Patterns of Authority in West Africa

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Brown
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Size And Structure

Opening ParagraphThe development of large centralized states in West Africa has long been recognized. The complexity of organization of the few well-known kingdoms, but not their differences in size and structure, is constantly emphasized in the literature. The number and variety of West African groups which have not developed states have, on the other hand, frequently been underestimated. In a comparative review by Professors Fortes and Evans-Pritchard two types of political system, centralized and segmentary, have been described for Africa as a whole, with examples of each in West Africa. A survey of West African societies suggests, however, that finer distinctions are possible and that not all these societies can be placed in one or other of these two categories. In particular, this classification omits consideration of ‘stateless’ societies in which associations, rather than a segmentary lineage system, regulate political relations; and it fails to distinguish different types of authority and political structure in states.

The Social Organization of Credit in a West African Cattle Market

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abner Cohen
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
African Cattle ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Cattle Market

Opening ParagraphCredit is a vital economic institution without which trade becomes very limited. In the industrial Western societies, where it is highly developed, it operates through formal, standardized arrangements and procedures by which the solvency of the debtor is closely assessed, securities against possible default are provided, and the conditions of the agreement are documented and endorsed by the parties concerned. Ultimately, these arrangements and procedures are upheld by legislated rules and sanctions administered by central, bureaucratized, fairly impartial, efficient, and effective courts and police. In West Africa, on the other hand, where long-distance trade has been fostered by varying ecological circumstances, such organization has not yet evolved, particularly for long-distance trade. Nevertheless extensive systems of credit have been developed.

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.

English in West Africa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Gut
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Structural Properties ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Current Role ◽  
British Colonization

This chapter describes the history, role, and structural properties of English in the West African countries the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, the anglophone part of Cameroon, and the island of Saint Helena. It provides an overview of the historical phases of trading contact, British colonization and missionary activities and describes the current role of English in these multilingual countries. Further, it outlines the commonalities and differences in the vocabulary, phonology, morphology, and syntax of the varieties of English spoken in anglophone West Africa. It shows that Liberian Settler English and Saint Helenian English have distinct phonological and morphosyntactic features compared to the other West African Englishes. While some phonological areal features shared by several West African Englishes can be identified, an areal profile does not seem to exist on the level of morphosyntax.

Social Administration of the Kru. A Preliminary Survey

Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Scudder Mekeel
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Physical Type

Opening ParagraphThe Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

How Ancient is West African Maize?

Africa ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. W. Jeffreys
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Vernacular Names ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Other Hand

Eastern Whites in Western AfricaMy article on Zaburro was written in the expectation that it would stimulate discussion over the antiquity of maize in West Africa, and the matter has been taken up by Professor Portères (1959), on whose publication Mr. Willett has relied for certain inferences in his article in Africa for January 1962. Among the interesting points brought forward by Professor Portères (1959, vi) are the groups of African vernacular names which indicate that maize was introduced by foreigners, strangers, whitemen. A similar observation had been made more than a hundred years ago by Koelle (a. 1854, v), a missionary in Sierra Leone, who wrote: ‘…the names for onion, rice, maize, &c. show that in many countries [in Africa] these articles have been introduced by foreigners.…’ Who these foreigners were Koelle, with his long list of vernacular words for whiteman to choose from, leaves indeterminate. On the other hand, underlying Professor Portères's view that it was the Portuguese or the Dutch who brought maize to the Guynee coast, lies the assumption that the foreigners, the strangers, the whitemen indicated by these vernacular names were the Portuguese and the Dutch.

The Study of ‘Social Change’ in British West Africa

Africa ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Little
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
West Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Electric Light ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Foreign Consumption

Opening ParagraphA visitor to West Africa today will find most of the conventional trappings of a western civilization. He can travel on trains and in motor-cars and airplanes, and stay at rest-houses equipped with electric light and a flushed toilet. He can visit African homes furnished in the latest western style in which there is refrigeration and cooking is done by electricity. He will see Africans working in shops, offices, and factories, growing crops for foreign consumption, and leasing and renting land. He will visit churches and schools, play outdoor games, attend dances, performances of amateur dramatics, baby shows, and buy a flag for charity—all these activities being organized by Africans. On the other hand, he will also see a majority of Africans living in huts of wattle and daub and of grass, herding cattle, and cultivating their farms and plots with home-made implements, pounding their food in mortars, crossing rivers in dug-out canoes, dancing to the music of wooden drums, and worshipping ancient gods and spirits.

The Changing Political System of the Temne

Africa ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon R. Dorjahn
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Political System ◽  
Administration System ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe purpose of this study is to consider some of the changes that have taken place in the positions of political officials and in the administrative hierarchy of the Temne of Sierra Leone, British West Africa. The time period under concern extends from approximately 1880, towards the end of the ‘tribal wars’, as they are called by the Temne, through the establishment of the Protectorate and the later introduction of the Native Administration system, to the ‘disturbances in the Provinces’, November 1955 to March 1956.

10. Political Parties

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ferdinand
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Vote ◽  
Different Types

This chapter deals with political parties: why they emerged, how they can be classified, what functions they perform, how they interact, and what challenges they are facing today. One of the paradoxes about democracies is that there is almost a unanimous consensus about the indispensability of political parties. On the other hand, the benefits of being a member of a political party are bound to be minuscule compared to the costs of membership. Thus it is irrational for people to join parties. They should only form (small) interest groups. The chapter first provides a historical background on the development of political parties before discussing their functions, such as legitimation of the political system, structuring the popular vote, and formulation of public policy. It then considers different types of political parties as well as the characteristics of party systems and concludes with an analysis of the problems facing political parties today.

Burkina-Mali War: Is Nigeria Still a Regional Power

1986 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-308
Author(s):  
Segun Johnson
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
African State ◽  
West African ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
The West ◽  
Black African ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Self Interest

Suddenly Burkina Faso and Mali were at war.‘Burkina was the aggressor***! No, it was Mali.!‘ And the attack and counter-attack continued. For the man on the street, Nigeria moved in barely four days after the war had started and that is good enough. For a student of West African states' foreign policy, that was a late more for Nigeria, more so when the hopes of Nigerians moves were dropped. For whatever the cause, Nigeria was expected to get the grasp of any crisis erupting in West Africa regardless of the countries involved—Francophones or Anglophones. Why? Authorities in the seventies had seen Nigeria in the subregion of West Africa as its “regional power.” John Ostheimer, in 1973, wrote that‘…Nigeria is now obviously the “giant of Africa” in a new sense. Nigeria… (is) the dominant power in the West Africa Region.’1 Colin Legum in the same year-wrote: Nigeria is Africa's most important country—in size of population and in resources—as well as in trained people. Properly developed and with a properly functioning political system-it could provide decisive leadership for the entire continent strong enough to consolidate a powerful organization embracing Anglophone and Francophone African States; militarily and economically strong enough to play a leading role in challenging the minority while regimes in Portuguese and Southern Africa and to provide more muscle for the OAU; and influential enough to strengthen the whole of Africa's relationships within the international community.2 In the same vein, and American paper in 1977 summed it up thus: ‘As the biggest, richest and most influential black African State, ‘Nigeria has an evident capacity to reduce the prospect of great power involvement in an African quarrel and and an evident self interest in doing so.3 But Nigeria did not react immediately to the Burkina-Mali crisis when it came into the open. Could it be that the impetus had gone or the ability had been reduced by internal problems? Attempts will be made to answer these important questions. For now, it is desirable to look at the remote and immediate causes of the border clash between the two warring states.

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