African History

History Teaching, Imperialism and Decolonization in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1945-1958)

by Iris Seri-Hersch

PhD dissertation defended on May 17, 2012 at Aix-Marseille Université. Written in French.

Situating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the wider frame of British imperial history, this dissertation investigates... more Situating the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the wider frame of British imperial history, this dissertation investigates school history in late colonial Sudan. Didactic materials, prescribed contents and pedagogic practices are analyzed against the background of five major developments of the 1945-1953 period: the shifting of British imperialism in Africa towards “paternalist-progressive” policies aiming at preparing colonial peoples for self-government; the polarization of British and Egyptian positions on the Sudanese issue; mounting rivalries between the independentist and unionist wings of Sudanese nationalism; the hasty unification of Northern and Southern Sudan after more than half a century of separate rule; and Northern Sudanese policies of Arabization and Islamization in the South as a tool for achieving “national unification”.
In a second part, the innovative character of post-WWII history teaching in Sudan is assessed by examining earlier patterns of Sudanese school history. History teaching in late colonial Sudan is then compared with history teaching in other territories of the (ex-)Empire (Uganda, North Rhodesia, Nigeria, Egypt, India, Great Britain). Two central postcolonial issues are further explored, namely the decolonization of school historical narratives after independence (1956) and the role of history teaching in fuelling the North-South conflict in Sudan.

New documents on the life and death of Domenico Enegildo Frediani (1783-1823), traveller and poet in Egypt and the Sudan

by Daniele Salvoldi

«Göttinger Miszellen» 233 (2012), pp. 51-67.

E-mail me if interested in getting a PDF copy of it. E-mail me if interested in getting a PDF copy of it.

A hapless attempt at swimming': Representations of Eric Moussambani

by John Nauright

published in Critical Arts 17:1/2 (2003), 106-122, co-authored with Tara Magdalinski

One of the most powerful images to emerge from the pool at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was that of Eric Moussambani from... more One of the most powerful images to emerge from the pool at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was that of Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea who swam his heat of the 100-meter freestyle alone after the other two swimmers in his heat were disqualified. Moussambani completed the distance over one minute slower than eventual gold medallist Pieter van den Hoogenband. The media coverage of Moussambani's performance illustrates that the discourses of colonialism, paternalism, and racial stereotyping remain central in the modern Olympic movement. This paper analyses media reports of Moussambani and identifies three main frames used to contextualize his performance at the Olympics. We situate Moussambani's swim within a broader framework that reveals the mechanisms used to display African bodies for the European gaze as well as the paternalist Olympic discourse that seeks to universalize Western sporting practices within a global culture that privileges Western cultural and economic practices.

VAUGHAN, Megan. Curing their ills. Colonial power and african ilness

by Rosa Medina-Domenech

Social approaches in pottery distribution networks: the case of Upper East Ghana

by David Javaloyas Molina

Published in: Old Pottery Almanack (2011), 16 (1)

This paper analyze the variables which simultaneously influence vessel distribution and consumption patterns in... more This paper analyze the variables which simultaneously influence vessel distribution and consumption patterns in Northeast of Ghana: infrastructure of mobility (roads, means of transport), scale of production and qualities of pots, labour organization, territoriality and settlement. Nevertheless, social and familiar relationships, and also different social perceptions established between the various ethnic groups, are active agents that determine the distribution areas, networks and trade systems as well as the choices of consumers.

UN LINGUAGGIO POLITICO DELL’ISLAM IN AFRICA OCCIDENTALE: RESISTENZA, CONTROCULTURA, RIVOLUZIONE

by Alessandra Turchetti

La Monnaie en Ethiopie, de Zoskalès à Ménélik II

by Massimiliano Munzi

Published in L. Cantamessa, Ethiopie. Au fabuleux pays du Prêtre Jean, Genève 2010, pp. 43-46.

Dockside Prostitution in South African Ports

by Henry Trotter

History Compass 6/3 (2008): 673-690

Prostitution has been a staple of dockside social life for centuries. In South Africa, it dates from the Dutch East... more Prostitution has been a staple of dockside social life for centuries. In South Africa, it dates from the Dutch East India Company's establishment of a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope. But unlike other prostitution sectors—streets, brothels, agencies—the women of the dockside sex trade in Cape Town and Durban participate in a global traffic of ideas, diseases, DNA, contraband, and currency through their ceaseless interactions with foreign sailors. They exploit their knowledge of the seamen's languages and cultures so as to more effectively solicit their marks in a competitive and cosmopolitan environment.

Social historians provide passing glimpses of dockside prostitution in their consideration of larger historical themes—Company rule, slavery, British colonial governance, the Mineral Revolution, the Anglo-Boer War, and apartheid—but they have yet to treat it as a distinct analytical category through which to view the past. Yet popular intellectual trends suggest that research into the dockside sex trade would add new dimensions to the histories of cosmopolitanism, gender, globalization, maritime recreation, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

This article provides a quick and accessible introduction to the historiography of dockside prostitution in South Africa.

Trauma and Memory: The Impact of Apartheid-Era Forced Removals on Coloured Identity in Cape Town

by Henry Trotter

in Mohamed Adhikari (Ed.), Burdened by Race: Coloured Identities in Southern Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2009), pp. 49-78

Communities often cohere around memories of historical suffering: yet coloured South Africans, a people whose diverse... more Communities often cohere around memories of historical suffering: yet coloured South Africans, a people whose diverse ancestry experienced enslavement, dispossession, genocidal extermination, and apartheid degradation, for the most part, they do not invest in remote historical traumas. Most coloured Capetonians instead focus upon a painful experience within living memory: the forced eviction of 150,000 coloured people from their homes and communities in the Cape Peninsula between 1957 and 1985 under the Group Areas Act. It is this experience that gives coloured identity vital resonance, especially amongst working class people, many of whom have yet to overcome the losses of that trauma.

Based on over one hundred life history interviews with coloured and African forced removees, this article examines the impact of Group Areas evictions on contemporary coloured identity. It suggests that, in the wake of mass social trauma, coloured removees coped with their pain by reminiscing with each other about the "good old days" in the destroyed communities. Their removal to racially defined townships ensured that they mainly shared their memories with other coloured people, and much less with African or Indian removees.

Apartheid social engineering to a large extent thus determined the spatial limits within which coloured memories circulated, creating a reflexive, mutually reinforcing pattern of narrative traffic. Over the past four decades, the constant circulation of these nostalgic stories has developed a "narrative community" amongst coloured people in the townships. This experience of popular sharing and support in the context of loss today gives coloured identity in Cape Town a dimension that would be lacking if it were only mobilized for political or economic purposes.

Sailing Beyond Apartheid: The Social and Political Impact of Seafaring on Coloured South African Sailors

by Henry Trotter

in Carina Ray & Jeremy Rich (Eds.), Navigating African Maritime History (St John's, Newfoundland: Int'l Maritime Economic History Association, 2010), pp. 189-213

Historians of maritime culture show that, during the Revolutionary Era, the ship was an important site for the... more Historians of maritime culture show that, during the Revolutionary Era, the ship was an important site for the development and dissemination of anti-authoritarian ideals, that seamen were important carriers of revolutionary political consciousness to distant ports, and that the Atlantic basin was radicalized by this maritime traffic. They further suggest that seafarers embraced rebellious strategies because, on land, their rights were often restricted, their property expropriated and their labour exploited while, at sea, many were press-ganged or shanghaied into service, others were bonded into debt-service agreements and all were subject to the capricious rule of an elitist officer class. But these “motley crews” found new opportunities to connect as fellow subalterns, both on ships and on docks, producing a radical maritime tradition.

The question this article poses is: to what extent was this bound to the revolutionary era? Did the cauldron of maritime labour continue to imbue seafarers with a radical political sensibility beyond the age of sail?

To answer this question, I focus on the fortunes of “mixed race” coloured South African seamen who sailed on South African ships during apartheid (1948-1994). I chose this group of Cape Town men because they share structural similarities with their Atlantic ancestors: they were politically oppressed, their land was expropriated by the government and they were physically exploited. By assessing their experiences at home, at sea and abroad, we can better understand how modern seafaring has affected their political consciousness.

Toward an Archaeology of the Other African Diaspora: The Slave Trade and Dispersed Africans in the Western Indian Ocean

by Jonathan Walz

Co-authored w/Steven A. Brandt
In African Regenesis. Pp. 246-268. University College London Press.
2006

The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry

by Henry Trotter

in Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan (eds.), Undressing Durban (Durban: Madiba Press, 2007), 441-452.

This article, "The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry," looks at the lives of female prostitutes in... more This article, "The Women of Durban's Dockside Sex Industry," looks at the lives of female prostitutes in Durban's dockside sex sector. They solicit at a nightclub catering to foreign sailors. The paper considers their experiences as sex workers and how they deal with stigmatization, family concerns, chemical abuse, moral dilemmas, diseases, and violence. It assesses their fears and frustrations. And it ponders their dreams and longings for what they hope to achieve through this work.

The article concludes with the idea that dockside women are relatively empowered compared to their streetwalking & brothel-working counterparts. Since most hail from upcountry locales, they successfully live "double lives" that protect them from family and communal reprisal. Since their clients are foreign transients, the men pose no threat to their identities (they have no social power outside the dockside world). Since the women solicit from a safe nightclub, they retain the right of refusal. And because they're the knowledgeable locals, they choose the location of sex, which enhances their power to insist on condom-use.

Ironically, these upcountry women are perhaps the most cosmopolitan citizens of Durban as they entertain dozens of nationalities every evening.

Soliciting Sailors: The Temporal Dynamics of Dockside Prostitution in South Africa

by Henry Trotter

Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.35, No.3 (Sept 2009): 699-713

This paper examines the temporal dynamics of dockside prostitution in South Africa. It assesses how foreign sailors'... more This paper examines the temporal dynamics of dockside prostitution in South Africa. It assesses how foreign sailors' movements in and out of the country influence local prostitutes' solicitation strategies. It also considers the cultural legacies of their intimate engagements.

The paper focuses on two distinct temporal regimes that define sailors' experiences: the rapid turnaround cycle of Durban's container ship sector and the slower turnaround cycle of Cape Town's deep sea trawling sector.

It makes three sequentially related arguments: that sailors' temporal constraints dictate which solicitation techniques local prostitutes use; that solicitation techniques determine how culture is transmitted between the two ethnically alterior parties; and that the style of cultural transmission impacts how the sailors' cultures are ultimately received by the prostitutes and their communities.

The History of the Book in Sub-Saharan Africa

by Andrew van der Vlies

In Michael F. Suarez SJ & Henry Woudhuysen, gen. eds. The Oxford Companion to the Book. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Vol. 1. 313-20. [ISBN: 978-0-19-860653-6]

Slavery and Colonialism: The Worst Terrorism on Africa

by Mohamed Eno

Co-authored with Omar A. Eno, Mohamed H. Ingiriis, and Jamal M. Haji; Published in African Renaissance, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2012.

Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is... more Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is the axis of evil and devastation of mankind. However, the deliberate use of the term terrorism in recent decades was carefully selected, mainly, against a certain religion (Islam). The idea was then globally politicized by the Western world. Leaving that scholarly view in its own right, we disagree with the opinion raising terrorism as the devil’s just-born child of evil, when in reality Africans had been terrorized for centuries as slaves and human chattel. Hence the basis for the concept of this thesis: conceptualizing the episode of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ from the broader perspective of its practice from the Middle Passage or the Atlantic Slave Trade. To portray that argument and broaden the scope of the debate over this critically sensitive subject, we divided the discussion into three sections: an examination of what constitutes terrorism and terrorist; history of terrorism and terrorists from an Africa perspective; and the ideological constraints within the subject of terrorism as practiced by the US and its Western allies.

Building the State in Dahomey: Power and Landscape on the Bight of Benin

by J. Cameron Monroe

In Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by J. Cameron Monroe and Akin Ogundiran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 191-221.

Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa

by J. Cameron Monroe

With Akin Ogundiran. In Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by J. Cameron Monroe and Akin Ogundiran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 1-46.

The Middle Ground Journal: Call for Submissions 3.1

by Hong-Ming Liang 梁弘明教授

Notes sur la captation de la main-d'oeuvre enfantine dans la région de Kayes, Mali (1904-1955)

by Marie Rodet

Journal des Africanistes, Tome 81, Fascicule 2, 2011, numéro thématique: Migration dans l'enfance, migrations de l'enfance, Regards pluridisciplinaires

Mots-clefs: Mali, Kayes, fin de l'esclavage, droit de tutelle, main-d'oeuvre enfantine, enfants confié-e-s, petites... more Mots-clefs: Mali, Kayes, fin de l'esclavage, droit de tutelle, main-d'oeuvre enfantine, enfants confié-e-s, petites bonnes, mise en gage


Keywords: Mali, Kayes, end of slavery, custody rights, children workforce, fostered children, pawnship

Governing the Karimojong: Tradition, Modernity and Power in Contemporary Karamoja

by Karol Czuba

The complex gerontocratic governance system of the Karimojong, the largest ethnic group in Karamoja, was challenged in... more The complex gerontocratic governance system of the Karimojong, the largest ethnic group in Karamoja, was challenged in the second half of the twentieth century by the combined forces of the modernising Ugandan nation-state and undisciplined young men. The paper demonstrates that, although Karimojong power structures were substantially weakened during the period of great disequilibrium between the late 1970s and 2000s, recent years have seen their gradual reconstruction. Some traditional institutions have disappeared or declined, but the position of elders has been largely restored. Ekokwa, or an informal assembly, has partially integrated the state-imposed Local Council 1 structure and emerged as the new central political forum of the Karimojong. Karimojong culture remains in a state of flux and significant changes can be expected in the near future.