Adjustment to West African realities: the Lebanese in Senegal

Africa ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saïd Boumedouha
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
West African ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Great Demand ◽  
Trading Activities ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Mixed Reaction

Opening ParagraphThe century-old Lebanese presence in West Africa has been the subject of mixed reaction from the host societies. While many Africans, including political leaders, have defended this presence in the belief that it has been very beneficial for their countries, others have strongly criticised it, arguing that the Lebanese have blocked the way to Africans in trade, repatriated their capital and used many kinds of malpractices in their trading activities. In Senegal, which is the subject of this article, French small and medium traders opposed the presence of the Lebanese during the colonial period because the latter became their main competitors. The groundnut trade was the country's main economic activity and there was a great demand for this product in Europe. The major European companies were keen to increase exports and, in this, they relied on the Lebanese who, in the first decades of this century, acted as middlemen.

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.

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.

Drought and Dependence in the Sahel

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Ball
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
West African ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Ecological Stability ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between human activity and environmental degradation has been documented in numerous studies. With regard to West Africa, E. P. Stebbing was already warning of ecological degradation due to overcultivation and overgrazing in the 1930s. Less well documented are the reasons why people who understand many of the requirements of ecologically sound farming and herding nonetheless mismanage natural resources to the point of disaster. An examination of the 1968–1973 drought in the Sahel zone of West Africa (formerly French West Africa) suggests that the lack of economic autonomy for Sahelian countries is a major cause not only of their economic stagnation and underdevelopment but equally of the degradation of their ecosystems. Specific policies, initiated during the colonial period and continued by independent governments, can be identified as reducing the ability of West African farmers and herders to exploit their environment with an adequate safety margin. Largely as a result of the 1968–1973 drought, there has been an upsurge of interest in the Sahel on the part of international and national aid agencies. However, it is very possible that the programs devised by these groups will promote neither economic autonomy nor ecological stability for the countries in that region. A development strategy based largely on self-reliance, on the other hand, could be more successful in protecting both the populations and the ecology of the Sahel.

scholarly journals Did the ancient Egyptians migrate to ancient Nigeria?

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jock M. Agai
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
West African ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
African History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Literatures concerning the history of West African peoples published from 1900 to 1970 debate�the possible migrations of the Egyptians into West Africa. Writers like Samuel Johnson and�Lucas Olumide believe that the ancient Egyptians penetrated through ancient Nigeria but Leo�Frobenius and Geoffrey Parrinder frowned at this opinion. Using the works of these early�20th century writers of West African history together with a Yoruba legend which teaches�about the origin of their earliest ancestor(s), this researcher investigates the theories that the�ancient Egyptians had contact with the ancient Nigerians and particularly with the Yorubas.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: There is an existing ideology�amongst the Yorubas and other writers of Yoruba history that the original ancestors of�the Yorubas originated in ancient Egypt hence there was migration between Egypt and�Yorubaland. This researcher contends that even if there was migration between Egypt and�Nigeria, such migration did not take place during the predynastic and dynastic period as�speculated by some scholars. The subject is open for further research.

Homoeroticism in Hinduism

Hinduism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Vanita
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Sex Change ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Devotional Poetry ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time

Homoeroticism is represented in Hindu texts from the epic period (c. 500 bce–200 ce) onward. Same-sex relations are explicitly depicted in temple sculptures in the first millennium ce and discussed in legal, medical, and erotic treatises from the 1st century bce onward, in tones varying from somewhat disapproving and dispassionate to humorous and pragmatic. More frequently, close same-sex friendships that last a lifetime and that rival cross-sex relationships in intensity and intimacy are celebrated in the same type of language that appears in contexts of cross-sex romance. Same-sex relations are sometimes depicted as running parallel to cross-sex relations in the life of an individual; at other times, they are subordinated to the latter. In the Sanskrit epics, the Purāṇas and story cycles, miraculous sex-change becomes one of the ways that same-sex desire is expressed and absorbed into the institution of marriage. The story cycles of the gods and goddesses depict them as able to manifest in male as well as female forms and also as simultaneously male and female. One of Śiva’s forms is Ardhanārīswara, the god who is half woman. This can be read as emblematic of his inseparability from his wife Pārvatī, but can also be read as expressive of the inherent bisexuality of all beings. Bhakti or devotional poetry, lyric, epic, and hagiographic, deals largely in bridal mysticism. In one unique set of Bengal versions of the Rāmāyaṇa, two women are depicted having divinely planned and blessed sexual relations that result in the birth of a heroic child. In sum, Hindu written texts and art up to the colonial period depict and discuss same-sex relations without euphemism or virulence. After British rulers passed the antisodomy law, many educated Indian social reformers and nationalists began to express a new aversion to elements of their heritage, including polytheism, polygamy, and sex outside marriage, including same-sex relations. For the first time, it became unacceptable to write about same-sex relations in polite literature. This continued through the first half of the 20th century. Some Hindu gurus continued to express tolerance and several Hindu priests from the 1980s onward are recorded as performing same-sex marriages in various parts of the country. Hindu gurus today take a variety of positions on the subject, as do Hindu political leaders and organizations.

scholarly journals Islam in West Africa

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-93
Author(s):  
Ahmed Sheikh Bangura
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Volta Basin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Systems

Islam in West Africa is a collection of nineteen essays written by NehemiaLevtzion between 1963 and 1993. The book is divided into five sections. dealingwith different facets of the history and sociology of Islam in West Africa.The first section focuses on the patterns, characteristics, and agents of thespread of Islam. The author offers an approach to the study of the process of thatIslamization in West Africa that compares pattems of Islamizacion in medievalMali and Songhay to patterns in the Volta basin from the seventeenth to thenineteenth centuries. He also assesses the complex roles played by Africanchiefs and kings and slavery in the spread of Islam.Section two focuses on the subject of lslam and West African politics fromthe medieval period to the early nineteenth century. Levtzion identifies twotrend in African Islam: accommodation and militancy. Islam's early acceptancein West African societies was aided by the fact that Islam was initially seen asa supplement, and not as a substitute, to existing religious systems. Levtzionanalyzes the dynamics of Islam in African states as accommodation gave wayin time to tensions between the ruling authorities and Islamic scholars, callingfor a radical restructuring of the stare according to Islamic ideals. The tensionsbetween the Muslim clerics of Timbuktu and the medieval Songhay rulers. andthe ultimately adversarial relationship between Uthman dan Fodio and the Gobirleadership in eighteenth-century Hausaland, are singled out for sustained analysis ...

Still Underused: Written German Sources for West Africa Before 1884

1986 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 225-244
Author(s):  
Adam Jones
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
German Literature ◽  
West African ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Mixed Feelings ◽  
To Receive

It is gratifying to receive compliments when one publishes books, yet I have mixed feelings about some of the kind words awarded to my two volumes of translations from seventeenth-century German sources on west Africa. What some people seem to be saying is: “Thank God I won't have to waste time learning that language!” Not only does this attitude rest on the untenable assumption that a translation is an adequate substitute for the original; it also underestimates the importance of those German works which remain untranslated.For those interested in the colonial period, of course, the German literature and archival material is very rich--not only for Togo and Cameroun, but also for other countries, notably Liberia. As soon as the Germans became politically involved in west African affairs in 1884, there appeared a whole flood of publications dealing with this part of the world; and there is also a great deal of unpublished material for the whole period 1884-1939 which urgently calls for more attention from scholars interested in the African past. This is generally recognized (the usual excuse offered for not using the German material is the difficulty of access to the Potsdam archive); yet it is seldom appreciated how much German material there is for the period before 1884.

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.

The Significance of Descent in Tale Social Structure

Africa ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 362-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fortes
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Analytical Data ◽  
West African ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Field Worker ◽  
Northern Territories ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Coherent Picture

Opening ParagraphThe Tallensi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast furnish data of special interest for the study of comparative social structure among the peoples of West Africa. Large as the ethnographic literature on West Africa is, it is singularly lacking in analytical data concerning social structure. Some of the most useful collections of ethnographic information on West African peoples thus lack the foundation without which a coherent picture of a society is impossible. Tables of kinship terms, enumerations of kinship usages, catalogues of marriage and inheritance customs, and such-like information are no more than the raw materials for the construction of a systematic representation of social structure. And very often the raw materials are not sufficient. There are plenty of bricks but no mortar. The reasons for such lacunae are obvibys. A sympathetic amateur ethnographer can bring together material of inestimable value; but without a good theoretical grounding in modern social anthropology the field worker will not look for, and even if he stumbles across it, will not recognise the kind of material necessary for an understanding of social structure. He must; first of all, have the concept of a total social structure clearly in his mind; and he must look for the connexions, which are very often implicit, by which ostensibly discrete processes and institutions are related to one another in a meaningful pattern.

Tukulor weavers and the organisation of their craft in village and town

Africa ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Dilley
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Cloth Production ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Opening ParagraphThe subject of weavers has until recently received surprisingly little detailed attention from writers on Africa, given the importance of cloth in local and regional trade, particularly in West Africa. Yet, even here, cloth trading has received scholarly attention in the works of Hodder (1967, 1980) and of Johnson (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980). In addition crafts and craftsmen have been the subject matter of occasional papers and collected works (for example, d'Azevedo, 1973; Hallpike, 1968; Llovd, 1953; Murray, 1943), but few authors have concentrated on weavers alone. More specifically African cloth and textiles have received greater coverage in the works of Picton and Mack (1979) and of the Lambs (1975, 1980, 1981, 1984), though the actual organisation of production has by and large been overlooked. Before the publication of Esther Goody's collection From Craft to Industry in 1982, which has provided us with two examples of the development of cloth production for market in Nigeria and Ghana, possibly the only article to deal with the organisation of traditional weaving is Bray's (1968) contribution on weaving in Iseyin, Nigeria.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document