Dust to Dust: a User's Guide to Local Archives in Mali

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 453-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Mann
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Central Administration ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
National Archives ◽  
New Research ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
Gain Access

In recent years political changes in Mali have opened up new research opportunities for historians and other social scientists interested in the country's colonial and post-colonial past. With the new government has come a change in administrative attitudes regarding access to local archives, in other words those held at the level of the cercle. Although these archives can be in terrible condition, they contain precious information unique to each cercle. In the course of my own research I have been able to gain access to two such archives in southern Mali, in the summer of 1996 and again in 1998. Using these two archives as an example and drawing on the anecdotal evidence of colleagues, the following comments offer a rough appraisal of the nature of cercle archives in Mali. The paper covers the type of documentation available, the condition of the collections, and my own experiences in using them. Although my experience is limited to southern Mali, local administrations across francophone West Africa are likely to have similar holdings, given the essential uniformity of French administrative structures in colonial West Africa.In addition to providing otherwise scarce documentary evidence on local events, these archives contain a good deal of correspondence which passed from one commandant de cercle to another, bypassing the central administration in the colony's capital. The information contained in this correspondence is therefore difficult to find in national archives, and I suspect that most of it is absent altogether. The volume of such correspondence is surprising. For example, regarding a religious movement based in one of these towns in the late 1940s, I found fifty-odd letters and telegrams addressed to the local administrator by his colleagues, asking him for information and keeping him abreast of local manifestations of the movement in their own regions. None of these messages had been routed through the central administration, and the commandant had sent his superiors no more than a digest of events in which much detail was suppressed.

scholarly journals Putting the History Back into Ethnicity: Enslavement, Religion, and Cultural Brokerage in the Construction of Mandinka/Jola and Ewe/Agotime Identities in West Africa, c. 1650–1930

2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 920-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Nugent
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Administrative Practices ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Cultural Brokerage ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
Generally True

It does not always happen that academic debates result in an agreed victory or a tidy consensus. As often as not, the protagonists lose interest, or the terrain itself shifts. For that reason, it is worth remarking on the fact that after around two decades of debating the roots of ethnicity in Africa, something like a consensus has in fact emerged. The colonial thesis that Africans were born into “tribes” that were rooted in a timeless past has been effectively critiqued by historians and social scientists alike. Arguably beginning with John Iliffe, revisionists advanced a challenging antithesis, namely that colonial administrative practices generated the very identities that officials and missionaries took for granted. In Iliffe's famous formulation: “The British wrongly believed that Tanganyikans belonged to tribes; Tanganyikans created tribes to function within the colonial framework.” Although Iliffe coined the term “the creation of tribes,” it was Terence Ranger's contribution to The Invention of Tradition that really sparked an interest in the historicity of ethnicity in Africa. In fact, this was only one facet of Ranger's overall argument, one that was a good deal more nuanced than he has sometimes been given credit for. Be that as it may, the time was evidently ripe for a historiographical break, and during the 1980s and 1990s historians set about demonstrating that particular ethnic groups were indeed the product of an interplay between European interventions—by administrators, missionaries, employers, and colonial ethnographers—and selective African appropriations—through the agency of Christian converts, educated elites, urban migrants, and rural patriarchs. The steady accretion of case-study material has subsequently culminated in reflections that have distilled the broad comparative lessons. These have been helpful in creating a sense of agreement that the debate was necessary, whilst underscoring that a law of diminishing returns has set in, something more generally true of debates about constructivist approaches to identity.

Archiving white community historical manuscripts in postcolonial Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Samuel Chabikwa ◽  
Nathan Mnjama ◽  
Maitseo MM Bolaane
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Records Management ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
White Community ◽  
Community Associations ◽  
Management Standards ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Historical Manuscripts

This paper is premised on the observation that mainstream archival activities are the main cause and source of the “absences and silences” of the voices of the minority and the underrepresented in the archives. The aim of the study is to explain the context and documentation strategies of archiving and preservation of Historical Manuscripts (HM) of the white community in post-colonial Zimbabwe. In particular, the study seeks to: (a) Determine the legislative, regulatory framework for the management of HM in selected cultural heritage institutions in Zimbabwe; (b) Assess the acquisition policies and practices of mainstream cultural heritage institutions in Zimbabwe; (c) Describe the usage, purposes, and accessibility of both pre-archival and archival HM of the white community. The findings of the study revealed adequate provisions in the National Archives of Zimbabwe Act (2001) for the archiving of HM of the white community in Zimbabwe, although there were limitations of outdated policies for the institutions studied. The study also addressed the issue of limited funding and shrinking budgets which impeded on the operations of both selected cultural heritage institutions and white community associations. This resulted in failure to adhere to archiving/records management standards, and the upgrading of equipment and facilities, as well as the recruitment and retention of requisite and qualified staff. Overall, this endangers the HM collections to neglect and decay. HM were migrated from Zimbabwe to other countries regionally and abroad into private hands, and their extent, nature, condition of storage and status of preservation are undetermined.

Fly and Elephant parties: Political polarization in Dahomey, 1840–1870

1974 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Trade ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Gain Access

Analysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dahomean history reveals, not the existence of an absolute despotism, but the presence of a complex and institutionalized political process responsive to the needs and demands of Dahomeans from every part of the country. Each year at Xwetanù (Annual Customs), Dahomean officials met to discuss and decide administrative, military, economic, and diplomatic policies of the nation. In the mid-nineteenth century an obvious polarization developed as two groups, the Elephant Party and the Fly Party, sought to mould foreign policy. The Elephant Party, composed of the Crown, the wealthiest Creole traders, and the highest male military officials, advocated continuing the established practice of capturing and exporting slaves. Therefore, the Elephant Party wanted to destroy Abeokuta, an African rival and threat to slave raiding, and to resist England, a European obstacle to the trans-Atlantic shipment of slaves. After 1840, as slaving became more difficult and as the palm oil trade emerged as an alternative to the slave trade, the Fly Party rose to challenge the goals of the Elephant Party. Comprised of the Amazon army, shrine priests, middle-level administrators, Dahomean entrepreneurs, and trade officials (groups who were unwilling to pay the costs of a major war and who were eager to gain access to the profits of ‘legitimate’ international trade), the Fly Party counselled peaceful co-existence with Abeokuta and restored commercial relations with England. Eventually, the Fly Party was able to gain ascendancy over the Elephant Party. By 1870 the great Creole traders had suffered severe economic reverses, the Crown and the high military officers were divided over the question of Abeokuta, and members of the Fly Party had obtained positions of political and economic dominance within the country. Thus, the economic and military transformations which affected all of West Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century evoked political polarizations, coalitions, and realignments in the nation of Dahomey.

The Walkthrough Method

2022 ◽  
pp. 461-486
Author(s):  
Michela Cavagnuolo ◽  
Viviana Capozza ◽  
Alfredo Matrella
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
New Research

Nowadays the social scientists are called to integrate within their studies new tools that modify and innovate the scientist's typical toolbox. Digital platforms, media, and especially apps pose further challenges to social scientists today, as they are an important place of significant socio-cultural, economic, health, relationships, and entertainment transformations. When studying digital technologies, in fact, it's important to pay attention to both their socio-cultural representations and technological aspects – since even design and data outputs have social and cultural influences. In this context, new research questions arise; among all the possible tools in the digital method toolbox, the walkthrough method is a noteworthy way to answer them. Starting from these considerations, this chapter aims to analyze, through a review of the literature, the birth and development of the walkthrough method in its various meanings to identify the innovative aspects and fields of application.

scholarly journals Is Gabola a Decolonial Church or Another Trajectory of Freedom of Religion in Post-Colonial South Africa? Rethinking Ethical Issues in Religious Praxis

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bekithemba Dube
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Church Members ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Religious Praxis

In this paper, I interrogated the Gabola church in terms of its origins, purpose and its distinctiveness as a postcolonial manifestation of freedom of religion in South Africa. I answered two questions, is Gabola church a representation of a decolonial church and could it be a manifestation of trajectories of the postcolonial ill-defined freedom of religion? In responding to these questions, I used decoloniality, a theory whose agenda among many others is geared to usher a future free from oppression, where all can participate in modernity and in postmodernity. Data was generated through participatory action research. The approach enabled us to unearth the theology of Gabola, philosophy and the gap they seek to fill in the religious space. Ten Gabola church members and five church members from a mainline Christian movement participated in this research. The findings indicated that Gabola church presents a new religious movement that is socially inclusive, that seeks to promote social justice and social transformation. On the other hand, the research revealed that the lack of a regulating body for religious movement is the reason for the rise of questionable movements such as Gabola, a serious threat in the praxis of the Christian faith. To this end, I concluded that while freedom of religion is a good idea in line with the decolonial move, there is a need for participative and collaborative regulation of religious movement to eliminate criminal elements that overshadowed the beauty of religion manifested through ‘unthinkable’ ethical irregularities.

scholarly journals Porous Borders and Increasing Human Trafficking in West Africa: Issues and Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Omolara Akinyemi
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Illegal Migration ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Material Resources

The porous nature of West Africa’s borders, which owes its origin to the hasty way the colonialists carved up the African continent as well as the nature of their management by post-colonial states, has become serious issue in human trafficking, money laundering and other related crimes. Thus, one of the major consequences of porous borders in West Africa today is the rise of trans-border crimes. The problem lies in the complexity of these organizations and their activities, the global penetration and the threat they pose to democracy and legitimate economic development. Some of these trans-border crimes include: the narcotics trade and money laundering, illegal migration and people’s trafficking, smuggling (small and light weapons, food items, vehicles) among others. Nevertheless, the never-ending business of trafficking in humans across borders today is organized by individuals and groups, it is colluding with government officials and its devastating impact on exasperated individual victims is the major concern of this study. Data obtained from primary and secondary sources (literature review and content analysis) were deployed to carry out the study with an analytical and narrative historical method. The study concludes that human trafficking can be reduced to the barest minimum in the region, if West African human and material resources are combined together to expand regional capacity for border security.

Two Tonal Languages of New Guinea

1949 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Capell
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Semantic Value

WHILST the tonal languages spoken in West Africa have latterly received W a good deal of attention, it has not been generally realized that such languages are found also in parts of New Guinea. In New Guinea there are in fact two types of tonal languages. In one, the tones may be described as ” ornamental”, i.e. though they exist they do not seem to have semantic value, but rather to be connected with a certain type of sentence rhythm; in the other the tone systems are more definitely akin to those of Western Africa, and in such languages tones do possess semantic value. It is interesting that one at least of the latter group of languages tends also to be monosyllabic. It is hoped to provide a study of the former class of languages—at least one representative of which is also found in Northern Australia—at a later date. The present paper is occupied with the languages in which tones do have semantic value.These languages, so far as has been observed yet, are two in number, and they are spoken along the shores of Huon Gulf, in north-eastern New Guinea. The map on p. 186 will show their locations. Both belong to the group of languages known as Melanesian, and this makes the occurrence of tones even less expected. A considerable number of other languages are spoken round about this area, and though some of these also are Melanesian, they do not seem to have developed tones. Moreover, it would seem that the use of tones in these two languages antedates the coming of the Melanesian languages, for reasons that will be given towards the end of this paper.

scholarly journals Conversion as Negotiation. Converts as Actors of Civil Society

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 322
Author(s):  
Katrin Langewiesche
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Power Conversion ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Civil Society Organization ◽  
Social Commitment ◽  
Personal Belief

This article focuses on the religious movement of the Ahmadiyya and its civil society organization, Humanity First, in West-Africa and in Europe. Particular attention is paid to the place of converts within these two institutions. Conversions to an Islamic minority and the actions of this minority are studied through the prism of social commitment. I examine the intersections between religious values, the ideas of solidarity in the societies under scrutiny and, the kaleidoscopic range of Muslim charities. The paper investigates conversion as negotiation in regard to gender, social mobility, and power. Conversion is approached here as a matter of social relations and not personal belief. I argue that converts have to use various strategies of recognition, either as individuals or as a group, which places them in a permanent state of negotiation with their entourage.

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