EUR  â¬114.00EUR  â¬95.00 excl. VAT
Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past
Essays in Honour of Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias
Series: - African History, Volume: 6
Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past offers a comprehensive assessment of new directions in the historiography of West Africa. With twenty-four chapters by leading researchers in the study of West African history and cultures, the volume examines the main trends in multiple fields including the critical interpretation of Arabic sources; new archaeological surveys of trans-Saharan trade; the discovery of sources in Latin America relating to pan-Atlantic histories; and the continuing analysis of oral histories. The volume is dedicated to Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, whose work inspired the intellectual reorientations discussed in its chapters and stands as the clearest formulation of the bookâs central focus on the relationship between political conjunctures and the production of sources.
Contributors are: Benjamin Acloque, Karin Barber, Seydou Camara, Mamadou Diawara, Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Nikolas Gestrich, Toby Green, Bruce Hall, Jan Jansen, Shamil Jeppie, Daouda Keita, Murray Last, Robin Law, Camille Lefebvre, Paul Lovejoy, Ghislaine Lydon, Carlos Magnavita, Sonja Magnavita, Kevin MacDonald, Thomas McCaskie, Ann McDougall, Daniela Moreau, Mauro Nobili, Insa Nolte, Abel-Wedoud Ould-Cheikh, Benedetta Rossi, Charles Stewart.
Contributors are: Benjamin Acloque, Karin Barber, Seydou Camara, Mamadou Diawara, Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Nikolas Gestrich, Toby Green, Bruce Hall, Jan Jansen, Shamil Jeppie, Daouda Keita, Murray Last, Robin Law, Camille Lefebvre, Paul Lovejoy, Ghislaine Lydon, Carlos Magnavita, Sonja Magnavita, Kevin MacDonald, Thomas McCaskie, Ann McDougall, Daniela Moreau, Mauro Nobili, Insa Nolte, Abel-Wedoud Ould-Cheikh, Benedetta Rossi, Charles Stewart.
Toby Green is Senior Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture at Kingâs College London. He is the author of The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa, 1300-1589 (Cambridge, 2012).
Benedetta Rossi is Reader in African Studies at the University of Birmingham. She is the author of From Slavery to Aid: Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800-2000 (Cambridge 2015).
Benedetta Rossi is Reader in African Studies at the University of Birmingham. She is the author of From Slavery to Aid: Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800-2000 (Cambridge 2015).
[...] The editors have done a very good job of bringing together a wide range of scholars to engage with Moraes Fariasâ ideas and give them new life. This book is a useful and welcome contribution that overcomes traditional disciplinary divides and makes for a very fitting tribute to this great scholar and his work.[...]
Sirio Canós-Donnay, Institute of Heritage Sciencies, Spanish National Research Council, in African Archaeology Review (2020) 37:315â316
Sirio Canós-Donnay, Institute of Heritage Sciencies, Spanish National Research Council, in African Archaeology Review (2020) 37:315â316
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
1 All that Glitters is not Gold: Facing the Myths of Ancient Trade between North and Sub-Saharan Africa
âSonja Magnavita and Carlos Magnavita
2 African Archaeology and the âChalk Line Effectâ: A Consideration of MÄli City and SiÄilmÄsa
âFrançois-Xavier Fauvelle
3 The âPays Dôâ and the Origins of the Empire of Mali
âKevin C. MacDonald, Nikolas Gestrich, Seydou Camara, Daouda Keita
4 Imitation and Creativity in the Establishment of Islam in Oyo
âInsa Nolte
5 Fante âOriginsâ: The Problematic Evidence of âTraditionâ
âRobin Law
6 The Unknowns of the Modern Era in the Greater Western Sahara: Reassessing the Territorial Location of the WlÄd Dlaym (15thâ17th Centuries)
âBenjamin Acloque
7 The Almoravids and AÅ¡Ê¿arism: Regarding the Work of al-MurÄdÄ« al-Ḥaá¸ramÄ«
âAbdel Wedoud Ould-Cheikh
8 Inscribing the Now and the Hereafter: First Writings in Early African History
âGhislaine Lydon
9 New Reinventions of the Sahel: Reflections on the Taʾrīḫ Genre in the Timbuktu Historiographical Production, Seventeenth to Twentieth Centuries
âMauro Nobili
10 Calibrating the Scholarship of Timbuktu
âCharles C. Stewart
11 Rethinking the Place of Timbuktu in the Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
âBruce S. Hall
12 Two Examples of Sahelian Book Collectors Over Two Centuries
âShamil Jeppie
13 The Time-Tested Traditionist: Intellectual Trajectory and Mediation from the Early Empires to the Present day
âMamadou Diawara
14 The Next Generation: Young Griotsâ Quest for Authority
âJan Jansen
15 In Praise of History; History as Praise
âKarin Barber
16 From Essentialism to Pluralisms: New Directions in Precolonial West African History from the Oral History Archive at Fajara, the Gambia
âToby Green
17 Dreamworlds: Cultural Narrative in Asante Visionary Experience
âThomas C. McCaskie
18 The Life of a Text: Carsten Niebuhr and Ê¿Abd al-RaḥmÄn AÄ¡aâs Das innere von Afrika
âCamille Lefebvre
19 The Kano Chronicle Revisited
âPaul E. Lovejoy
20 Slavery or Death in Sokoto and Borno: Tactics, Legalities and Sources
âMurray Last
21 A Story of Exile, a Story in Exile: Louis Hunkanrin, Mauritania and âUn Forfait Colonialâ (Revisited)
âE. Ann McDougall
22 Edmond Fortier (1862â1928): Photographer, Documentarian and Creator of Stereotypes in West Africa
âDaniela Moreau
Afterword: Paulo Fernando de Moraes Fariasâ Publications and Interview
âPaulo Fernando de Moraes Farias
Interpreting Sources of the African Past: An Interview with Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias by
âBenedetta Rossi
Introduction
Part 1: Archaeology and Material Landscapes
1 All that Glitters is not Gold: Facing the Myths of Ancient Trade between North and Sub-Saharan Africa
âSonja Magnavita and Carlos Magnavita
2 African Archaeology and the âChalk Line Effectâ: A Consideration of MÄli City and SiÄilmÄsa
âFrançois-Xavier Fauvelle
3 The âPays Dôâ and the Origins of the Empire of Mali
âKevin C. MacDonald, Nikolas Gestrich, Seydou Camara, Daouda Keita
Part 2: Imagined Landscapes and Moral Topographies
4 Imitation and Creativity in the Establishment of Islam in Oyo
âInsa Nolte
5 Fante âOriginsâ: The Problematic Evidence of âTraditionâ
âRobin Law
6 The Unknowns of the Modern Era in the Greater Western Sahara: Reassessing the Territorial Location of the WlÄd Dlaym (15thâ17th Centuries)
âBenjamin Acloque
7 The Almoravids and AÅ¡Ê¿arism: Regarding the Work of al-MurÄdÄ« al-Ḥaá¸ramÄ«
âAbdel Wedoud Ould-Cheikh
Part 3: Contextualising Writing and Written Sources
8 Inscribing the Now and the Hereafter: First Writings in Early African History
âGhislaine Lydon
9 New Reinventions of the Sahel: Reflections on the Taʾrīḫ Genre in the Timbuktu Historiographical Production, Seventeenth to Twentieth Centuries
âMauro Nobili
10 Calibrating the Scholarship of Timbuktu
âCharles C. Stewart
11 Rethinking the Place of Timbuktu in the Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa
âBruce S. Hall
12 Two Examples of Sahelian Book Collectors Over Two Centuries
âShamil Jeppie
Part 4: Contextualising Orature and Traditionalists
13 The Time-Tested Traditionist: Intellectual Trajectory and Mediation from the Early Empires to the Present day
âMamadou Diawara
14 The Next Generation: Young Griotsâ Quest for Authority
âJan Jansen
15 In Praise of History; History as Praise
âKarin Barber
16 From Essentialism to Pluralisms: New Directions in Precolonial West African History from the Oral History Archive at Fajara, the Gambia
âToby Green
17 Dreamworlds: Cultural Narrative in Asante Visionary Experience
âThomas C. McCaskie
Part 5: Projects, Texts, and Representations
18 The Life of a Text: Carsten Niebuhr and Ê¿Abd al-RaḥmÄn AÄ¡aâs Das innere von Afrika
âCamille Lefebvre
19 The Kano Chronicle Revisited
âPaul E. Lovejoy
20 Slavery or Death in Sokoto and Borno: Tactics, Legalities and Sources
âMurray Last
21 A Story of Exile, a Story in Exile: Louis Hunkanrin, Mauritania and âUn Forfait Colonialâ (Revisited)
âE. Ann McDougall
22 Edmond Fortier (1862â1928): Photographer, Documentarian and Creator of Stereotypes in West Africa
âDaniela Moreau
Afterword: Paulo Fernando de Moraes Fariasâ Publications and Interview
âPaulo Fernando de Moraes Farias
Interpreting Sources of the African Past: An Interview with Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias by
âBenedetta Rossi
All interested in West African history, African history generally, and â beyond Africanists â anyone concerned with historical theory and methods for the exegesis and interpretation of sources.