chittick encountered in his attempts to work with them, these documents present the historian with a superabundance of (often confusing) information. Confronted with this, Chittick concluded that the only possible value of these chronicles was as a source of/for children's fables. Thus surmised, a historian of this important Swahili sultanate would seem to be left with very little indeed.
Feedback As a “Problem” in Oral History: An Example from Bonde
Authors: Willis Justin
Published: May 2006

Feedback—the process by which written versions of history influence subsequent presentations of oral history—is now a well-documented process. In writing on African history, Henige in particular has emphasized the importance of feedback in oral history, and has suggested that feedback from written sources is a process of contamination which has affected oral history all over the continent.

Some aspects of the oral history of Bonde, the area around the town of Muheza in northeastern Tanzania, would seem to present a counterexample to this thesis of written history as a contaminant of hitherto pure oral history: oral histories of at least two important nineteenth-century events in this area are at variance with fairly widely-available published sources. Evidence from Bonde suggests that, here at least, feedback from written sources is not a particular and unique influence on the making of oral history.
“Fallacious Mirrors:” Colonial Anxiety and Images of African Labor in Mozambique, ca. 1929
Authors: Allina Eric
Published: May 2006

African historiography has over the past decade begun to pay increasing attention to photographs as a source for African history. A growing body of work has raised a number of methodological and theoretical questions about how scholars can and should work with images. From their experience with written documents, historians are aware of the ideologically charged conditions under which colonial knowledge was produced. This awareness has armed scholars with a skepticism to look beyond the image itself and examine the physical and technological environment in which photographers worked. Posed studio shots that create “natural” settings and post-event retouching are only some of the practices photographers used to endow their images with a greater semblance of accuracy.

Andrew Roberts and David Killingray's “outline” of photography in Africa charts the development of photographic techniques and how their use created specific kinds of images of Africa; Virginia-Lee Webb emphasizes photographers' manipulation of not only their subjects, but also the environment in which they were photographed. What this work has produced is an oft-spoken axiom that photographic images of Africa (or any other place) ought not be taken at face value. This axiom has guided a significant amount of scholarship, although Beatrix Heintze wisely cautions against overinterpretation.

Scholars who work with written documentary evidence from the colonial period have well established the ways in which administrators, missionaries, and other Europeans represented Africans as an “other,” as they sought to create cultural and social distance between themselves and Africans. Still other scholars have combined written and oral materials to show how Africans established their own identities and interpreted colonial discourses to create alternative, liberating discursive spaces.
A Checklist of Published Versions of the Sunjata Epic
Authors: Bulman Stephen P.D.
Published: May 2006

This checklist of published versions of the Sunjata epic aims to include the widest possible corpus of written variants of the Mande tradition available through publishers, libraries, and in unpublished higher degree dissertations. It builds upon the work of Guy Tombs, Stephen Belcher, John Johnson, David Conrad and Ralph Austen. Entries are arranged alphabetically, by the name of thejeli (griot or bard, plural jeliw) or writer. Included in each entry are (1) the bibliographical reference (and subsequent references if the item has been republished or published in a translation or excerpted form); (2) the name of the performer (or writer); (3) details of the location and date of the performance; (4) details of the recorders) and translators); (5) the format of the published version (including the language(s) and the type of translation); and (6) the coverage of the published version. Coverage is indicated by use of a simple five-fold division of material traditionally included within the epic:

1. Paternal ancestry of Sunjata—links with the Middle East, Bilali, the Three Simbons, etc.

2. Buffalo-woman tale

3. Birth and childhood of Sunjata

4. Exile of Sunjata

5. Return and war with Sumanguru
The Idol, Its Worshippers, and the Crisis of Relevance of Historical Scholarship in Nigeria
Authors: Dibua J. I.
Published: May 2006

In his brief essay on the crisis in modern Nigerian historiography, A.O. Adeoye effectively highlighted the origin and nature of the crisis. However, his work was more of a review of the different perspectives, as well as the existing literature on the issue. But the crisis of relevance that Nigerian historical scholarship is currently facing is so acute that it may not be an exaggeration to say that the discipline of history is being threatened with extinction. This has created a great amount of apprehension and self-doubt among Nigerian historians. Nevertheless, the crisis is manifested in all aspects of historical scholarship in Nigeria.

One major area in which the crisis is manifested is at the apex level of the professional association of Nigerian historians, that is, the Historical Society of Nigeria (H.S.N.), which was formed in 1955. Apart from being the first professional body of academics to be formed in Nigeria, the society was so highly regarded that even up to the early 1980s, its activities were enthusiastically embraced by most Nigerian historians. By the mid 1980s, however, interest in the association had so much waned that majority of Nigerian historians, including very senior academics stopped paying their annual dues and participating in the Congresses. The situation has reached the depressing point where institutions now find it difficult to find enough finance to host the annual Congresses.

The attempts to revive the interest of historians by choosing themes that are relevant to the contemporary Nigerian situation have not being successful.Similarly, the prestigiousJournal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (JHSN)which was established in 1956, was last published in 1985 (even though there are a number of manuscripts awaiting publication) whileTarikh, which was supposed to popularize history at the tertiary and secondary school levels and among non-historians, has not fared better. In addition, the publication of theIbadan History Serieshas long since been discontinued.
The N'ko Alphabet as a Vehicle of Indigenist Historiography
Authors: Oyler Dianne White
Published: May 2006

The N'ko alphabet made its first appearance in Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire, on 14 April 1949? The invention of Souleymane Kanté of Kankan, Republic of Guinea, this alphabet constituted an attempt to provide a truly indigenous written form for Mande languages. Since its invention, a grassroots movement promoting literacy in the N'ko alphabet has spread across West Africa from the Gambia to Nigeria. A significant number of the speakers of Mande languages in Francophone as well as Anglophone West Africa have learned the N'ko alphabet, even though their governments use French or English as official languages and Muslim Mande-speaking religious leaders use Arabic in prayers and for study and teaching. The number of those who are literate in N'ko has increased without government intervention or support during the colonial and independence periods and without official support from the Islamic religious community. N'ko spread at the grassroots level because it met practical needs and enabled speakers of Mande languages to take pride in their cultural heritage. Informants from Kankan and its vicinity, one small part of the large region of N'ko's spread, said that their motivation to learn the alphabet was due to pride in their culture.

Here I examine the emergence of the N'ko alphabet as an indigenously created writing system currently used by speakers of Mande languages in the Republic of Guinea and in other countries across West Africa; the reasons behind the alphabet's creation and the process by which the alphabet evolved; seeks briefly to identify the process by which the alphabet was disseminated under the guidance of its creator in a grassroots movement fueled by individual initiative, I offer some indications as to the depth and breath of N'ko literacy within the Mande-speaking community. Finally, it discusses the motivation for learning the N'ko alphabet and the problems it poses for one local community.