The West African Students' Union: A Study in Culture Contact

Africa ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Garigue
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Geographical Origin ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
West African ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
The West ◽  
African Students ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Large Groups

Opening ParagraphThis study of a specific instance of culture contact, that provided by the situation of West African students in Britain, is limited to a discussion and analysis of their association in the West African Students' Union. The fact of common geographical origin partly explains the formation of such a Union, for the same reason as United States, Canadian, South African, and other large groups of students living in Britain have become so organized. But this would ignore the situation of colour prejudice facing coloured students in Britain, and also their colonial status in relation to Britain. Because of this determining characteristic of being an association of coloured colonial students, the West African Students' Union has developed, throughout its history, certain features not normally found among students' unions, and which are reminiscent of ‘protest movements’. The analysis which is presented here seeks to determine the reasons why West African students organized themselves into the West African Students' Union from 1926 onwards. It is unfortunately not possible to do more here than touch briefly upon the major changes which took place during that time, but as most of the data here presented have not hitherto been published, enough details have been included to give an idea of the manner in which members of the West African Students' Union responded to the situation of culture contact. The paper is divided into two parts: first, an historical account of the type of ideas held by the members of the Union; and, secondly, a discussion of the reasons why West African students join the Union.

Some Comments on Land Tenure in Egba Division, Western Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akin L. Mabogunje
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Law ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
The West ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphDuring the sitting of the West African Lands Committee in 1912, the witnesses who were called before the Committee from Egba Division emphatically stated that sales of both farm and town lands had been going on in Egbaland for some considerable time and had become accepted as normal. Equally significant was the vigour with which witnesses from all the other Yoruba sub-tribes countered the suggestion that sale of land existed or was permitted by the traditional land law and custom. H. L. Ward Price in his report also pointed out that sales of land had been going on in Egbaland for at least sixty years before he was writing in the 1930's. From the evidence he collected, it would seem that land sales dated back to between 1860 and 1880.

Saving and Indebtedness among Cameroons Plantation Workers

Africa ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Warmington
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
West African ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Main Field ◽  
The West ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Economic Studies

Opening ParagraphFrom 1953 to mid-1955 a team from the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research was investigating various problems caused by the employment of a large labour force in the plantations of the Southern Cameroons. The whole survey, which it is hoped soon to publish, covered a fairly wide field of social and economic studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine only one small aspect, somewhat outside the main field of the investigations.

scholarly journals West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29A) ◽  
pp. 395-396
Author(s):  
Linda E. Strubbe ◽  
Bonaventure Okere
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
West African ◽  
Science Students ◽  
The West ◽  
African Students ◽  
University Science ◽  
International Summer School

The West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers (WAISSYA) is a week-long program for university science students and teachers from West Africa to develop their interest in astronomy. The first summer school was held in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2013; the second Summer School was held in Nsukka, Nigeria, in July 2015. West Africa has a large number of students interested in science, but a paucity of facilities or interest from funding bodies in developing West African astronomy. Our broad goals for the WAISSYA program are: (1) to introduce West African students to astronomy; (2) to exchange ideas about teaching and learning in West Africa and abroad; and (3) to continue building a sustained astronomy partnership between West Africa and Canada. We now briefly describe three defining aspects of WAISSYA 2015.

Behaviour and Cultural Value in West African Stories: Literary Sources for the Study of Culture Contact

Africa ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin J. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
West African ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
The Relationship

Opening ParagraphIn much modern West African literature in English and French the authors depict problems concerning the relationship between the socio-cultural background and the particular experiences and behaviour of the characters portrayed. Investigation and analysis of such stories to ascertain the authors' ‘solutions’ of the characters' problems can aid our understanding of values and attitudes among modern Africans and in turn contribute to the growing corpus of knowledge about culture contact. As Cyprian Ekwensi, the Nigerian novelist, has claimed: ‘African writing is writing which reveals the psychology of the African.’ Obviously it reveals the psychology of both the author and the characters whom he portrays, and even though stories are written by individuals who are ‘modern’ Africans, strong opposition to any consideration of African literature as individualistic ‘art for art's sake’ has been manifested by Africans, including the Society of Nigerian Authors in their reply to Martin Tucker's 1962 argument that African novelists are over-communal and insufficiently individualistic in what they portray. In making such a response, the Nigerian authors in effect reasserted a traditional African attitude towards art as socially functional rather than merely aesthetically pleasing. One is thus justified in pursuing the study of modern literary works by Africans as expressions of attitudes and values related to tradition, contact, and change.

Social Problems and Research in British West Africa

Africa ◽  
1947 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Firth
Keyword(s):  
Economic Structure ◽  
West African ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The West ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe broad characteristics of the British West African colonies and their main social and economic problems are already fairly familiar from the relevant sections of Lord Hailey's African Survey (1938), and Professor Hancock's Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (1942). A recent article by Dr. M. Fortes (1945) helps to bring the analysis up to date and makes very clear how great and rapid are the changes taking place in the social and economic structure. In this present contribution, the result of a very brief study, I attempt only to underline some of the salient features as they appear to one new to the West African scene, and to estimate the problems from the point of view of sociological research.

Mbadamassi of Lagos: A Soldier for King and Kaiser, and a Deportee to German South West Africa

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Jan-Bart Gewald
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Military Service ◽  
West African ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
German Army ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa

Abstract In 1915 troops of the South African Union Defence Force invaded German South West Africa, present day Namibia. In the north of the territory the South African forces captured an African soldier serving in the German army named Mbadamassi. Upon his capture Mbadamassi demanded to be released and claimed that he was a British national from Nigeria. In addition, he stated that he had served in the West African Frontier Force, and that he had been shanghaied into German military service in Cameroon. Furthermore, whilst serving in the German army in Cameroon, Mbadamassi claimed that he had participated in a mutiny, and that, as a consequence, he had been deported to GSWA. The article covers the remarkable military career of the African soldier, Mbadamassi, who between 1903 and 1917 served both the King of the British Empire as well as the Kaiser of the German Empire. In so doing, the article sheds light on the career of an individual African soldier serving in three colonial armies; the West African Frontier Force, the Schutztruppe in Cameroon, and the Schutztruppe in GSWA. The article argues that beyond the fact that colonial armies were institutions of repression, they also provided opportunity for those willing or condemned to serve within their ranks. Furthermore the article provides some indication as to the extent of communication that existed between colonial subjects in the separate colonies of Africa at the time. En 1915, les troupes de l'Union de l'Afrique du Sud ont envahi l'Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande, l'actuelle Namibie. Dans le Nord du territoire, les forces sud-africaines ont capturé un soldat africain servant dans l'armée allemande nommé Mbadamassi. Celui-ci exigea d'être libéré et revendiqua être un Britannique du Nigeria. De plus, il déclara avoir servi dans la West African Frontier Force et avoir été enrôlé de force dans l'armée allemande au Cameroun. En outre, pendant qu'il servait dans l'armée allemande au Cameroun, Mbadamassi a prétendu avoir pris part à une mutinerie, ce qui avait conduit à sa déportation vers l'Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande. Cet article couvre la remarquable carrière militaire du soldat africain Mbadamassi, qui, entre 1903 et 1917, a servi à la fois le roi de l'empire britannique et le Kaiser de l'empire allemand. Ainsi, l'article éclaire sur la carrière individuelle d'un soldat africain servant dans trois armées coloniales; la West African Frontier Force, le Schutztruppe au Cameroun et le Schutztruppe en Afrique du Sud-Ouest allemande. L'article soutient qu'au-delà du fait que les armées coloniales étaient des institutions de répression, elles ont aussi offert la possibilité à ceux qui le voulaient ou ceux qui y étaient condamnés de servir dans leurs rangs. En outre, l'article fournit une indication sur l'étendue de la communication qui a existé entre les sujets coloniaux dans les colonies d'Afrique séparées de l'époque.

Culture Contact as a Dynamic Process an Investigation in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast

Africa ◽  
1936 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fortes
Keyword(s):  
Zero Point ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Northern Territories ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Social Anthropologist ◽  
European Civilization

Opening ParagraphIn considering the effects of the contact between African societies and European civilization, one is apt to forget that the exploitation of Africa by Europeans began more than five centuries ago. To trace the consequences of this long intercourse between Africa and Europe is a legitimate and worthwhile task. But is it a task for the social anthropologist? Previous contributors to the present symposium have emphasized the necessity of historical reconstruction in order to understand the effects of contact with European civilization upon a particular culture. They have been fortunate in dealing with cultures where the initial impact of the white man is recent enough to be within living memory. On the West Coast of Africa no feat of skill or imagination would suffice to establish a reliable zero point of culture contact. One would presumably have to be content with the construction of an ‘ideal type’ based on the scanty literature and on descriptions of cognate cultures. But must we therefore abandon every hope of investigating the influence of European civilization in these areas, and confine ourselves to the regions of recent contact where the procedure sponsored by Dr. Hunter and Dr. Mair can be successfully employed? I do not think so; and I shall endeavour to describe an approach which is, I believe, equally applicable both in societies which have recently come under the influence of culture contact, and those which have reached an advanced stage of Europeanization.

Neologisms in Hausa: A Sociological Approach

Africa ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
A. H. M. Kirk-Greene
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
West African ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Church

Opening ParagraphHausa is probably the most widely spoken language in Negro Africa. Besides being generally spoken throughout Northern Nigeria, its motherland, Hausa is, as Westermann and Bryan note, widely understood in other West African countries. They cite colonies of Hausa-speakers in Dahomey, Togo, Ghana, Cameroons, Chad, and ‘many of the greater centres in North Africa’. They could also usefully have mentioned the Sudan, where pilgrims from Northern Nigeria have settled in their tens of thousands. Indeed, it is often said that you will find Hausa-speakers from Dakar to Port Sudan, from Leopoldville to Fez. The explorer Heinrich Barth in the 1840's had his first Hausa lesson in Tunis, and fifty years later it was to Tripoli that Bishop Tugwell of the Church Missionary Society and his pioneer team of five went to study Hausa before undertaking their bold missionary thrust into the emirates. Westermann and Bryan point out that the total number of Hausa-speakers cannot be estimated in view of the enormous distribution of the Hausa and the great number of those who speak Hausa as their second language. Few of us would disagree with Cust's judgement that Hausa ‘has obtained the rank of a lingua franca and is the general vehicle of communication between the peoples speaking different languages’. Counting those who have recourse to Hausa as their second or vehicular language, it would be no exaggeration to claim that some 20 million persons ‘hear’ Hausa, as the West African languages so picturesquely express it.

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