Peter R. Schmidt, Jonathan R. Walz, Jackline N. Besigye, Julius B Lejju
Recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda provide important new insights into anthropogenic impacts on moist forests to the East of the Rwenzori Mountains. This research significantly changes previous interpretations of paleoenvironmental records in western Uganda and helps to distinguish climate change from human impacts. By drawing on multiple sources such as historical linguistics, archaeological evidence, and environmental proxies for change, a new picture emerges for a region that was a cultural crossroads for early Bantu-speakers and Central Sudanic-speakers between 400 BCE and 1000 CE. Detailed archaeological data and well-dated sites provide fine-grained evidence that closely fits episodes of significant environmental change, including a later and separate phase of forest clearance, soil degradation, and lake pollution caused by the saturation of the landscape by Bigo-related populations between 1300 and 1650 CE. Fresque de changements environnementaux induits par l’homme et le climat dans l’ouest de l’Ouganda : la région des lacs du cratère de Ndali
最近在乌干达西部恩达利火山口湖区（Ndali Crater Lakes Region，NCLR）进行的考古和古环境研究，为人类活动对鲁文佐里山脉以东湿润森林的影响提供了重要的新见解。这项研究极大地改变了以往对乌干达西部古环境记录的解释，有助于区分气候变化和人类影响。通过利用历史语言学、考古证据和环境变化代用指标等多种资料，我们对这一地区有了新的认识，在公元前 400 年至公元前 1000 年期间，该地区曾是早期班图语人和中苏丹语人的文化交汇点。详细的考古数据和年代明确的遗址提供了精细的证据，这些证据与重大的环境变化事件密切相关，其中包括在公元 1300 年至 1650 年期间，由于比戈族相关人口对地貌的饱和而造成的森林砍伐、土壤退化和湖泊污染的后期独立阶段。Fresque de changements environnementaux induits par l'homme et le climat dans l'ouest de l'Ouganda : la région des lacs du cratère de Ndali
{"title":"A Tapestry of Human-Induced and Climate-Driven Environmental Change in Western Uganda: The Ndali Crater Lakes Region","authors":"Peter R. Schmidt, Jonathan R. Walz, Jackline N. Besigye, Julius B Lejju","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.6","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda provide important new insights into anthropogenic impacts on moist forests to the East of the Rwenzori Mountains. This research significantly changes previous interpretations of paleoenvironmental records in western Uganda and helps to distinguish climate change from human impacts. By drawing on multiple sources such as historical linguistics, archaeological evidence, and environmental proxies for change, a new picture emerges for a region that was a cultural crossroads for early Bantu-speakers and Central Sudanic-speakers between 400 BCE and 1000 CE. Detailed archaeological data and well-dated sites provide fine-grained evidence that closely fits episodes of significant environmental change, including a later and separate phase of forest clearance, soil degradation, and lake pollution caused by the saturation of the landscape by Bigo-related populations between 1300 and 1650 CE.\u0000 Fresque de changements environnementaux induits par l’homme et le climat dans l’ouest de l’Ouganda : la région des lacs du cratère de Ndali","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"6 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140239615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the methods and sources of writing a colonial legal history of Africa. The analysis is carried out with a case study of the dual legal system operative in colonial Northern Nigeria from 1900 to 1960, which saw the English common law coexist with Islamic law. I examine how three sources of colonial law – namely, legislations, case law, and legal writings – reveal the varied perspectives of European colonial officials and Africans on the workings of this legal system. I argue that while colonial legislations and legal writings are lopsided toward the perspectives of the British authority, case law in conjunction with African commentaries provide some prospect to engage in a narrative that foregrounds the voices of Africans.
{"title":"Writing a Colonial Legal History of Northern Nigeria: An Analysis of Methods and Sources","authors":"Femi Owolade","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.11","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article analyzes the methods and sources of writing a colonial legal history of Africa. The analysis is carried out with a case study of the dual legal system operative in colonial Northern Nigeria from 1900 to 1960, which saw the English common law coexist with Islamic law. I examine how three sources of colonial law – namely, legislations, case law, and legal writings – reveal the varied perspectives of European colonial officials and Africans on the workings of this legal system. I argue that while colonial legislations and legal writings are lopsided toward the perspectives of the British authority, case law in conjunction with African commentaries provide some prospect to engage in a narrative that foregrounds the voices of Africans.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":" 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138995252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Like other oral sources of history, oral traditions constantly respond to political incentives. In the social media world, demographics relegated to the peripheries of modern state-making projects are using oral traditions as a genre of political activism to negotiate belonging. Following this trajectory, Yorùbá homespun historians on social media are refining Yorùbá oral traditions with ethnonationalism contaminants to galvanize netizens in opposition to the ethnicity’s marginalization in Nigeria and to demand a sovereign Yorùbá nation. This article interrogates the methods and approaches that Yorùbá homespun historians employ in recasting oral traditions. Consequently, it considers potential ramifications on oral traditions as a tool for historical inquiry.
{"title":"Cyber History: Homespun Historians, Ethnonationalism, and Recasting Yorùbá Oral Traditions in the Age of Social Media","authors":"I. B. Anọ́ba","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.12","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Like other oral sources of history, oral traditions constantly respond to political incentives. In the social media world, demographics relegated to the peripheries of modern state-making projects are using oral traditions as a genre of political activism to negotiate belonging. Following this trajectory, Yorùbá homespun historians on social media are refining Yorùbá oral traditions with ethnonationalism contaminants to galvanize netizens in opposition to the ethnicity’s marginalization in Nigeria and to demand a sovereign Yorùbá nation. This article interrogates the methods and approaches that Yorùbá homespun historians employ in recasting oral traditions. Consequently, it considers potential ramifications on oral traditions as a tool for historical inquiry.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139001539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From the 1880s, obituaries of Africans and European colonial officials became a frequent genre in Lagos newspapers. This article examines obituary notices in seven Lagos newspapers to understand how print publications and the next of kin who commissioned obituaries used commemorative practices to frame colonial relations and reflect on imperial expansion. Revisiting Jürgen Habermas’s notion of the public sphere, I argue that colonial newspapers introduced gossipy anecdotes and sensationalism in obituary notices to define the colonial “public sphere” as one that is characterized by insinuations of social and economic class, Christian rhetoric, racial divides and anti-colonial sentiments as well as civic responsibilities around public health concerns.
{"title":"A Class of Their Own: Newspaper Obituaries and the Colonial Public Sphere in Lagos, 1880–1920","authors":"Okechukwu Nwafor","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.14","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 From the 1880s, obituaries of Africans and European colonial officials became a frequent genre in Lagos newspapers. This article examines obituary notices in seven Lagos newspapers to understand how print publications and the next of kin who commissioned obituaries used commemorative practices to frame colonial relations and reflect on imperial expansion. Revisiting Jürgen Habermas’s notion of the public sphere, I argue that colonial newspapers introduced gossipy anecdotes and sensationalism in obituary notices to define the colonial “public sphere” as one that is characterized by insinuations of social and economic class, Christian rhetoric, racial divides and anti-colonial sentiments as well as civic responsibilities around public health concerns.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"14 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138976372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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{"title":"Wiriyamu and the Colonial Archive: Reading It Against the Grain? Along the Grain? Read It at All! – ERRATUM","authors":"Andreas Zeman","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.3","url":null,"abstract":"An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135667734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tony Yeboah, Trevor Getz, Talia Kertsman, Gordon George
Abstract There is a great need for new practices to match evolving theories in decolonizing and democratizing the field of African history. This article is a report on a research practice undertaken in the Central Region of Ghana in which researchers worked with teachers to deliver a community-based history experience for high school teachers. The historians contributed lessons in methodology as well as an approach that valued the students as co-creators. Students selected their own research topics and produced original interpretations for their community. The evidence from this intervention suggests benefits for researchers, students, and community members. Although it required a great deal of preparation and learning on the part of the historians, this kind of practice may build community confidence in the researcher, foster valuable partnerships, produce more accurate information and interpretations, and nurture the development of future historians from local communities.
{"title":"Historians and High School Students as Partners: Community-based Learning Experiences as a Tool for Democratizing Research","authors":"Tony Yeboah, Trevor Getz, Talia Kertsman, Gordon George","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract There is a great need for new practices to match evolving theories in decolonizing and democratizing the field of African history. This article is a report on a research practice undertaken in the Central Region of Ghana in which researchers worked with teachers to deliver a community-based history experience for high school teachers. The historians contributed lessons in methodology as well as an approach that valued the students as co-creators. Students selected their own research topics and produced original interpretations for their community. The evidence from this intervention suggests benefits for researchers, students, and community members. Although it required a great deal of preparation and learning on the part of the historians, this kind of practice may build community confidence in the researcher, foster valuable partnerships, produce more accurate information and interpretations, and nurture the development of future historians from local communities.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135351350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The matrilineal Yaawo of northern Mozambique are recognized as having had a tradition of female figures of spiritual and political authority, though little is known of their history. This article takes “voice” as its analytical focus to explore how these women feature in the historical memories of the region. Methodologically, it brings together the study of oral traditions and oral history. Focusing on the narratives as “collections of diverse voices” (Barber 1989), I analyze how past voices echo in the narratives and intertwine with the voices of their contemporary narrators and how contemporary narrators engage with the remembered voices of the past. As this article argues, examining the ways that the relationship between the deeper past and the present is performed in oral history can bring us a better understanding of women’s gendered leadership in a more distant past, as well as its changing shape in more recent times.
{"title":"Chiefs and Other Great Female Ancestors: Voice, Authority, and the Politics of Gendered Temporality in Northern Mozambique","authors":"Jonna Katto","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.4","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The matrilineal Yaawo of northern Mozambique are recognized as having had a tradition of female figures of spiritual and political authority, though little is known of their history. This article takes “voice” as its analytical focus to explore how these women feature in the historical memories of the region. Methodologically, it brings together the study of oral traditions and oral history. Focusing on the narratives as “collections of diverse voices” (Barber 1989), I analyze how past voices echo in the narratives and intertwine with the voices of their contemporary narrators and how contemporary narrators engage with the remembered voices of the past. As this article argues, examining the ways that the relationship between the deeper past and the present is performed in oral history can bring us a better understanding of women’s gendered leadership in a more distant past, as well as its changing shape in more recent times.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
“The archives are silent.” The starting point of this article is the alleged non-existence of archival sources on the Portuguese massacre of Wiriyamu (1972). The article proves this claim to be false and shows how the available sources can be used to improve our knowledge of the massacre. The article suggests that scholars’ ignorance of these sources is connected to general misconceptions about colonial archives and their alleged silence on wartime atrocities, which are based on the belief that such atrocities do only appear in the sources, if they are read against the grain. Revealing the explicit presence of war atrocities in the sources, the article argues that the legitimate concern about reading such sources against the grain should not prevent us from reading them at all.
{"title":"Wiriyamu and the Colonial Archive: Reading It Against the Grain? Along the Grain? Read It at All!","authors":"A. Zeman","doi":"10.1017/hia.2023.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2023.2","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 “The archives are silent.” The starting point of this article is the alleged non-existence of archival sources on the Portuguese massacre of Wiriyamu (1972). The article proves this claim to be false and shows how the available sources can be used to improve our knowledge of the massacre. The article suggests that scholars’ ignorance of these sources is connected to general misconceptions about colonial archives and their alleged silence on wartime atrocities, which are based on the belief that such atrocities do only appear in the sources, if they are read against the grain. Revealing the explicit presence of war atrocities in the sources, the article argues that the legitimate concern about reading such sources against the grain should not prevent us from reading them at all.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47214487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article provides a select reading of the British Africanist Ivor Wilks’ unpublished field notes, “Conversations about the past, mainly from Ghana, 1956–1996.” Specifically, it focuses on Wilks’ notes on the migration of Muslims in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, including his collection of interviews, diary entries, anecdotal observations, and ethnographic data. It offers new perspectives on the entanglements between mobility, knowledge transmission, and authority in the history of Muslim communities in West Africa that are normally taken for granted. While this article is not meant to be exhaustive, it highlights the possibility of using disparate notes and observations to stitch together the beginnings of a compelling story that centers mobility as a crucial aspect of the history of Islam in Africa.
{"title":"Mobility, Knowledge Transmission, and Authority in West Africa: Re-Reading Ivor Wilks’ Fieldnotes “Conversations about the Past”","authors":"Amir Syed","doi":"10.1017/hia.2022.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2022.18","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article provides a select reading of the British Africanist Ivor Wilks’ unpublished field notes, “Conversations about the past, mainly from Ghana, 1956–1996.” Specifically, it focuses on Wilks’ notes on the migration of Muslims in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, including his collection of interviews, diary entries, anecdotal observations, and ethnographic data. It offers new perspectives on the entanglements between mobility, knowledge transmission, and authority in the history of Muslim communities in West Africa that are normally taken for granted. While this article is not meant to be exhaustive, it highlights the possibility of using disparate notes and observations to stitch together the beginnings of a compelling story that centers mobility as a crucial aspect of the history of Islam in Africa.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42266566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article argues for the potential of sociolinguistic methods to write post-colonial African history using a case study of the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala as its language of power (langue du pouvoir) in order to rule Congo-Zaire. Oral history interviews conducted in DRC from 2019 to 2021, corroborated by sociolinguistic and political science analyses from the period under study, reveal how the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala contributed to the privatization of the Zairian state, and the fracturing of Zairian society, but also the strengthening of Zairian and later Congolese national identity.
本文以蒙博托政权为统治刚果-扎伊尔，使用林加拉语作为其权力语言(language du pouvoir)为例，探讨社会语言学方法在撰写后殖民时期非洲历史中的潜力。2019年至2021年在刚果民主共和国进行的口述历史访谈得到了研究期间的社会语言学和政治学分析的证实，揭示了蒙博托政权对林加拉语的使用如何促进了扎伊尔国家的私有化和扎伊尔社会的分裂，但也加强了扎伊尔和后来的刚果的民族认同。
{"title":"The Power of Language and the Language of Power: Sociolinguistic Methods and Social Histories of Language and Political Power in Mobutu’s Congo-Zaire (1965–1997)","authors":"Joshua Castillo","doi":"10.1017/hia.2022.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2022.13","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article argues for the potential of sociolinguistic methods to write post-colonial African history using a case study of the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala as its language of power (langue du pouvoir) in order to rule Congo-Zaire. Oral history interviews conducted in DRC from 2019 to 2021, corroborated by sociolinguistic and political science analyses from the period under study, reveal how the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala contributed to the privatization of the Zairian state, and the fracturing of Zairian society, but also the strengthening of Zairian and later Congolese national identity.","PeriodicalId":39318,"journal":{"name":"History in Africa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48517795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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