Gerontocratic Government: Age-Sets in Pre-Colonial Giriama

Africa ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Brantley
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Previous Experience ◽  
Secret Society ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Difficult Situations ◽  
Southward Migration

Opening ParagraphIn the protection of their kaya home deep in the forest of the Mombasa hinterland, the Giriama of Kenya developed a non-centralized government based on a council of elders (kambi), and derived from age-sets. They were supported by a special secret society within the kambi whose oath and select membership were used to maintain order and determine guilt in difficult situations. In the period from approximately 1700 until sometime in the nineteenth century, the Giriama developed this form of government by drawing upon their previous experience of life in Singwaya and subsequent southward migration, upon their identification or assimilation of members into six original clans, and upon their unique environment of the kaya neighborhood to become successful cultivators, keeping cattle when circumstances allowed and emerging as the prominent traders of the Mombasa hinterland.

A Note on the Ethnic Interpretation of the Fulani Jihād

Africa ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-291
Author(s):  
Marilyn Robinson Waldman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Holy War ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
City States ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe religious government and society of contemporary Northern Nigeria have their historical roots in a jihād (Muslim holy war) which was waged there in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The leader of thai jihād, Usuman dan Fodio, sought to establish a Muslim form of government over the Hausa city-states of what is now Northern Nigeria; his movement had the effect of replacing most of the nonorthodox, and in some cases non-Muslim, Hausa rulers with orthodox Muslims who, like himself, were Fulani.

Event and Portent: the Fall of Old Oyo, a Problem in Historical Explanation

Africa ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Covering Law ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphExplanation, or the identification and assessment of the causes of events and situations, occupies the central place in nearly all historical writing in the present century. It is also the aspect of history which is most keenly debated by philosophers, and is the main issue today in the unending, wearisome, but seemingly inescapable controversy as to whether history belongs, or belongs more, with the sciences or with the humanities. The scientific or positivist school, numbering among its recent exponents Popper and Gardiner, emphasizes the extent to which historical explanation attains a regularity akin to, though not identical with, that found in the physical and other sciences, Hempel adding the contention that such explanation can always, and often should, be reduced to a ‘covering law’, or single universal statement subsuming the whole explanation. The idealists, among whom Croce, Collingwood, and most recently Oakeshott are prominent, stress conversely the uniqueness of history, and Dray has reinforced their position by his attack on the covering law thesis. The debate is one in which historians themselves have taken little part, and African historians none at all, despite its crucial importance for almost every aspect of their profession. Yet it is a debate which needs continuous illustration from the historiographical process, a need which historians are best able to meet. The aim of the present article is to contribute to the debate by examining as a problem in historical explanation the fall of Oyo, the powerful state of the northern Yoruba, in the early nineteenth century.

The socio-ecology of firewood and charcoal on the Freetown peninsula

Africa ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Akindele Cline-Cole
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Wood Fuel ◽  
Western Area ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Political Economic

Opening ParagraphIn a country which in the last 200 years has undergone continuous and often momentous political, economic and social changes, few things are capable of conveying as strong an impression of stability and changelessness as wood fuel (charcoal and firewood) consumption and production; and nowhere is this more striking than on the Freetown or Western Area (formerly Colony) peninsula. In this region, which has always accounted for the major share of national electricity, kerosene and cooking gas (LPG) consumption, not only is current percentage household firewood consumption only fractionally lower than in the nineteenth century but a much higher proportion of households consume charcoal now than at any time in the last two centuries (Cline-Cole, 1984a). Today firewood and charcoal combined supply a minimum of 80 per cent of total peninsula energy demand for both domestic and non-household uses (Davidson, 1985). Freetown's firewood consumption also represents some 10 per cent of the national total (Atlanta, 1979).

A Nineteenth-Century Ruhr in Central Africa

Africa ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Warnier ◽  
Ian Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphOver two hundred thousand cubic metres of slag and smelting debris, at least two hundred and seventy smelting sites, more than seven hundred recorded kaolin pits for building and lining furnaces, and probably half as many again not visited by us—these are a few figures that establish three villages of the Ndop Plain, in the highlands of Western Cameroon, as a nineteenth-century Ruhr in Central Africa. To this day, this all Sub-Saharan African record leaves Meroe, ‘the Birmingham of Africa’ well behind. Perhaps the record remains unbroken, however, just because scholars interested in African iron industries seem to have been unconcerned with the overall output of these industries.

scholarly journals Sovereign Justice in Precolonial Maritime Asia: The Case of the Mayor's Court of Bombay, 1726–1798

Itinerario ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gagan D. S. Sood
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Realistic Option ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Surplus Extraction ◽  
Early Modern Times

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, remarkable developments in the realm of law were witnessed throughout the world. They expressed and paved the way for a new type of dispensation. For those parts of Asia and the Middle East with a substantial European presence, the legitimate rules, principles, and procedures for resolving disputes were progressively assimilated into systems of state-sanctioned legal pluralism. The process—at once gradual, charged, and punctuated—coincided with the initial consolidation of European imperial dominance and the emergence of Europe's modern global empires.Though these changes in the realm of law date from the nineteenth century, the European presence there had long preceded them. This was perhaps most notable in maritime Asia. The Europeans in this region tended to cluster in their factories or in certain quarters of the towns and cities dotting the Indian Ocean rim. Notwithstanding differences between, say, a Mocha and an Aceh in size, location, and form of government, all these settlements had one quality in common: each was able to profit from the traffic conducted along the coast or across the high seas. As for the sovereign justice on offer, the dispensation that governed it in early modern times was far removed from its later analogue. This stemmed in large part from the rationale and basis for the European presence. In particular, Europeans could not dominate maritime Asia's provincial and imperial powers, especially those located inland, and the great majority of those arriving from western Europe intended to return as soon as possible; despite some involvement in racketeering and other forms of surplus extraction—famously in attempts to introduce and enforce a system of passports in maritime transport and travel—their interests were mainly commercial, oriented towards trade and shipping; the indigenous populations remained on the whole large and resilient; and many of the skills and techniques vested in livelihoods long associated with the region retained their primacy. As a result, the only realistic option for Europeans in maritime Asia was to reconcile themselves to the prevailing order. And this they did, with most of the region's fundamentals, not least in the realm of law, continuing to develop along what were essentially indigenous lines.

Young Turk Revolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceren Abi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Secret Society ◽  
Army Officers ◽  
The Revolution

The Young Turk Revolution refers to the events that occurred in 1908 under the initiative of the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti) (CUP) and that were carried out in Macedonia by young Ottoman army officers, who restored the constitution shelved in 1878 by the sultan Abdülhamit II. (There remains some disagreement about describing these events as a ‘revolution’). The uprising led to elections and a reconvening of the parliament, which the Committee hoped would enable the survival of the Ottoman Empire against rival imperial powers (Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia). The CUP, a secret society that later became a political organization, did not overthrow the sultan at first, preferring to rule behind the scenes. The uprising can be considered a continuation of the constitutionalist movements of the nineteenth century, but it also heralded changes to sociopolitical life, such as the rise of a new élite, the increasing involvement of the army in government, and the emergence of party politics. The revolution was enthusiastically received for a time, and a vibrant sociopolitical life emerged with the dismantling of many of Abdülhamit’s authoritarian policies.

The Nature and Effects of Differential Access to Education in Ga Society

Africa ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire C. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Home Economics ◽  
Home Production ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Preliminary Examination ◽  
Economics Courses ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphWhat happens when women are denied access, over a long period of time, to formal education of the type men are given? This paper is a preliminary examination of the effects on Central Accra Ga society of this process, which began in a significant form in the nineteenth century. It posits a detrimental effect, not only on the women but also on the whole society, and on the relation between the sexes, of the systematic channelling of men into Western style education, while women were encouraged to stay in trading and home production, or given the equivalent of ‘home economics’ courses if they were sent to school.

Forty Days: The Akan Calendar

Africa ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip F. W. Bartle
Keyword(s):  
Ivory Coast ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Large Area ◽  
The North ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Akan Culture ◽  
Trade Route ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Southward Migration

Opening ParagraphSeveral attempts have been made to understand the development if not the origin of Akan culture in terms of the diffusion of (a) traits from the north which were taken south with the expansion and disintegration of the great savanna trading empires and the southward migration of Mande Dyula merchants and (b) traits which were already present prior to that migration in a large area once populated mainly by Guan in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo, and today populated for the most part by Akan, Adanbe, and Ewe. The mixing of these cultural traits and the point of origin for the Akan expansion appear, to have taken place along a trade route stretching from the Sahara to the Atlantic coast, close to the site of Begho near Wenchi in the Bono Techiman state (Boahen 1966; Goody 1959, 1966, 1968; Wilks 1962).

The Influence of Ecological Factors and External Relations on the Mbembe Tribes of South-East Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Harris
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
External Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Arrival ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThis paper is concerned with the significance of environmental factors for the reconstruction and interpretation of the history of the Mbembe tribes during the period immediately prior to the first arrival of the Europeans in the late 1880's. It seems probable that developments occurring mainly during the nineteenth century led to differences between the tribes, both in the distribution of their populations and in the character of their villages. These in turn resulted in considerable divergences in political organization despite the fact that the tribes remained adjacent and culturally very similar, and that the main principles and assumptions on which their organization was based remained essentially similar. It would be possible to discuss these political differences simply in terms of the present variations in demography and village structure. But an attempt to discover the processes by which they came about will, I think, increase our understanding of the development of these divergent political structures.

Aspects of the Ashanti Northern Trade in the Nineteenth Century

Africa ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwame Arhin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ivory Coast ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Town ◽  
Brong Ahafo Region ◽  
Brong Ahafo

Opening ParagraphI Mean by the Ashanti northern trade Ashanti market exchanges with Hausa, Mande, and Mossi caravan traders at the town of Bonduku (eastern Ivory Coast), Salaga (northern Ghana) before 1874, and at Kintampo (Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana) 1874-92. The main facts relating to this trade are well known to students of Ashanti. This paper attempts (i) to establish the basis of the Ashanti trading relationship with the northern peoples; (ii) to make distinctions between types of Ashanti traders, the scale and results of their operations, and to describe the production and distribution of kola from Ashanti; and (iii) finally to draw attention to those features of the nineteenth-century trade which contribute towards the understanding of what Tordoff(1965: 187) has called ‘the emergence and phenomenal growth of the cocoa industry’ in the early years of this century.

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