bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
African Members of the Zambezi Expedition, 1861–1864 A Prosopographical Foray
Authors: Clendennen G. W. , Simpson D.H.
Published: May 2006

Throughout the entire period of the Zambezi expedition, the European members were accompanied and supported by Africans, either individually or in groups, and this essay is an attempt to list most of those who were with David Livingstone during his final three years in the Zambezi-Shire region. While the positive contributions made by Africans to the venture have been frequently overlooked, so has been the magnitude of Livingstone's problem training various African groups to carry out the tasks for which he hired them, with an end toward integrating them into the Expedition. The mere fact that circumstances caused him to turn to so many different groups of Africans in such a comparatively short period of time attests to the scope of Livingstone's difficulty. On the other hand, the problems faced by Africans in attempting to master new skills, many of which were “European” in nature, under the usually chaotic conditions in which the Expedition was immersed, can hardly be imagined. As will be indicated below, however, the African people usually served Livingstone and his men very well indeed.

Five groups of Africans will be considered: Krumen, Kololo, Sena men, “Johanna” men, and Shupanga men. In addition to delineating briefly their respective periods of service and mentioning in general terms the contributions each people made, an attempt will be made to list their personal names.
Computerized Handling of Oral and Written Information for Prosopography of Gonja
Authors: Haight Bruce M. , Pfeiffer William R.
Published: May 2006

Initial Development of the Project

I carried out field research in Gonja during the summer of 1969 and in 1972/73. The richness of both oral and archival information became something of a liability when I started writing up my research because of the practical difficulties involved in storing such a large quantity of information in a retrievable form. Drawing upon my work with Wilks, I created cross-indexed files to all articles and books, unpublished articles, archival material, and field interviews. At the same time, all of the above materials were coded so that they could be retrieved quickly on the basis of filed call numbers. Information derived from these materials was then carded and on each card the source of the information was identified by code number. This coding and carding enabled me to gain quick access to my sources of information, but I remained unable to handle rapidly the discrete pieces of information found in these sources. This problem was solved through computerized handling of information. In the following paper I shall present an account of the development of that capability and evaluate its effectiveness and potential in historical research.
Sudanese Historiography and Oral Tradition
Authors: Ibrahim Abdullahi Ali
Published: May 2006

One of the most curious aspects of Sudanese historiography is that it has almost completely ignored the ongoing attempts to apply the methods of historical criticism to oral tradition in reconstructing the African past. Though an awareness of these attempts on the part of Sudanese historians is not lacking, it has not gone beyond vague indications, casual remarks, and limited use of oral data. This paper investigates the apathy of Sudanese historiography with respect to oral traditions, drawing on articles on the writing of history in the Sudan, as well as on historical writings that have actually made use of oral traditions.

Sudanese historiography here means writings by Sudanese on history-writing in the Sudan; general histories of the Sudan; and local histories of the Northern Sudan. The history of the Southern Sudan is excluded because the contribution of oral tradition in reconstructing the history of this region has been markedly different. I also distinguish between traditional (biographers, genealogists, etc.) and amateur historians on the one hand and modern historians on the other. The modern historians, with whom this article will deal exclusively, are graduates of the Department of History in the University of Khartoum (or a similar university by extension), which was established in the late 1940s,and who have been exposed to the Western critical spirit and modern techniques of historical research and writing.2 Unlike the modern historians, traditional and amateur historians have always made use of both oral traditions and written sources.
On the Trail of the Bush King: A Dahomean Lesson in the Use of Evidence
Authors: Bay Edna G.
Published: May 2006

Twentieth-century historians of the Fon kingdom of Dahomey have been blessed with an unusually rich and accessible body of primary source material. Published in English and French by a succession of visitors to the kingdom, this literature includes references to Dahomean affairs beginning as early as the seventeenth century and continuing with regularity through its conquest in 1892/93 by the French. The accounts, however, are fullest in number of writers and in detail of observation for the period of the reigns of kings Gezo (1818-58) and Glele (1858-89).

European observers of the Dahomean polity approached the state for a variety of commercial, religious, and political reasons, but typically they were permitted to visit the capital, Abomey, only in conjunction with the major cycle of annual ceremonies, Xwetanu. Because Xwetanu -- or Customs, as the ceremonies were dubbed by the Europeans -- ranged in duration from several weeks to several months, travelers drew their information about the kingdom from the advantageous point of a relatively long period of time spent in close observation of the court at what was unquestionably the most important period of the year. Fascinated and sometimes repelled by the sights they witnessed, they set down their own observations, describing land forms and economic activities, court life and ceremonial, and officers and institutions of the state.
Ecological Perspectives on Mande Population Movements, Commercial Networks, and Settlement Patterns from the Atlantic Wet Phase (ca. 5500-2500 B.C.) to the Present
Authors: Brooks George E.
Published: May 2006

In this paper I discuss known and probable migrations and areas of settlement of proto-Mande and Mande-speaking groups during eight climate periods spanning the past eight millennia. Recent scholarship concerning west African climate patterns in past times has made feasible provisional periodizations of west African history that are independent of European-derived chronologies. Concomitantly, these historical periodizations offer provocative insights regarding such long-term processes as human migrations and settlement patterns; the diffusion of cultigens and domestic animals; the development of long- distance trade routes; and the use of horse cavalry in warfare.

The provisional historical schema comprising eight climate periods and Map 1 depicting ecological zones are principally derived from the pioneering studies of Sharon E. Nicholson and of Susan and Roderick McIntosh, and from the analyses I have presented elsewhere: (1) The Atlantic Wet Phase which extended from ca. 5500 to ca. 2500 B.C., was succeeded by (2) a two-and-a-half millennia-long period of desiccation. (3) There was a six centuries-long transiton period between ca. 300 B.C. and ca. 300 A.D., during the latter part of which ecological conditions improved sufficiently to permit the development of intra- and trans- Saharan commerce. (4) Four centuries of moderate rainfall ca. 300-ca. 700, and (5) four centuries of abundant rainfall ca. 700-ca. 1100, were followed by (6) a four centuries long dry period extending from ca. 1100 to ca. 1500. (7) A brief wet period, ca. 1500-ca. 1630, preceded (8) a two centuries-long dry period lasting until ca. 1860.
Généalogies de héros chez les Téké Tsaayi du Congo
Authors: Dupré Marie-Claude
Published: May 2006

Construire l'histoire d'un pays quand on ne dispose que de la mémoire et des traditions orales est une situation familière à l'anthropologue. Y parvenir est une entreprise qui n'est pas toujours couronnée de succès. Le principal moyen de remonter dans le passé est fourni par les généalogies de personnes illustres qui ont été transmises de diverses façons. Puis de les comparer entre elles en les posant sur une même échelle temporelle. Les écueils sont nombreux. Plus le personnage est important, plus ses héritiers, ou ses détracteurs tendent à fournir des informations divergentes. Un exemple célèbre est la généalogie des rois du Dahomey qui est loin d'être entièrement claire.

L'histoire des Téké tsaayi intéresse une zone plus restreinte, un carré d'environ 100 kilomètres de côté situé à l'ouest des sources de l'Ogooué dans la forêt qui couvre les monts du Chaillu. Les autres groupes téké se trouvent dans les savanes situées à l'est de cette zone, à l'exception des Téké laali. Le travail de comparaison mené sur 13 généalogies a permis de remonter jusqu'aux débuts du 18e siècle et d'esquisser, sur près de trois siècles, un rythme temporel marqué d'abord par la métallurgie, puis par les guerres, puis par la traite et l'invention du masque Kidumu. Chacune des périodes a suscité un ou plusieurs héros dont le souvenir était diversement conservé en 1966-72. Parfois l'énumeration tourne court et cela renseigne aussi sur la faible profondeur de la mémoire. Ces généalogies constituent des documents exceptionnels qui contrastent avec l'épaisseur bien mince du passé dans une société ol'on arrive généralement aux temps immobiles dès que l'on dépasse la 3e génération, comme je le montre aussi dans ce travail.
Memoire, Conscience Collective et Mentalites au Burundi, ca 1900-1962
Authors: Feltz Gaëtan
Published: May 2006

“Les mentalités, une histoire ambiguë,” tel est le titre d'un article de Jacques Le Goff (1974), qui constituera le point de départ d'une réflexion sur la profondeur et la dimension historiques des sources qui peuvent faire déceler des attitudes et des mentalités, à travers des témoignages, récits autobiographiques, ou encore des interviews. Si la perception d'un changement de mentalites ou d'attitudes profondes peut paraître “ambiguë”--parce que faiblement perceptible--, certains faits cependant traduisent des signes de changement dans la mentalité d'un groupe social, voire d'une société globalement soumise à une contrainte externe, comme par exemple lors de la colonisation au XXe siècle en Afrique noire.

Aujourd'hui, nous nous intéressons à l'histoire du dedans, à l'histoire vécue par les acteurs eux-mêmes. En confrontant ces diverses historiographies, arriverons-nous à mieux comprendre ce que doit être l'Histoire par rapport à ce que l'on nous apprend à l'école (Ferro 1981/1983), à ce que l'on ressent en temps qu'historien et à ce qui est réellement vécu (Feltz 1987)? Peut-être que la perception du fait colonial par ceux qui l'ont vécu du de-dans permettra de mieux cerner les effets de ce temps de l'histoire, la recherche de techniques quant à la collecte des sources est certes utile, elle l'est moins quand on cherche à déceler une dialectique irréversible à travers certaines données conjecturelles (Verhaegen 1986; Cannel/ Kahn 1974).
Jesuit Documents on the Guinea of Cape Verde and the Cape Verde Islands, 1585-1617 in English Translation
Authors: Hair P. E. H.
Published: May 2006

As part of a projected series of edited early Portuguese texts on Guinea, in the early 1960s the late Vice-Admiral Avelino Teixeira da Mota began to assemble, partly from archives, documents for a volume he intended to call Jesuit Reports. As it happened, many of the documents, especially those from Jesuit sources, were published in 1968 by another Portuguese scholar, the late P. Antońio Brásio. But Teixeira da Mota did not abandon his project, partly because he considered that Brásio did not always take account of all copies of a document and all variant readings, and partly because Brásio was unable to accompany the documents with informed Africanist annotation. In the 1970s Teixeira da Mota sent me his own collection of documents to translate into English— and also so that I could ultimately contribute part of their annotation. My translations were completed just before Teixeira da Mota died in 1982, and I have since translated a number of other documents, all from Brásio, which help to round out the picture. Not all of the documents were written by the Jesuits themselves, but most were.

When it became clear that the publication of Teixeira da Mota's series would proceed at best very slowly, I began to publish those of the translations which were of material in the public domain, beginning with the material printed in the early seventeenth century by Guerreiro. Since much of the material related to Sierra Leone, I published in the Africana Research Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies at Freetown, and am much indebted to the organizers of the journal for providing an outlet.
A History Manuscript in Hausa Ajami from Wurno, Nigeria by Malam Haliru Mahammad Wurno
Authors: Philips John Edward
Published: May 2006

This manuscript is a history of the family of Muhammad Buji, who led a migration from the town of Bunkari in Argungu (Sokoto State, Nigeria) to Wurno, sometime capital of the Sokoto Caliphate. It is important as an illustration of the ongoing historiographical tradition of Islamic west Africa in local languages, and as evidence of the strong historical sense and continuing production of historical documents by certain of the scholars of the area.

Wurno was constructed ca. 1830 by Muhammad Bello, Sultan of Sokoto and successor of Usuman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. Its primary purpose was to defend Sokoto from the northeast, and it replaced Magarya as the principal ribat (frontier fortification) and residence of Bello in that area. It also became the staging point for the annual dry season campaigns against the Gobirawa and other enemies of the Caliphate. When the Caliph himself was resident there, it became the capital of the state. Barth referred to it as such in his account of his travels. Wurno was the capital with more and more frequency as the nineteenth century wore on.
In Pursuit of a Chameleon: Early Ethnographic Photography from Angola in Context
Authors: Heintze Beatrix
Published: May 2006

In recent years early photographs from Africa have increasingly attracted the attention of historians and ethnologists, as have those from other parts of the world for some time. It has been attempted to ascertain the general and specific circumstances which led to them being made and subsequently used. The multifarious problems raised by their interpretation have been discussed. Books and articles have been published in which historical photographs form an integral and principal component. And it has been attempted to tap hitherto neglected, or to a large extent unknown, photographic archives and collections.

One of the countries to which least attention has been paid in this field is Angola, whose photographic documentation is widely scattered and in some cases not accessible. It is likely that many valuable collections have yet to be discovered; and of those that are known, in most cases the financial means and the expertise necessary for their conservation are lacking. In the light of this generally bleak situation Jill Dias' recent systematic review of the period from 1870 to 1914 is particularly welcome. My own contribution will take her work as its starting point, but will focus exclusively on ethnographic photography.

“Ethnography” will be used here in the sense in which photographers and researchers active in Angola during the period concerned (1875-1940) understood it—as a description (more systematic in some cases than in others) of “uncivilized,” “native” African peoples and cultures. It should be remembered that the boundary between “physical” and “cultural” anthropology was at that time still fluid.
Are Bibliographers Like Shortstops? Gresham's Law and Africana Bibliography
Authors: Henige David , Sabin James T.
Published: May 2006

A well conceived and executed reference book can become a perennial, a notable tool indispensable to research in the field…

Despite its relatively brief history, African studies has developed a remarkably abundant bibliographic infrastructure to support its aims. This is tangibly evidenced in the recent appearance of Yvette Scheven's cumulated bibliography of Africana bibliographies, which comprises citations to well over 3200 bibliographies of various stripes published between 1970 and 1986, or an average of nearly 200 each year. Of course, some of the parts of the structure overlap and even duplicate other parts, and by no means has every effort attained acceptable standards, but on the whole there has been little about which to be ashamed or mortified.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise. In theory at least, the obstacles to preparing useful bibliographies are not outrageously demanding, and not at all commensurate with their enduring value. Mechanically, there are only a few rules, but these are unrelenting: entries must be accurate in all their parts, as well as complete, yet should be economical as well, and not provide useless information; coverage must be comprehensive within stated parameters; and access must be facilitated by means of thoughtful organization, extensive cross-referencing, and thorough and sensitive indexing. The intellectual challenges to accomplishing these goals might not be overwhelming; nonetheless forethought, punctilious and constant attention to detail, linguistic ability, doggedness, and above all a commitment to the highest standards of accuracy are all imperative.
Antera Duke of Old Calabar—A Little More About an African Entrepreneur
Authors: Hair P.E.H.
Published: May 2006

The reference to Antera Duke of Old Calabar in HA 16 (1989) encourages me to contribute a note on this historical notable.1 A gross imbalance exists in the scholarly study of black slavery. The shelves of academic libraries groan under the weight of books on black slavery in the Americas. Yet for every hundred books on trans-Atlantic black slavery and the Middle Passage, there is at best a single volume on black slavery in Africa. Moreover, the curt preliminary chapter dealing with slavery in Africa mandatory in books on black slavery in the Americas, not uncommonly limits itself to repeating anachronistic moralizing cliches that show little awareness of up-to-date Africanist knowledge of slavery in Africa—and exhibit little empathy with past African enterprise. There is some excuse. Any historical social process shared between preliterate and literate societies will inevitably have fuller and clearer source material in respect of the latter than in respect of the former. Information on black slavery in the Americas, on the Middle Passage, and on the non-African aspects of the procurement of slaves, is relatively abundant; information on the transmission of an individual African from an earlier non-slave situation, through the hands of Africans, to the point where he or she was handed over to non-Africans, is almost nonexistent. This being so, the publication in 1956 of the diary of an African slave trader, Antera Duke of Old Calabar, a diary covering the years from 1785 to 1788, was an outstanding historiographical event.
The Periplus of Hanno in the History and Historiography of Black Africa
Authors: Hair P.E.H.
Published: May 2006

The Periplus of Hanno describes a purported Carthaginian voyage down the coast of western Africa—a voyage to as far as Guinea in the opinion of some scholars. The brief text is of doubtful and at best partial historical authenticity; and in any case its account of the later part of the voyage concentrates on a few episodes of high drama and exotic observation, at the expense of those other detailed particulars which might have made the Periplus, if historical, an informative as well as unique documentary source on black Africa in the first millennium B.C.. At least as far as black Africa is concerned, it must be questioned whether the Periplus is worth a fraction of the intensive scholarly effort that has been spent on it during the past four hundred years.

Current debate among ancient historians and classical philologists turns on the nature of the Periplus: is it wholly fiction? or, if fact, is it fact fictitiously extended and embellished? or, a third possibility, is it fact dramatically and perhaps intentionally summarized and slanted? But from the point of view of the historian seeking to obtain information about early sub-Saharan Africa in general and west Africa in particular, this debate can be by-passed (hence the present paper does not need or attempt to comprehend, pursue, or augment the detailed scholarly arguments and evidence available in the literature). For whether based on fact or not, the Periplus is patently a piece of literature of a kind which does not afford precise historical information.
Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the Voices ‘From Below’
Authors: Hamilton C.A.
Published: May 2006

From the time of the translation into English of Jan Vansina's Oral Tradition in 1965, the use of oral traditions as historical sources has become an increasingly technical exercise. Historians of the non-literate societies of Africa in particular have been alterted to, among others, such things as “floating gaps” and “hour-glass effects” in traditions, elongated and collapsed genealogies, the peculiarities and fallibility of human memory, the overlaying of oral traditions with successive ruling group histories, and the functioning of oral traditions as cultural charters.

Some scholars consider this ‘reification of method’ to have wrought a tool increasingly honed for historical analysis, able to lay bare within oral tradition historical facts, consistent within themselves and with other oral traditions. Others argue that the elaborateness of the methodology reflects the inherently unreliable nature of oral traditions as historical sources. They suggest that, at best, oral traditions are able to provide reliable data only about the interests of a particular group at the particular moment when they were recorded.

This paper addresses the debate over the status of oral traditions as historical sources, with particular reference to the use of traditions in the illumination of the precolonial past. Drawing on some of the insights of the new social historians concerning ideology and first-hand oral testimony, it examines the relationship between ideology and oral traditions in non-literate societies. The argument developed here is that, far from simply representing the interests of a particular group, oral traditions often reflect ideological struggles between the rulers and ruled in a society.
Northern Rhodesia Tax Stamps as an Aid to Chronology
Authors: Musambachime Mwelwa C.
Published: May 2006

It is well known that historians studying preliterate societies, in which oral traditions are the main sources of data used in reconstructing the past, have experienced problems in ‘arranging’ events in their order of occurrence. To establish chronology, historians have used a number of aids such as mnemonic devices and occurrences of eclipses and droughts which are then correlated to the western calendar. This paper discusses an aid which, used together with oral traditions, can be very useful in reconstructing the early colonial history of Northern Rhodesia between 1910 and 1927. This aid is the tax stamp given to all tax payers during this period. To understand the importance of the tax stamps to chronology, perhaps it is best to begin with a description as to how events were recorded in the precolonial period.
A Spurious Correlation of r=.70: or Historiodémographe, modere tes transports!
Authors: Fetter Bruce
Published: May 2006

Despite the slender evidentiary base of surviving sources, historians would dearly like to know more about colonial vital rates. In the absence of hard data, speculation has run rampant about changes in fertility and mortality. Were African birth rates always as high as they are today? Did the early years of colonial rule bring about rises in the deathrates in all areas and to the same degree? Researchers are now combing the available evidence for materials to answer questions such as these.

Unfortunately, the records of a single year's births and deaths are not a reliable indicator of long-term demographic trends. In a small population in particular, the events of a given year must be seen in the context of the years surrounding it. Inadequate reporting might lead to underestimates of either fertility or mortality rates, while uncommon events such as epidemics might be wrongly taken as typical.

These discontinuities have led researchers to concentrate on series of demographic rates rather than isolated estimates. Mathematically, this has promoted the use of techniques which convert the haphazard incidences of births and deaths into continuous functions which, although not as close to the raw data as year-by-year statistics, nonetheless give the reader a notion of trends over time.
Alexis Kagame entre memoire et histoire
Authors: Vidal Claudine
Published: May 2006

Les savoirs universitaires sur l'Afrique précoloniale ont été construits pour une large part grâce aux relations établies entre les spécialistes européens et des Africains qui (lettrés ou non), en raison de leur position sociale et de leurs qualités personnelles, possédaient une grande connaissance de leur culture. Mon enquête s'applique au champ de l'historiographie du Rwanda: j'examinerai quelles relations des chercheurs européens entretinrent avec un intellectuel autochtone, Alexis Kagame et comment, selon l'usage qu'ils eurent de son érudition, les uns l'instituérent historiens et les autres “informateur” alors qu'il donnait à ses écrits une portée toute différente, même si ces derniers avaient un caractère historique, même s'ils offraient une grande richesse d'information. Je ne veux nullement suggérer que ces relations furent exceptionnelles: d'autres savants européens, sur d'autres terrains, développèrent avec d'autres lettrés africains des relations comparables dans leur principe avec le cas présenté ici. En Europe aussi, le jeu des hiérarchies classant les intellectuels suscita, par exemple entre universitaires et érudits régionaux, des rapports homologues à ceux, établis en Afrique, par les intellectuels du “centre” avec ceux de la “périphérie”.
Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern Historiography of Western Africa
Authors: Masonen Pekka , Fisher Humphrey J.
Published: May 2006

The Almoravid conquest of ancient Ghana in 1076 AD is certainly among the most dramatic and controversial single events in the historiography of West Africa. It has been regarded as a crucial turning point, as the battle of Hastings was for England, not only for the existence of Ghana, but also for the destiny of the entire area, opening the gates to a triumphant Islam in sub-Saharan Africa.

Yet the conquest and destruction of Ghana by Almoravid invaders constitute one of the myths which still populate African historiography, like the wonderful voyage of Hanno to the Bight of Biafra, which was carried over from classical Greco-Roman texts into modern European literature as early as 1533. Since then the story of Hanno has been used for various purposes by western Africanists, for instance, to explain the diffusion of iron technology into sub-Saharan Africa. Just the same, no definite evidence has yet been found for any Carthaginian sailings along the West African coast, except the Periplus of Hanno itself, which seems to be a literary composition drawn from earlier classical sources. A reason for the popularity of Hanno, and other such stories in African historiography, has been that many modern writers have been content with using the previous secondary literature, instead of examining carefully all the available primary sources. Consequently, many subjective and hypothetical assumptions created by previous scholars, working on the basis of even less evidence, have been transferred bodily from one corpus of research to the next. Finally, their origin forgotten, stories like the voyage of Hanno have become established historical facts through constant repetition in the authorized literature.
Reflections on the Genesis of Anglophone African History After World War II
Authors: Fage J. D.
Published: May 2006

It is forty-five years ago since Roland Oliver was appointed to a lectureship in the “Tribal History of East Africa” at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). This was certainly the first appointment in African history in a university in the United Kingdom, and very likely the first such in a university anywhere in the world. In 1986 he retired from the Chair of African History, to which the University had advanced him in 1963 (an event which may very well have been another first), and he spent the first years of his retirement writing his book The African Experience: Major Themes in African History From Earliest Times to the Present.

It was entirely appropriate that the International Journal of African Historical Studies should have asked Jan Vansina to review this book, for his activities in the field of African history go back almost as far as Oliver's; forty-one years have now passed since Vansina began his academic career as a researcher at the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale (sc. the then Belgian territories in Africa). The review article which Vansina has written begins by paying generous tribute to Oliver's pioneer achievements as a leading actor in virtually every activity needed for the understanding and the furtherance of African history—researcher, teacher, author, editor, and organizer. His first general conclusion (393) on The African Experience is that Oliver's book “lives up to its promise” as “‘a work of reflection’ on the substance of African history, the distillation of his experience of forty (sic) years.”
The Earliest Generation of Missionary Photographers in West Africa and the Portrayal of Indigenous People and Culture
Authors: Jenkins Paul
Published: May 2006

That photographs have been neglected in the study of African history has become, in recent years, a well-established truism. To take one point of entry into the literature which has set out to correct this deficiency: a Seminar held in SOAS in 1988 on “Photographs as Sources for African History” amply confirmed this point (Roberts 1988). The papers and discussions indicated the scope—and the problems—of some of the well-known and less well-known, holdings in this field. They also showed, however, that a number of scholars had already devoted considerable thought to the implications of historic photographic holdings for the pursuit of historical and anthropological studies not only in colonial history but also in African historyper se. A similar point of entry for the German-speaking world is provided by the literature accompanying an important exhibition which toured a number of West German museums in 1989. “Der geraubte Schatten” concerned itself with the history of photography in the whole non-European world (Theye 1989; Ueber die Wichtigkeit 1990; see especially the essays by Wagner and Corbey for reflections on missionary photography).
The Minor Works of T. O. Avoseh
Authors: Falola Toyin
Published: May 2006

I do not profess to have produced the best or [an] exhaustive history … but I hope that these feeble efforts of mine shall be a stepping stone for others to follow.

This is the first part of a study of the works of Chief Theophilus Olabode Avoseh, theGbesiewuof Badagry, a man of culture and self–education who represents two related but distinct peoples, the Egun and the Yoruba–Awori, and who, above all, is a prolific researcher and distinguished local historian. In this first part, I will provide the biodata on Avoseh, and then introduce his minor works with translations and comments designed to bring out their significance. My primary aims are to draw attention to these obscure works and make them accessible to other researchers.

In the second part, I will examine Avoseh's major works, that is, his two studies of Badagry and Epe:A Short History of Badagrypublished in 1938, recently revised and awaiting publication, andA Short History of Epepublished in 1960. This second part will emphasize the special aspects of Avoseh's works and their contribution to Yoruba and Aja historiography. These two major works have been of considerable value to other historians in their reconstruction of the history of the coastal cities whereas the minor works presented here are comparatively little known.
Travel Writing, Experiences, and Silences: What is Left Out of European Travelers' Accounts—the Case of Richard D. Mohun
Authors: Barrett-Gaines Kathryn
Published: May 2006

Recent contributions to this journal have taken various approaches to travelers's accounts as sources of African history. Elizabeth de Veer and Ann O'Hear use the travel accounts of Gerhard Rohlfs to reconstruct nineteenth-century political and economic history of West African groups who have escaped scholarly attention. But essentially they use Rohlfs' work as he intended it to be used. Gary W. Clendennen examines David Livingstone's work to find the history under the propaganda. He argues that, overlooking its obvious problems, the work reveals a wealth of information on nineteenth-century cultures in the Zambezi and Tchiri valleys. Unfortunately, Clendennen does not use this source for these reasons. He uses it instead to shed light on the relationship between Livingstone and his brother.

John Hanson registers a basic distrust of European mediated oral histories recorded and written in the African past. He draws attention to the fact that what were thought to be “generally agreed upon accounts” may actually reflect partisan interests. Hanson dramatically demonstrates how chunks of history, often the history of the losers, are lost, as the history of the winners is made to appear universal. Richard Mohun can be seen to represent the winners in turn-of-the-century Central Africa. His account is certainly about himself. I attempt, though, to use his account to recover some of the history of the losers, the Africans, which Mohun may have inadvertently recorded.

My question is double; its two parts—one historical, one methodological—are inextricably interdependent. The first concerns the experience of the people from Zanzibar who accompanied, carried, and worked for Richard Dorsey Mohun on a three-year (1898-1901) expedition into Central Africa to lay telegraph wire. The second wonders how and how well the first question can be answered using, primarily, the only sources available to me right now: those written by Mohun himself.
Yoruba Writers and the Construction of Heroes
Authors: Falola Toyin
Published: May 2006

In 1986 the University of Ife (later renamed Obafemi Awolowo University) unveiled a wood statue of Oduduwa, the mythical founder of the Yoruba nation. Present at the occasion was Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the most famous Yoruba politician of the twentieth century. Either for political gain, or to celebrate or praise him, an Ife intellectual told Chief Awolowo that the statue looked exactly like him and that, in trying to represent the image of Oduduwa, the carver, the highly distinguished Chief Lamidi Fakeye, had simply used Awolowo as a model.

Chief Awolowo was very happy with this comparison, and gladly affirmed it. The story spread like wildfire. As the statue came to be interpreted, Awolowo and Oduduwa had the same physical build, elegance, and cap which they wore in the same style! Here indeed was the modern Oduduwa. To those in search of heroes, the Yoruba now had two “national” ones—Oduduwa, the progenitor and Awolowo, the modernizer—and a host of other aspiring and local ones. If Oduduwa founded the nation, Awolowo would unite it, after a period of internal division.

Both in Yoruba popular and intellectual discourse, the hero commands prominent attention. The Yoruba appear to be seeking the equivalent of a Mahdi, the reformer in Islam, a cultural, folk, and political hero. The ambition of many Yoruba elite, especially the politician, is to become a hero of the nation. Many have tried in vain—men such as Chief Adisa Akinloye, a longtime veteran politician, and the Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria during the Second Republic, and, until recently, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the business magnate and politician who was denied the presidency of the country by the military regime in collaboration with powerful civilians.
Chronological Problems in C.G. Okojie's Esan Narrative Traditions
Authors: Webster James B. , Ogbomo Onaiwu W.
Published: May 2006

The Esan who presently inhabit four local government areas of Edo State, Nigeria, share an exclusive feeling of being one people. In language and custom they are akin to the Edo people of Benin. The name “Esan” is an Edo word meaning “jump” or “flee,” which explains the manner in which they departed the Benin kingdom. The Esan region is divided roughly into the plateau—about one-third the total area but containing three-fifths of the people—and the lowlands. The plateau chiefdoms, originally seven of them, have been classed as Esan ‘A’ and include Irrua, Ekpoma, Uromi, Ewu, Ubiaja, Udo, and Ugboha. The lowland chief doms, originally eight, are known as Esan ‘B’ and consist of Ewohimi (Orikhimi), Ohordua, Emu, Ebelle, Okalo, Amahor, Ezen, and Okaigun.

According to Esan traditions all the ancestors of the people, royal and commoner alike, came from Benin, the first groups being escapees and pioneers, the royal groups coming into the region later, during the reign of Ewuare, ca. 1455-82. Closer interviewing of clans, neither royal nor holding titles, demonstrates that many do not hold to this popular tradition, claiming either to be indigenous or to have migrated from elsewhere. Even in the intelligence report on the Esan, a significant number of clans reported origins other than in Benin. It seems that Esan ‘A’ chiefdoms on the plateau were the earliest established, and paid tribute to Benin through the Onojie (chief) of Irrua, who was therefore roughly the paramount of the Esan province of Benin. As the chiefdoms grew in numbers and spread on to the lowlands, he remained their overlord or governor. However, by the early nineteenth century the Oba of Benin installed the chief of Ewohimi as paramount over the lowland or Esan ‘B’ chiefdoms. By the advent of the British in the 1890s the earliest fifteen chiefdoms had grown to thirty.
Descent from Privilege: A Researcher's Memoir of the National Archives of Zimbabwe, 1984–1993
Authors: Bessant Leslie
Published: May 2006

When I first arrived at the National Archives of Zimbabwe in July of 1984, I was flattered and even a little embarrassed by the cosseting I got just for being a visiting researcher. The Archives' staff took a personal interest in me that extended beyond research and into the realm of creature comfort. The daily routine had more in common with a spa than a work place: tea was put on for researchers every morning and afternoon in the Archives' back garden, and the reading room closed early enough in the afternoon to make the first round of gin and tonics at the sun-downer. In other words, doing research at the National Archives was living a privileged existence.

That sort of privilege was replaced by a growing sense of professionalism and mainstreaming between 1985 and 1993. Morning and afternoon tea no longer played such an important role in the daily routine, and everything seemed busier. This was a change in tone, not a change in the physical or professional excellence of the institution: the grounds were still beautiful, the facilities were still clean and comfortable, and the staff were still friendly and helpful. But in 1989, and even more so in 1993, a feeling of intensity had replaced the sense of luxury and ease I had felt in 1984 and 1985. The National Archives had been transformed from a spa to a work place. And, in the process, researchers had also been transformed from guests to workers.
The White Father Archives at Mwanza, Tanzania
Authors: Smythe Kathleen R.
Published: May 2006

The White Fathers' (Missionary Society of Africa) Regional House outside Mwanza, Tanzania is the home of a small, but important archival collection for scholars researching those areas in Western Tanzania where the White Fathers lived and worked. The collection is relatively unknown, but for my research (social history with a focus on children) it was a gold mine of information. It also turned out to be the most pleasant archives to work in of all of the ones I consulted during my fieldwork experience.

The archives in Mwanza contain some of the same information that can be found in Rome at the White Fathers' headquarters, but provide a cheaper and closer alternative for those already in Tanzania. In the Regional House library are the Rapports Annuels of the mission society from the 1880s to the late 1950s and a full set of Chronique Trimestrielle (which later became Petit Echo). The Reports Annuels contain compilations of statistics (including the number of missionaries, sisters, catechists, neophytes, catechumens, baptisms of various categories, marriages, confessions, confirmations, boys and girls attending school for each mission station), as well as general reports about the nature and progress of the missionaries' work. Having already read the particular mission diaries in Rome, these reports were particularly helpful as they conveniently summarized trends and problems that priests saw in their work. As its name implies, the Chronique Trimestrielle was published four times a year and contained a variety of information about the missions and their work, but a primary focus was education. In addition, the library contains works on the mission society, its founder, Charles Lavigerie, and some important works on the Sukuma people and language.
Treating an Interdisciplinary Allergy: Methodological Approaches to Pollen Studies for the Historian of Early Africa
Authors: Schoenbrun David
Published: May 2006

The interdisciplinary task of reconstructing early African history demands more than a passing familiarity with many fields of knowledge. Not least among these is geography, in its broader conception as the pursuit of an understanding of physiographic processes and the role(s) played by people in shaping and responding to these processes. A standard beginning in many a history book takes the reader through annual rainfall figures, topographic generalities, and, perhaps a cursory pedological overview of the region in which the people(s) under study live. Rarely are these introductory remarks integrated into the historical narrative. We are too often left to ourselves in determining the relevance, for example, of a bi-modal rainfall to the local agriculture in a subregion of open grasslands and woody savanna ecotones on black clay valley bottoms. We trust these are data relevant to our understanding of the region's agriculturalists.

Many readers may know that such an area will be subject to heavy soil waterlogging during the wetter months. They may also realize that mound and ridge construction are excellent responses to the risks of root-drowning such waterlogging poses to crops such as beans, and as well, that the indigenous African grain cropsSorghumspp. andPennisetumspp. can withstand waterlogged soils for brief periods without suffering significant loss of yield (Purseglove 1972:269-71). What is likely to be poorly understood are the forces of ecological and cultural change that have been at work in such an environment transforming the very nature of its vegetational cover and soil profile. In short, a historical perspective is necessary so that we do not run the risk of presenting Africa's ecological background in the same unchanging light as colonial ethnographers did Africa's past.
What Do We Do with Irregular Correspondences? The Case of the Khoe Languages
Authors: Vossen Rainer
Published: May 2006

There is nothing that cannot be related directly or indirectly to anything else, and it is this nightmare that is horrifying. There seems to be no precedent for this sort of chaos in the languages of the world… (Traill 1974:251)

Regularity of phonological change is considered a basic principle of historico-linguistic reconstruction. In 1876 A. Leskien of the Leipzig school of neogrammarians formulated the postulate of sound change occurring without exception, meaning “that if one assembled all the facts, and analyzed them accurately and thoroughly, one could state exceptionless principles or laws for the development of language” (Lehmann 1973:87). However, it has since been argued on the basis of empirical research that languages are never in complete balance and that, therefore, change is not necessarily constant, nor parallel among groups speaking different languages. Various reasons have been found to account for irregularities in language: the impact of one language on another, the effect of children acquiring their language, etc. Yet before we enter into any etiological discussion of irregular or unstructured phonological change, the area of investigation for the present case study must be introduced, and the characteristic of the problematic nature of the case sketched.
A. T. Bryant and ‘The Wars of Shaka’
Authors: Wright John
Published: May 2006

Olden Times in Zululand and Natal …depends primarily on tribal lore garnered during four decades of exhaustive interviews with native elders.…[I]t is safe to say [Bryant's] work will never be exceeded. Almost everything published on the subject since depends on him.…

This paper needs to be read against the background of the critique which has gradually been gathering force over the last half-dozen years or so of the concept of the mfecane. By the mfecane is meant the idea that in the 1820s much of the eastern half of southern Africa was thrown into turmoil by a series of wars and population migrations set in motion by the explosive expansion of the Zulu state under Shaka. Ever since Theal first popularized it in the late nineteenth century, this idea has remained one of the bedrock concepts around which the history of southern Africa in the later eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century has been written. The term mfecane itself did not become widely used until as recently as 1966, when, in his widely influential book, The Zulu Aftermath, Omer-Cooper repackaged what had previously been called “the wars of Shaka” for an emerging Africanist readership. Since then the concept of the mfecane has permeated the literature, both popular and academic, inside and outside southern Africa, to the point where it is regarded as a fixed fact of the sub-continent's history.