bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Grist for the Mill: On Researching the History of Bulozi
Authors: Prins Gwyn
Published: May 2006

Since African history began to be produced in quantity one-and-a-half academic generations ago, there have rarely been shortages of new explanatory theory, though sometimes there has been paucity of data, more often of field than of archival materials. Usually there has been little open discussion of the kinds of methodological problems that both of the other circumstances pose. This contribution to that debate attempts to be deliberately simple, perhaps naive, in order to permit general points to peer through specific examples. It is about the intellectual, technical, and personal complications of field work generally and is illustrated from my own research on the last hundred years in Bulozi, the western part of Zambia. In topic as well as technique, I hope that these experiences have a wider relevance, for much attention is focused on the times of colonial impact.

I have in the title purposely set limits on the discussion. I look at the grist being brought to the mill rather than at what is done with it after it has been ground, in the belief that if the quantity and nature of adulteration can be judged -- for no grain is entirely pure -- one may hope to compensate for it in the baking and so produce reasonable bread. Also, extending the analogy a little, I shall identify types of grain, for no amount of baker's skill can produce a wheat loaf from rye flour.
Bibliotheca Missionum: A Case of Benign Neglect
Authors: Henige David
Published: May 2006

“[The historian] ignores this … impeccable bibliography at his (or her) peril.”

In this brief note I hope to draw effective attention to Bibliotheca Missionum, a bibliography which, in its scope, reliability, and accessibility stands unequalled among bibliographies of any kind. More important, though, than its superior technical attributes is the fact that Bibliotheca Missionum provides entrée to a vast but largely dormant body of source materials -- materials which are as little used as they are indispensable to the proper study of the African past. With all fairness, it can be said that Bibliotheca Missionum's superiority is rivaled only by our disregard of it.

Bibliotheca Missionum was conceived by Robert Streit, a missionary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The first volume in the series appeared in 1917 and since then twenty-nine others have appeared. Initially the volumes appeared more or less under the auspices of the Oblates, but in the late 1920s the project was taken over by the newly-established Pontificia Biblioteca Missionaria in Rome. Streit was succeeded by Johannes Dindinger in 1930 and other Editors have since held office, but Bibliotheca Missionum continues to be referred to as “Streit and Dindinger.” Of the thirty volumes so far published, six (volumes 15 to 20) relate directly to Africa. All were published between 1951 and 1954 and include the following:

In addition, Vols. 1, 22, and 23 are devoted to work of general missiological import and naturally contain much that relates to Africa.
Trees and Traps: Strategies for the Classification of African Languages and their Historical Significance
Authors: Flight Colin
Published: May 2006

For the present series there will emerge a complete genetic reclassification of the languages of Africa. These results are so at variance with the commonly accepted scheme that a brief methodological foreword seems in order. There is nothing recondite about the methods which I have employed.…

These abruptly articulated sentences form the opening of the first in a series of articles which, with time, would be seen to have initiated a new phase in the historical study of African languages. Seven of these articles appeared, at quarterly intervals, during 1949/50. They offered not only a fresh classification for the languages of the African continent; they also exemplified a fresh approach to the problem of language classification anywhere in the world. Since then, the classification itself has been revised and extended on several occasions, and the methodology has been made more explicit in some respects. But of none of these subsequent developments can it be said that they were not latent in the original publications. Even if the author had lost interest in the subject soon afterwards--which happily was not the case--the indications would still have been there for others to follow up, if and when they chose. In that sense, the achievement was complete by 1950.

Recognition of the achievement, however, was only slowly gained. Among Africanists these articles became the focus for a prolonged and sometimes acrimonious controversay, the echoes of which are with us even now. In some quarters, the classification was not at all willingly accepted; nor was the methodology which lay behind it.
The Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft Archives
Authors: Maier D.J.E.
Published: May 2006

The Norddeutsche Mission archives are located in the Staatsarchiv of Bremen, that is, the archives of the Staat or province of Bremen in West Germany. The headquarters of the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft (the North German Mission Society) is also in Bremen, but their historical archives were given to the Staatsarchiv in the late 1960s because the mission no longer had space to store them properly. The Norddeutsche missionaries were active the Ewe areas of eastern Asante, the Gold Coast, and Togoland from the 1840s to the present. Consequently the material has great potential use for the west African historian. To my knowledge the archives have been used previously by Arthur Knoll (before the material was indexed and sent to the Staatsarchiv) for his Togo Under Imperial Germany 1884-1914 and by Peter Bühler in “The Volta Region of Ghana, Economic Change in Togoland 1850-1914,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California-San Diego, 1975). I feel, however, that these books and my own research in the archives barely touch the surface of the Bremen data.

The Staatsarchiv is open to the public, though I believe it is considered polite to write in advance and introduce yourself. The address is as follows:

Herr Director

Staatsarchiv Bremen

Präsident-Kennedy-Platz 2

2800 Bremen 1

West Germany

You should bring some evidence of institutional affiliation. I obtained the permission of the Norddeutsche Mission before going to the Staatsarchiv but I believe this is not necessary.

The Staatsarchiv file number for all the mission material is 7,1025. The index for this classification is approximately twenty pages and is divided into five quite unequal parts: Neuseeland (a brief attempt at missionary work there); West Africa; Die Missionare; Heimat; Bildarchiv.
Northwestern University Library Microfilm Collection of Dutch Archival Records
Authors: Yarak Larry W.
Published: May 2006

During 1976-1981 the Melville J. Herskovits Africana Library of Northwestern University acquired a substantial microfilm collection of archival material from the Netherlands' Algemeen Rijksarchief (National Archives). A brief description of part of that collection was published by David Henige in History in Africa, 4 (1977). At this writing the collection numbers 301 microfilm reels, of which 165 have been cataloged (Film A374). It is no exaggeration to state that the collection places at the disposal of historians an indispensable--and so far underutilized--corpus of documentary source material for reconstructing the political and social history of the eighteenth and nineteenth century Gold Coast.

The overwhelming majority of the records are in the Dutch language, though there are several reels containing original correspondence with the English forts on the Gold Coast for both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In general the quality of reproduction is good to excellent; however, a number of reels, particularly those containing eighteenth century material, reproduce documents that have water damage or are otherwise difficult to read. It is important to note that much of this damaged or fragile material is not let out to readers by the Algemeen Rijksarchief staff, and must be consulted on microfilm at the archive.

One of the major objectives in putting together the Northwestern collection was to obtain as complete a set as possible of the so-called Elmina Journals, that is, the daily record of events on the coast maintained by successive governors based at the Dutch headquarters at Elmina.
Archival Resources in Mali
Authors: Conrad David
Published: May 2006

Before departing for Mali, researchers should write a formal request for permit to conduct research to: Ministre de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, Bamako. A second letter should be sent to M. Mamadou Sarr, Chef de la Division de Recherche Scientifique, B.P. 159, Bamako, advising him that the first letter has been written and stating both the research topic and the anticipated duration of the research trip.

Once in Bamako (if permission is granted), the “Autorisation de Recherche” can be obtained from M. Sarr, whose office is in the Ministry of Education Building on the Place de la Liberté. If this can be done within the first few days after arrival and before expiration of the temporary visa, the research authorization can simplify the visa renewal process at the Direction des Services de Sécurité. Authorization for access to the Archives Nationales du Mali requires a separate application, which also is issued by M. Sarr and can be applied for at the same time as the general authorization.

Every researcher is required to work under the aegis of the Institut des Sciences Humaines, of which M. Sarr is director. Those intending to do field work are assigned an I.S.H.M. “technician” who may have some background in the subject and can also be helpful in contacting informants. In principle, the technician is supposed to accompany the investigator on all field trips, and the investigator is expected to pay the technician's transportation costs, food, and lodging, as well as 2,000 Malien francs (about $5.00) per diem.
Myth and History: The MalagasyAndriambahoakaand the Indonesian Legacy
Authors: Ottino Paul
Published: May 2006

The early cultural history of Madagascar, inseparable from that of the Indian Ocean, remains very poorly known. I agree with other authors that the peopling of the island is recent; so far we do not have any archeological evidence dating prior to the ninth century. While it is beyond doubt that the islands received people, techniques, and ideas from all the areas around the Indian Ocean, recent work confirms the dominance of a double--or rather a triple--component: an Indonesian one, much Indianized before being tinged with a particular brand of Shicite Islam around the thirteenth century; an Arabo-Persian influence; and an African, particularly Bantu, influence. The Bantu influence, is in most cases, inseparable from the preceding. Deschamps believes that the more recent, “Islamized,” arrivals brought with them new political concepts that led, according to Kent, to the emergence of the first Malagasy kingdoms at the beginning of the sixteenth century. I also agree with this point and believe that the concepts of a kingship based on the mystic pre-eminence of a sovereign of which the prototype were the Andriambahoaka were introduced into Madagascar by the first Malagasy dynasty, the ZafiRaminia (lit. “the descendants of Raminia”). These ZafiRaminia, who dominated for a time the entire coast and penetrated at an early date into the interior, largely constitute the origins of other dynasties in the central, southern, and western parts of the island. This does not preclude that these various dynasties were later strongly marked by other influences, especially that of the Antemoro.
Ritual Warfare and the Colonial Conquest of the Eggon
Authors: Dorward David C.
Published: May 2006

A great deal has been written about the colonial conquest of Africa, from the perspectives of both the conquerors and the conquered. Primary resistance has come and gone as an ‘in’ topic in African Studies. Yet to the extent that such literature deals with the colonial conquest, it has been within a structural-functional framework, focusing on social, political, and economic factors. Possible cultural and psychological aspects have been relegated to the occasional vague comment. More often, these latter elements have tended to be assumed, rather than demonstrated, and then generally in the hindsight of nationalist manipulation of oral traditions in the process of decolonization. Only through the elucidation of meaning to participants of events can we transform them from the status of ‘objects of study’ to ‘subjects in action.’

This paper examines the impact of colonial conquest of the Eggon of central Nigeria in terms of a reconstruction of indigenous institutions of warfare, in particular, Eggon concepts of ritual warfare and its functions. What met in the Mada Hills were not merely two disproportionately armed fighting forces, but two different military ideologies (for want of a more apt phrase), representing two quite different perceived, experienced, and constructed realities. The impact of that confrontation was such that it has been transformed into a prototype myth encompassing the colonial experience of all Eggon, not just those directly involved in the Wulko hills campaign.
Bio-Bibliographical Studies: Their Potential for Use by Africanists
Authors: Casada James A.
Published: May 2006

Bio-bibliographical studies do not belong, despite the initial impression that might be created by the term, to the same genre as new or faddish methodologies such as prosopography, cliometrics, or psychohistory. Rather, the term is one--at least in its most commonly used context--which describes the creation of a reference tool designed to meet specific criteria. Chief among these are the provision of evaluative descriptions of all extant, identifiable sources of material on the individual being covered, together with suggestions and/or commentary as to the utility of these sources and how they might best be employed in writing a comprehensive biography. Also relevant to such studies, and of particular interest as regards the intended audience of this paper, is some attention on the part of the author to the contribution his finished product can make to understanding the milieu in which his subject worked.
Africa's Age of Improvement
Authors: Hopkins A.G.
Published: May 2006

Holders of Established Chairs occupy seats of some antiquity and renown, and on the occasion of their inaugural they are expected to indicate how they propose to maintain or alter the course charted by their distinguished predecessors. Holders of Personal Chairs escape this formidable task. On the other hand, they face a question which is appropriately personal: namely, why they come to be seated at all. An audience less charitable than this one, which has been hand-picked as far as possible for its generosity as well as for its wisdom, might wish to pursue this question with enthusiasm. Fortunately, a further safeguard against being unseated at the moment of investiture exists in the admirable tradition whereby I am allowed to provide my own answer without hindrance or interrogation. I have chosen to explain my presence here today in the manner commonly adopted by those who find themselves elevated beyond their customary station; that is by creating a tradition to authenticate my ancestry and hence to validate my title.
Survey of Canadian Protestant Missionary Archives Relating to Africa
Authors: Ram K.V.
Published: May 2006

Although Canada has shared in the task of evangelization from the first decade of the nineteenth century and Canadian church missions have been laboring in Africa since the 1880s, they are, unlike their American and British counterparts, mostly unknown, Even scholarly studies on church missions like those of Groves, and Neil contain only occasional references to Canadian involvement in world missions, while many directories and almanacs on missions do not even list Canadian missionary societies separately from those of the United States.

Yet in 1975 about 3200 Canadian protestant missionaries and 4800 Canadian Roman Catholic missionaries were involved in missionary work outside Canada, high numbers the country's population. Of these, about 870 protestant missionaries and 1900 Catholic missionaries were working in Africa. An attempt will be made here to analyze the nature and extent of Canadian protestant missionary involvement in Africa and, more particularly, to make a few observations on the state of their archives.

Our survey revealed the existence of twenty-two protestant missionary societies in Canada which have been involved in Africa, either directly or indirectly, at one time or another. These may be divided into three categories: Canadian, American-Canadian, and international missionary societies. Missionary societies classified as Canadian are those which have roots in Canadian soil and history, have head offices in Canada, make their own decisions and policies, control their own finances and administration, and direct their overseas missions without reference to any authority outside Canada.
Oral Tradition and the History of Segmentary Societies
Authors: Afigbo A.E.
Published: May 2006

The field of the methodology of oral tradition has become increasingly specialized and technical. This much is clear from even a casual acquaintance with publications in this area. The fact is that ever since the publication in 1961 of Jan Vansina's epoch-making book, Oral Tradition, the study of the methodology of oral tradition has become a minor academic industry among historians, psychohistorians and anthropologists. Different aspects of the problems posed by the use of this family of historical evidence--dating and chronology, reliability, methods of collection and preservation, techniques of analysis (synchronic, diachronic, and multi-disciplinary)--continue to be probed in monographs, learned journals, and higher degree theses.

This wide-ranging and laudable concern for the methodology of oral tradition has not only helped to underlie the centrality of oral tradition as a source for the history of Africa, especially of Black Africa, in the precolonial period or even in the colonial period; it has also made all would-be exploiters of this source alert to many of the problems associated with its use. Yet it must be conceded that all this feverish, if determined, activity has not established, and there is little likelihood that it will ever establish, a science of oral tradition as exact and universal in its application as the methods of physics and mathematics. Each user of oral tradition, like each user of documentary or other sources of history, still has, and always will have, to decide for himself, and in the light of criteria and parameters acceptable to him, what use to make of each corpus of tradition and of each event or strand in the corpus.
Was The Retief-Dingane Treaty a Fake?
Authors: Naidoo Jay
Published: May 2006

The entry into the Zulu territory of Natal in 1837 of the Trekker leader Piet Retief; his meeting with the Zulu Chief Dingane; the resultant agreement (Retief recovers some stolen cattle in return for a concession to a part of Natal); the subsequent meeting of the two leaders; the untoward actions of Dingane (the killing in February 1838 of the unsuspecting Retief and his sixty-seven followers, and the mortifying and widespread attacks on all the Trekker encampments in Natal); the gathering of a new contingent of Trekkers; the defeat of Ding-ane's forces ten months later at ‘Blood River’; and, finally, the discovery in December 1838 (near the identifiable remains of Retief) of the agreement, the title deed to Natal--these events, tragic and dramatic, constitute a brief but special chapter of settler and, notably, of Afrikaner history.

The treaty's miraculous recovery, the eyewitness reports of its finding, the long line of historians crediting its authenticity, and the title deed's very genuineness all came under unexpected--and unwelcomed, suspicion, scrutiny and debate in the 1920s, however. To appreciate that debate it is necessary to begin at the beginning.

The French naturalist, traveler, and writer Louis A. Dele-gorgue, who was with the Trekkers during some of the time between 1838 and 1840, was probably one of the first to provide a connected published account--after the discovery of the treaty in December 1838--of the Retief-Dingane encounter. Thereafter Hendrik Cloete, who was sent by the Cape Government as a special commissioner to negotiate with the Volksraad of Natal in May 1843, set out a relatively full account of Retiefs misadventures in Natal.
Papers of Frederick R. Burnham (1861-1947) in the Hoover Institution Archives
Authors: Tough Alistair
Published: May 2006

Indian fighter, explorer, scout, soldier and hero: during Frederick Burnham's life he filled all of these roles. Consequently a myth grew up around him cultivated by various “real-life adventure story books” in which he featured, and his own autobiography in which he stressed the more adventurous aspects of his life. The adventurous aspects of his career are, indeed, not without significance. For example, it was Burnham who killed the Mlimo during the Ndebele War of 1897 and this action may well have had an important effect on the morale of Ndebele fighters. Nevertheless, Burnham's career as a mineral prospector, mining engineer, and business manager is as significant as his more publicized activities. In some instances the latter were, in fact, a consequence of his employment in the former.

Born in the United States, Burnham was brought up in California. He received a limited formal education but in the course of his early working life in the western United States he acquired a knowledge of mining, particularly gold mining. From 1893 to 1897 he was in present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was he who led the Northern Territories (BSA) Exploration Co. expedition which established for the outside world that major copper deposits existed in Central Africa.
The Object of African History: A Materialist Perspective - II
Authors: Bernstein Henry , Depelchin Jacques
Published: May 2006

It is now possible to apply the concept of problematic to a critique of African history, in the first place to illustrate how the constitution of its object has been the site of certain ideological confrontations. Our analysis derives from the materialist problematic and therefore lays no claim to any spurious neutrality. On the other hand, neither is it ‘ideological’ in the sense of expressing personal or subjective preferences. The ability of historical materialism to produce objective knowledge does not derive from, nor is it guaranteed by, its political purposes, the overthrow of capitalism and the eventual construction of communism, but the achievement of these purposes has as one of its conditions the continuous development of materialist theory and analysis. The following critique is grounded in the concepts and methodology of historical materialism and not in any subjectively rooted ideological ‘choice.’

A preliminary question concerns the extent to which African history provides an object of a critique. There is no assumption that African history is a corpus of knowledge homogeneous in its aims, its concepts, or its methods. The assumption of a unitary object (“the African past”) has been shown to lack any scientific content. The boundaries of African history are indicated in the first place by the course of its emergence as a particular field of academic specialization. In terms of its content, it is hardly surprising that the works of African history produced to date reflect various positions within the terrain of bourgeois social thought. The latter, as we suggested earlier, is not homogeneous and operates at various levels.
Indigenous Written Sources for the History of Bonny
Authors: Hargreaves Susan M.
Published: May 2006

It is well known that indigenous contemporary written documentation exists for the precolonial and early colonial history of some of the coastal societies of South-Eastern Nigeria. The best known example is Old Calabar, for which there exists most notably the diary of Antera Duke, covering the years 1785-88, a document brought from Old Calabar to Britain already during the nineteenth century. More recently John Latham has discovered additional material of a similar character still preserved locally in Old Calabar, principally the Black Davis House Book (containing material dating from the 1830s onwards), the papers of Coco Bassey (including diaries covering the years 1878-89), and the papers of E. O. Offiong (comprising trade ledgers, court records, and letter books relating to the period 1885-1907). In the Niger Delta S. J. S. Cookey, for his biography of King Jaja of Opobo, was able to use contemporary documents in Jaja's own papers, including correspondence from the late 1860s onwards. In the case of the neighboring community of Bonny (from which Jaja seceded to found Opobo after a civil war in 1869), while earlier historians have alluded to the existence of indigenous written documentation, they have done so only in very general terms and without any indication of the quantity or nature of this material.
English Traders on the Guinea Coast, 1657–1668: An Analysis of the East India Company Archive
Authors: Makepeace Margaret
Published: May 2006

English trade with Guinea in west Africa was regulated during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by royal letters patent. In 1631 Charles I issued a patent which entitled the Guinea Company, headed by Sir Nicholas Crispe, to the monopoly of trade from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope for a period of thirty-one years. The Guinea Company continued to operate during the Interregnum in spite of increased competition both from freelance merchants, known as interlopers, and from rival European powers. The Council of State in 1651 decided to allow the monopoly to run for a further fourteen years, but restricted the Company to an area lying between two points set twenty leagues to the north of Cormantine, its headquarters in Guinea, and twenty leagues south of the fort at Sierra Leone, leaving the remainder of the coast open to all English traders.

The East India Company was eager to gain a part in the Guinea trade because ships calling there on the way to India could exchange a cargo of European manufactured goods for a consignment of gold and ivory which was used to sustain operations at the factories in India. In this way the Company had less need to export large quantities of bullion from England to India, a practice which was both heavily criticized and formally restricted before 1660. In 1649 the East India Company reached an agreement with the Assada adventurers that the Guinea and East India trades should be united, but decided that this scheme could not be effected immediately.
Government Gazettes for Northern Rhodesia
Authors: Roberts Andrew
Published: May 2006

Government Gazettes are a neglected source for the colonial history of Africa, and it may be worthwhile to draw attention to various types of information to be found in those for Northern Rhodesia, which have recently been made available on microfilm.

Up to 1911 the British South Africa Company administered two territories north of the Zambezi: North-Eastern Rhodesia and North-Western Rhodesia. For North-Eastern Rhodesia the Company published at Fort Jameson (now Chipata) a monthly Government Gazette from 1903 to 1911. There was no Gazette for North-Western Rhodesia; legislation for this territory was initially published in the Official Gazette of the High Commissioner for South Africa, though some relevant proclamations and government notices were reprinted in the North-Eastern Rhodesia Gazette. From 1911 the Company published a Government Gazette for the amalgamated territory of Northern Rhodesia; the frequency varied between twelve and twenty issues a year. In 1924 the Colonial Office took over responsibility for Northern Rhodesia. Thereafter the frequency of publication tended to increase, reflecting the growth of government, business, and white settlement. Before 1939 it ranged between 24 and 50 issues a year, and from 1939 to independence in 1964, between 50 and 80 a year.
Further Light on Bulfinch Lambe and the “Emperor of Pawpaw:” King Agaja of Dahomey's Letter to King George I of England, 1726
Authors: Law Robin
Published: May 2006

The story of Bulfinch Lambe (or Lamb) and his mission to London on behalf of the king of Dahomey (or “Emperor of Pawpaw”) has been told by Marion Johnson in an earlier article in this journal. Lambe was an employee of the Royal African Company in its factory at Jakin, the port of the kingdom of Allada, who was seized and detained by the king of Allada, as security for an unpaid debt, in 1722. He was still held prisoner in Allada when it was conquered by Agaja of Dahomey in 1724, and thus became a prisoner of the latter, who carried him off to his own capital at Abomey, further inland. Agaja soon conceived, perhaps at Lambe's suggestion, the idea of negotiating some sort of commercial agreement with the Royal African Company. A letter which Lambe wrote from Abomey to Jeremiah Tinker, Governor of the Company's factory in the neighboring kingdom of Whydah, in November 1724 reported that Agaja “talks much of settling a Correspondence with the Company, and of having White Men come here.” Lambe evidently offered himself as an intermediary, as a means of securing his release from captivity, and expressed the hope that he might persuade Agaja to acquiesce in his proposals “about my going and returning again with more White Men from the Company.” When Lambe was eventually released in 1726, this was on the understanding that he would return: Agaja himself told the English trader William Snelgrave in the following year that Lambe “had taken an Oath, and promised on his Faith, to return again in a reasonable Time with a Ship.”
Using Old Photographs in Interviews: Some Cautionary Notes About Silences in Fieldwork
Authors: Bravman Bill
Published: May 2006

In September 1987, early in my research at the Kenya National Archives, I came across a collection of photographs taken by a British missionary during the 1920s and early 1930s. The collection contained nearly 250 photos of the terrain and people of Kenya's Taita Hills, where I would soon be going for my fieldwork. I pored over the photo collection for a long time, and had reproductions made of twenty-five shots. The names of those pictured had been recorded in the photo album's captions. Many of the names were new to me, though a few WaTaita of the day who had figured prominently in the archival records were also captured on film. When I moved on to Taita in early 1988,1 took the photographs with me. Since I would be interviewing men and women old enough either to remember or be contemporaries of the people in the pictures, I planned to show the photos during the interviews. At first I was simply curious about who some of the people pictured were, but my curiosity quickly evolved into a more ambitious plan. I decided to try using the photographs as visual prompts to get people to speak more expansively than they otherwise might about their lives and their experiences.

In the event, I learned that using the photographs in interviews involved many more complexities than I had envisaged in my initial enthusiasm. I found that I had to alter the expectations and techniques I took to Taita, and feel out some of the limitations of working with the photographic medium. I had to recognize the power relations embedded in my presence as a researcher in Taita, in my position as bearer of images from peoples' pasts, and in the photos themselves. I found, too, that I needed to come to grips with a number of issues about the politics of image production, and the historical product of those politics: the bounded, selected images that are photographs. Finally, I had to address some of my own cultural assumptions about photography and how people respond to pictures, assumptions that my informants did not necessarily share.
A Note on the National Archives of Guinée in Conakry
Authors: Ford Martin
Published: May 2006

This brief note is intended to update Martin Klein's report on Guinée's Archives Nationales. I recently returned from a visit to the archives in Conakry and found that some things have changed since Klein's stay there. For one, the archives have been moved; in 1985 the entire contents of the old building were transferred to the grounds of the National Museum. When I was there for two weeks in June 1986, the vast bulk of the records had yet to be filed, but Mr. Seydouba Cisse, the director, and his staff made daily progress on the reorganization. The documents which I needed, all from the colonial period, were readily available. Those in need of filing seemed to be of more recent date.

The office overseeing historical research also has been changed. Rather than contacting the Institute National de Recherches et de Documentation de la Guinée, anyone interested in doing archival investigation in Conakry or, presumably, historical or ethnographic research anywhere else in the country, should now write (preferably in French): Mr. Ahmadou Oury Diallo, Directeur de Patrimoine à la Direction Générale de la Culture; B.P. 391; Conakry, R. Guinée. The letter should state one's institutional affiliation, as well as the nature and duration of the proposed research.

In response to my initial query, I was sent a two-page form requesting information on educational background, publications record, research purpose, and itinerary. After submitting the completed form, I received tentative clearance to pursue research in Guinée. I say “tentative” because the letter of welcome was accompanied by a document titled “Conditions de Collaboration en Matiére de Recherches.”
Oral Sources and Social Differentiation in the Jaara Kingdom from the Sixteenth Century: A Methodological Approach
Authors: Diawara Mamadou
Published: May 2006

The dawn of the history of the kingdom of Jaara, during the era of the Jawara dynasty (from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century) is shaped by the story of Daaman Gille and his companions, the most important of whom is Jonpisugo. The lives of these two characters—linked up until their death at Banbagede, where their tombs are only a few hundred meters apart—were the subject of a rich oral literature, all the more noteworthy given the rarity of written documents.

In my earlier work (Diawara 1985, 1989, 1990) I discussed the typology of narratives and the specific role of women servants as historians of their social group. The oral sources include family traditions from all social classes, except for recently acquired slaves; the recitals of professional narrators who were by heredity in the service of protector families whose history they proclaimed to the public; the narratives of servants, including the tanbasire, a collection of women's songs from among the royal servants, or the accounts of people who, with their ancestors, had long been slaves (cf. Diawara 1990).

Historical chance brings together Daama and Jonpisugo, but their respective social standing differentiates them; just as “friendship” brings together the master and the servant, so the struggle for power leads to the birth of differences in the conception of “the things of the past” among their descendants. How is the past constructed and lived differently by their respective progeny or supposed descendants? What poetic license accrues to the offspring of he who was only a servant, even if he was a royal servant? The response to this question explains the dynamic of a particular servants' oral documentation.
Brothers, Chiefdoms, and Empires: On Jan Jansen's “The Representation of Status in Mande”
Authors: Bühnen Stephen
Published: May 2006

Jan Jansen has substantially advanced our understanding of the “status discourse” between polities, in Mande and far beyond, through a new approach to one of the more common types of historical evidence: genealogy. At the core of his paper is an analysis of genealogical metaphors used in status discourse, combined with an awareness of the principles of lineage segmentation; he uncovered a nexus of ideology and social structure. The quintessential observation made by Jansen is that “the status of recent immigration and the position of the youngest brother is very prestigious” and that both ultimately emanate from the “principles of patrilocal settlement and patrilineal descent.”

Once this is accepted, everything falls into line: the unexpected claim for the status of ‘younger brother,’ as well as the contradictory genealogies of ‘related’ lineages. His observation has escaped the attention of previous research (including my own) because it contravenes our expectation that younger age, factual or figurative, always signifies subordination under ‘older’ authority. Oral traditions from different ethnic groups in Senegambia confirm Jansen and attest to Kangaba's historical prestige.

Jansen's paper should be read in conjunction with his “The Younger Brother and the Stranger,” in which he studies the social basis of status discourse in more detail and also touches on the symbolism employed. He has overcome a crucial error in a long tradition of historical writing on the western Sudan: the taking of genealogy at face value, whereas genealogy reflects the recent state of relationship between persons or groups rather than factual ancestry.
L'Image Des Peul Dans L'Oeuvre Du General Faidherbe
Authors: Pondopoulo Anna
Published: May 2006

Dans les représentations françaises du passé colonial, le général Louis Léon César Faidherbe (1818-1889), gouverneur du Sénégal de 1854 à 1861 et de 1863 à 1865, a une image bien ancrée (et dont l'analyse pourrait constituer une étude historique en soi) qui persiste jusqu'à maintenant. Une grande partie de la littérature existante au sujet de Faidherbe peut être divisée en ouvrages à caractère hagiographique et en écrits de l'époque postcoloniale qui le stigmatisent en tant que colonialiste. Cependant il faudrait se demander en quoi consiste l'apport particulier de Faidherbe dans les études des civilisations africaines et comment expliquer la durée de son “charisme” auprès de ses successeurs au XXesiècle.

Nous avons essayé de systématiser les écrits de Faidherbe du point de vue de la construction du portrait de l'ethnie peul dans son oeuvre. Nous supposons que l'intérêt tout particulier à l'égard des Peul de la part des ethnologues qui écrivaient après Faidherbe doit beaucoup à l'image qu'il a créée de ce peuple. Ce succès pourrait êire expliqué moins par la somme de savoir que recèle cette image, que par son organisation et par sa correspondance avec les modes philosophiques et esthétiques de la réflexion de son temps, notamment avec “l'esprit de la modernité.” Le lecteur attentif des oeuvres ethnologiques de Faidherbe aura la sensation de découvrir une écriture vivement marquée par. le style dit de la “modernité” qui lui rappellera peut être les passages lus chez Jules Verne et lui laissera le sentiment étrange d'être plutôt dans le domaine de la littérature.
Barbed–Wire Bonnat? The Case of the Clueless Text
Authors: Henige David
Published: May 2006

Our [documentary editors'] duty is to present the record, the documents, with a disinterested devotion solely to the document. We search for these documents in order to create an historical record….Our duty…is to present the record, whether we approve of it or not.

Il me restait à décrypter ces pages, écrites en lignes serrées par crainte de manquer de papier, très fréquemment raturées, surchargées au point de devenir presque illisibles, et à en faire une édition critique avec les notes et commentaires nécessaires…

Claude-Hélène Perrot and Albert Van Dantzig have remarkably little to say about their modus operandi in this long-awaited edition of Marie-Joseph Bonnat's account of his at times enforced stay at and around the court of Asante from 1869 to 1874. Scattered comments stimulate us to infer that the former was largely responsible for the text and the latter for the apparatus. Beyond that, they devote only a few sentences to discussing the ways they went about their business of producing the text published here and, it must be said, what they say there is by no means particularly encouraging for those who might have been expecting a diplomatic text edition:

Dans le travail éditorial, dont résulte l'ouvrage présenté ici, si aucune coupure n'a été pratiquée, nous avons effectué quelques aménagements: la ponctuation a été revue, les incorrections grammaticales éliminées, de trop longues phrases ont été portagés, des prépositions supprimées. Le parti que nous avons pris est sans doute discutable.
African History: The First University Examination?
Authors: Hargreaves J. D.
Published: May 2006

The first generation of history students from Africa to graduate from British universities inevitably had to face extended examinations, with specialized papers largely centered on European history. When Kenneth Onwuka Dike arrived in Aberdeen University in 1944 he had already contended successfully at Fourah Bay College with the Durham syllabuses for the General BA. Now, however, thanks to the goodwill of Professor J. B. Black (best known as author of The Reign of Elizabeth in the standard Oxford History of England), he obtained permission to sit what was probably the first examination on the history of tropical Africa to be set by any European university.

In a lecture delivered almost thirty years later Dike recalled:

cautiously approaching my Head of Department, the late Professor J B Black, and mildly protesting that of the thirteen final degree papers I was required to offer in the Honours School of History, not a single paper was concerned with the history of Black people. I requested that in place of the paper on Scottish constitutional law and history, which I found intolerably dull, I should be permitted to offer the History of Nigeria. The old professor took off his glasses, uttered not a word, but from the way he looked at me demonstrated that he was not a little shocked by my temerity, nevertheless, and after a series of animated discussions, the Department of History, to its great credit, accepted my proposal. Since there was no one competent to teach Nigerian history at Aberdeen, they sent me to Oxford during the summer months to study under Dame Margery Perham and Professor Jack Simmons.
Oral Traditions and the Political History of Oka-Akoko
Authors: Olukoju Ayodeji
Published: May 2006

A dominant trend in Nigerian historiography since the 1970s has been the preoccupation with writing history “from the national perspective.” This appears to be Nigerian historians' attempts to be “relevant” to current efforts at nation-building. “National history,” the object of such endeavors, has been defined by the frontline historian J. F. Ade Ajayi as “a study of the main developments in the whole Nigerian region, and among all the peoples and cultures, as perceived from the perspective of national significance and relevance, and only illustrated from the histories of individual groups and polities.”

While such efforts at writing what amounts to macrohistory are commendable, emphasis on themes of “national significance and relevance” could result in overgeneralization or the deletion of vital details. This likelihood then justifies the writing of microhistory to give macrohistory a sound factual or empirical basis. The need for microhistory has been stressed by a distinguished historian:

the study of microhistory, the study of the histories of the various communities that make up Nigeria is very essential. We need these studies to give us a complete picture of [the] precolonial period of our history. Once we have that as the foundation, the structure we are building, the Nigerian nation, will stand on firm knowledge.… We either know the historical antecedents of the various Nigerian communities and build a virile nation on that knowledge or we continue to run from one crisis to another.
Using the White Fathers Archive: An Update
Authors: Schoenbrun David Lee
Published: May 2006

Nearly a decade has passed since Carol Dickerman wrote about the high points and practical considerations of working in this most important archival collection. With some recent changes at the Archives and the mere passage of time, an update is warranted.

In August 1991 the longtime archivist, Father René Lamey, stepped down after decades of dedicated stewardship over a vast and growing collection of materials generated by the White Fathers since their founding in 1868. His encyclopedic knowledge and willing assistance to scholars will be missed by those who know him. Yet he has been replaced by Father Francois Renault, a scholar and archivist who knows the collection extremely well. Father Renault is more than familiar with the methods of African social scientists. He took a Doctorat d'Etat in history from the Sorbonne in 1971 and has spent some 12 years teaching at the Université d'Abidjan. He has published five books with foci on the Arab slave trade and is working on a sixth, which is to be a biography of the Order's founder, Cardinal Lavigerie. The fact that Father Renault is himself a productive scholar makes the task of explaining research strategies that much easier.
Le microfilmage des Archives Aequatoria
Authors: Vinck Honoré
Published: May 2006

History in Africa a publié une note sur les Archives des Missionnaires du S. Coeur à Bamanya, Zaire. De fait il s'agissait des archives du Centre Aequatoria: “A little known yet important source of historical and ethnographic material.” Depuis lors (1984) beaucoup a changé au Centre Aequatoria. L'auteur de l'article, S. Nelson, a donné un bon résumé et une assez exacte évaluation de nos archives. Mais entretemps, elles se sont encore enrichies et contre son attente, elles ont été microfilmées sur place: “Microfilming may be done with prior permission, but film processing should not be attempted in Zaire.”

L'évolution et l'enrichissement des archives Aequatoria se situe dans les matières suivantes et ils proviennent principalement du transfert des documents que le Père Hulstaert conservait dans sa chambre.

[1] Documentation linguistique. Originaux et copies dactylographiées et corrigées des enquêtes linguistiques mongo y sont intégrées. Il s'agit de la notation sur base des formulaires de l'IAI-Londres et de formulaires de sa propre composition (120 phrases) d'environ 300 dialectes. Seuls 32 en ont été publiés. A compléter par plus de 1500 pages de vocabulaires comparés dans les mêmes dialectes. 5 études, dont une de 750 pages, de dialectologie mongo comparée, inédites en font partie. Une série de récoltes de morceaux de littérature orale est présentée par environ 1500 pages. J'estime que seule la moitié en a été utilisée pour publication. Les plus anciens documents datent de 1927. Les exemplaires imprimés mais annotés et corrigés par Hulstaert de ses dictionnaires et grammaires ont été intégrés dans nos archives. La préparation de la traduction de la Bible à trois reprises est d'une importance certaine pour l'étude de l'évolution de la langue (1936-45; 1950-1960; 1975; 1987).