History of West Africa

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

In the Belly of Dan: Space, History, and Power in Precolonial Dahomey

by J. Cameron Monroe

Current Anthropology, Vol. 52, No. 6 (December 2011), pp. 769-798

The kingdom of Dahomey arose on the Slave Coast of West Africa in the tumultuous era of the slave trade. This essay... more The kingdom of Dahomey arose on the Slave Coast of West Africa in the tumultuous era of the slave trade. This essay explores elite architectural strategies designed to cope with political instability in this period, particularly the role of urban landscape planning and resettlement schemes in the creation of political order. Attention is directed toward the role of palace construction campaigns across the Abomey Plateau, the core zone of Dahomean political power. Drawing on multiple lines of evidence (archaeological, oral, and documentary), I argue that the production of space was centrally important for crafting orthodox histories of dynastic origins and gerrymandering social identities vis-a`-vis the emerging state, providing new insights into the sources of political authority in West Africa in the Atlantic era, as well as into the complex intersections between space, power, and “history making” in the past.

Islamic law and slavery in premodern West Africa

by Marta García Novo

Published in "Entremóns. UPF Journal of World HIstory", 2 (2011)

This article examines a series of legal works on the subject of slavery and enslavement in premodern West Africa... more This article examines a series of legal works on the subject of slavery and enslavement in premodern West Africa written by Ahmad Baba, Timbuktu's most famous Islamic scholar (963/1556-1036/1627). In these juridical opinions (fatawa, fatwas, and ajwiba, legal responsa), Ahmad Baba answers several questions concerning the lawfulness of enslaving different ethnical groups of the bilad al-sudan, and the legal procedure that should be followed with the slaves that claim their freedom for having been captured while being free. The author's stance towards it clearly stresses that in the religion of Islam, slavery is not related to race, but to infidelity, thus rejecting contemporary views that held that Africans were slaves by nature. Nevertheless, the author's and enquirer's links to Trans-Saharan trade in slaves may have conditioned the motivation and efficacy of these legal texts.

Balancing Written History with Oral Tradition: The Legacy of the Songhoy (Review)

by Helena Cantone

La doctrina malikí sobre esclavitud y el Mirayˆ de Ahmad Baba

by Marta García Novo

Maliki doctrine on slavery in Ahmad Baba's "Mi'raj al-su'ud"

The work Mi,raj al-su,ud, written in 17th century Timbuktu by Ahmad Baba (1556-1627), an Islamic scholar that adhered... more The work Mi,raj al-su,ud, written in 17th century Timbuktu by Ahmad Baba (1556-1627), an Islamic scholar that adhered to the Maliki law school, is a fatwa or legal opinion that addresses the issue of the black (sudan) slaves that claimed their freedom in the markets of North Africa, for having been captured while being Muslims, something not allowed in pre-Modern Islamic law. According to it, only infidels without the protection of a pact or of the dhimma status can be legally enslaved. Ahmad Baba repetes this doctrine, while emphasising that the black skin colour has nothing to do with slavery in islam, and that the peoples of pre-Modern West Africa (bilad al-sudan) are not slaves by nature. Besides this, and as a means of preventing the capture and sale of free African Muslims, the author classifies the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa according to their adherence (or lack of) to islam, a system that, however, could be hardly put into practice, as perhaps intended by the author himself.

The persistence of Asante chieftaincy under colonial rule: explanations of an enigma

by louise muller

Key words: Ghana, Asante, chieftaincy, Indigenous Religion, Islam, Christianity.

abstract english
The aim of this paper is to provide a religious explanation for the persistence of Asante... more abstract english
The aim of this paper is to provide a religious explanation for the persistence of Asante chieftaincy in Ghana in the colonial period (1896-1957) and beyond. Chieftaincy was the most common traditional political system in Africa before colonial rule. In the colonial period, in many African countries including Ghana the British colonial rulers introduced political super structures, known as Indirect Rule, that were meant to control the people of Africa. As a consequence, African chieftaincies came under threat and those African leaders involved with the independence of their country aimed to clip the wings of the traditional authorities. These leaders perceived the chiefs and queen mothers as outmoded rulers, who stood in their way to build modern African nations. It is therefore not self-evident that chieftaincy among the Asante in Ghana and other cultural groups in countries under former British Indirect Rule, such as Nigeria, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland has continued to exist.
In this paper, based on doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, the investigator enhances insight in the religious roles of Asante traditional authorities in the colonial period to make the persistence of chieftaincy among the Asante understandable. The focus is on the religious mediatory and peacekeeping roles of these authorities and especially of the Asantehenes Prempeh I and II. The objective of the paper is to increase understanding of the religious roles of these Asante royals by making use of the concept of Indigenous Religion, which is relatively new in the field of religious studies. The concept of Indigenous Religion has replaced the older notion of African Traditional Religion, which was rightly attacked by the political scholars Hobsbawn and Ranger as being an ‘invention of tradition’. The model of religious syncretism of the scholar of religion Ulrich Berner is introduced to enhance understanding of the hybridity between Asante Indigenous Religion and various forms of Islam and Christianity in a changing historical setting. The paper furthermore shows that the Asante Kings Prempeh I and II, who were themselves deeply religious, managed to maintain influence and prestige by their indigenous religious negotiations with the inhabitants of the spiritual world and with the Islamic and Christian world religious leaders and their adherents. By mediation and performing their religious roles the Asante Kings maintained or gained not all but sufficient adherents of various distinguished groups in Asante society, such as Christians and Muslims, the Asante royal servants (nhenkwaa) and the nouveau rich (akonkofoƆ). In conclusion, the resilience of Asante chieftaincy in the ‘Crown colony of Asante’ until today can be explained by the continuation although significantly diminished mediatory role of the Asante traditional authorities. More importantly, however, its persistence is explicated by the increased significance of these authorities’ religious peacekeeping role.

Missing Migrants: The Absence of Women in the History of Rural-Rural Migrations from French Sudan to Senegambia (1900-1932)

by Marie Rodet

Genre, Coutumes Et Droit Colonial Au Soudan Français (1918-1939)

by Marie Rodet

The Afterlives of 2Pac: Imagery and Alienation in Sierra Leone and Beyond

by Jeremy Prestholdt

published in the Journal of African Cultural Studies

Genre, Islam et pluralisme juridique au Soudan français (1900-1925)

by Marie Rodet

published in Outre-Mers, T.99, N°370-371 (2011)

Sexualité, mariage et esclavage au Soudan français à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle

by Marie Rodet

published in Clio, Histoire, femmes et sociétés, 33/2011: Colonisations.

Child Labor in the Gold Coast: The Economics of Work, Education, and the Family in Late-Colonial African Childhoods, c. 1940-57

by Jack Lord

Published in Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 4 (1). pp. 88-115. Copyright © 2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reproduced with permission.

Historical knowledge of childhood in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) is sparse and too often disconnected from a global... more Historical knowledge of childhood in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) is sparse and too often disconnected from a global historiography that has convincingly demonstrated the "child" to be a social construct. In contemporary discourse the "African child" is most commonly portrayed as either aspiring scholar or helpless victim—images that are echoed in the fleeting appearances of children in Africanist historiography. This essay, by contrast, explores the economic aspects of childhood in the colonial periphery and paints a more complex picture of the "African child." Children in the twentieth-century Gold Coast were vital economic actors and agents: at once producers, consumers, and accumulators of wealth. They remained so despite the political and commercial upheavals of the colonial period. Exploring the economic use and the social purpose of child labor illuminates both the material experience of children and their place in the household and wider society—and it sheds light, too, on the question of why both illiteracy and child labor are stubbornly persistent in modern Ghana.

Continuum of Gendered Violence. The Colonial Invention of Female Desertion as a Customary Criminal Offense, French Soudan, 1900-1949

by Marie Rodet

in Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial ed. by Emily S. Burrill, Richard L. Roberts, Elizabeth Thornberry (2010). Athens: Ohio University Press.

In this chapter I examine to what extent certain forms of colonial inventions of tradition contributed to the... more In this chapter I examine to what extent certain forms of colonial inventions of tradition contributed to the persistence of violence and to new forms of violence against women in colonial Mali, from domestic and intimate violence to violence structured by the colonial state.

Disrupting Masculinist Discourse on African Migration: The Study of Neglected Forms of Female Migration

by Marie Rodet

C'Est Le Regard Qui Fait L'Histoire: Comment Utiliser Des Archives Coloniales Qui Nous Renseignent Malgré Elles Sur L'Histoire Des Femmes Africaines= The Gaze Making …

by Marie Rodet

Migrants In French Sudan: Gender Biases In the Historiography

by Marie Rodet

«Le Délit D'Abandon De Domicile Conjugal» Ou L'Invasion Du Pénal Colonial Dans Les Jugements Des «tribunaux Indigènes» Au Soudan Français, 1900-1947

by Marie Rodet

Mémoires de l'esclavage dans la région de Kayes: Histoire d'une disparition

by Marie Rodet