bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
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.
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.
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.