scholarly journals What’s In the Manuscripts of Timbuktu? A Survey of the Contents of 31 Private Libraries

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Charles C. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past

Abstract The Arabic manuscripts of Timbuktu have received considerable publicity during the past 25 years, yet their contents remain largely unknown. Since 2012, an inventory of nearly 350,000 Timbuktu manuscripts in private libraries has been underway, and the contents of those libraries are now accessible in the West African Arabic Manuscript Database (WAAMD). This analysis examines 31 of the 35 libraries and in addition to reporting on their contents, notes challenges in accessing incompletely identified works, and compares the manuscripts with other West African collections.

Systematics of Irvingiaceae and Ixonanthaceae (Malpighiales): phylogenetic analysis based on three plastid DNA loci

Phytotaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 260 (2) ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES W. BYNG ◽  
BENEDETTA BERNARDINI ◽  
MAARTEN J. M. CHRISTENHUSZ ◽  
MARK W. CHASE
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Plastid Dna ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
Old World ◽  
The Past

Relationships of Ixonanthaceae and Irvingiaceae have been poorly known in the past. We therefore investigate the relationships of these families here. Plastid atpB, rbcL and ndhF sequences from taxa representing all genera were analysed using maximum likelihood. Allantospermum was found as sister to Irvingiaceae and does not belong to Ixonanthaceae where it was often traditionally placed. This position of Allantospermum in Irvingiaceae is further supported by numerous putative synapomorphic characters. Expanded species sampling in Ixonanthaceae found that African Phyllocosmus was embedded within a strongly supported clade containing American Ochthocosmus. A re-evaluation of morphological characters of the two supports an enlarged concept of Ochthocosmus. Within Irvingiaceae, the West African monotypic Desbordesia was embedded within a strongly supported clade of Old World Irvingia. These findings change circumscriptions of both Ixonanthaceae and Irvingiaceae.

Re-Islamization of the West African Ummah A Model for Tajdid?

1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-228
Author(s):  
Abdur Rahman I. Doi
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
West African ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Sahara Desert ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Islamic Civilization

IntroductionHuman development, from the Islamic point of view, can be achieved onlyby following the footsteps of the Prophet (SAAS). The nearer one comes toimbibing the Message of the Quran, Sunnah, and Shari’ah in one’s life, themore humanly developed one becomes, because personal development in Islamis measured by one’s refinement in living this Message. The more refinedand developed are the persons in a community, the better will be their cultureand civilization.As long as Muslims continued moulding their life according to the Shari‘ah,their civilization in Medina, Baghdad, Andullis, Constantinople, and Delhiflourished. The decline and fall of Islamic civilization came when Muslimsstarted paying mere lip service to the formula of faith and departing fromthe spirit and purposes of the Shari‘ah. This was the unfortunate phenomenonthroughout the Muslim world. Fortunately, the rightly inspired people roseto bring back the erring Muslims to the path of the Shari’ah. This paper seeksto present an assessment of the dynamics used by a Mujaddid (a promoterof Tajdid or revival) of West Africa to re-Islamize a society that had sunkinto the abyss of confusion.Islam in West AfricaWest Africa, situated south of the Sahara desert, and which the Arabhistorians called Bilad al Sudan, has witnessed in the past, many Islamicempires, e.g., Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Bornu, the last of which was theSokoto Caliphate. It emerged from the process of Tajdid (renewal or revival inaccordance with the Quran and Sunnah)’ which was started by Shehu(Shaikh) ‘Uthman Danfodio (1754-1817) in 1774, and which culminated in ...

Rock art in sub-Saharan Mali

Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (290) ◽  
pp. 799-800
Author(s):  
Cornelia Kleinitz
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
West African ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Blank Space ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
West African Sahel ◽  
African Sahel

Sub-Saharan West Africa has remained largely a blank space on the world rock-art map, in spite of a steady trickle of reports during the past century on pictograph and petroglyph sites in the West African sahel and savanna belts. It seems that the nature of the rock art reported, predominantly ‘geometric’ and saurian motifs, and ‘stick figures’, as well as its apparent recent age, formed little incentive for in-depth studies of rock art in this region. From sub-Saharan Mali, for example, only two sites have been published to a satisfactory standard (Huysecom 1990; Huysecom et al. 1996). The richness of the region in rock art, as indicated by several authors (e.g. Griaule 1938; Huysecom & Mayor 1991/92; Togola et al. 1995), has been confirmed by on-going research on rock art in the Boucle du Baoulé region (map, FIGURE 5) in the southwest of the country (Kleinitz 2000). In three field seasons, 14 known and 38 newly identified rock-shelters and open-air sites with pictographs and peboglyphs have been recorded.

French Lexicography in Africa: a Three-Dimensional Project

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad Max Benedict Brann
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Ford Foundation ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
English Speaking

Few English-speaking scholars realise that a francophone network of scholars has powerfully developed the study of contact between French and African languages over the past decade, and that this is currently being synthesised in the form of an Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français en Afrique noire. This corporate work, sponsored by the Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française (A.U.P.E.L.F.) and the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique (A.C.C.T.),1 is of considerable linguistic, educational, and sociopolitical significance, and deserves to be widely known in Africa. Indeed, it will be remembered that at the founding of the West African Linguistic Society in 1961 two surveys were mooted: West African languages and, later, English in West Africa, of which the former was accomplished with the help of the International African Institute and the Ford Foundation, while the latter was forgotten. With the ‘Inventory of French in Africa’, the francophone network of scholars has certainly stolen a march on English-speaking Africa.

scholarly journals Irish in the West Indies: Irish Influence on the Formation of English-Based Creoles

2015 ◽  
pp. 181-192
Author(s):  
Elena Perekhvalskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
West African ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The West ◽  
Irish Language ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
The Caribbean

This article deals with the problem of the early stages of creole formation. The significant structural and material similarities between the aspectual systems of the verb in Hiberno-English and in the West Indies English-based creoles are demonstrated. Suggestions are made about the possible impact of the Irish language on the formation of the English-based creoles in the early stages of creolisation. The historical evidence which proves the possibility of language contact between Irish, English and West African languages in the Caribbean in the past is provided.

scholarly journals "River Run" (Nancy Maker Brown Song) Revisioned and Reimagined

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kei Slaughter
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
Black Body ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Look Ahead ◽  
Black Aesthetics ◽  
Closed Captions ◽  
Cultural Origins ◽  
Roots Music

Video Description (on YouTube): "River Run." Revisioned and Reimagined. 2021. Words, music, arrangement by kei slaughter.   Originally written in 2019 while participating in the Acoustic Guitar Project - where artists are given one guitar, for one week, to write one song. This intimate performance is a reimagined and revisioned version, weaving deconstructed elements of the original work, with improvised vocalizations, body percussion, and flute loops, and live vocal and flute performance. "River Run" is dedicated to my maternal great great great great grandmother, Nancy Maker Brown. For me, this (re)mix is an exploration and expression of Black aesthetics - imagining and conjuring new sound worlds through my queer, gender expansive Black body while engaging with ancestral memory. The stripped back elements of breath, tone, and voice, were intentionally used to ground me in my musical-cultural origins, back to a kind of roots music. Thus, embodying the West African concept of Sankofa, as I look back to the past, I also look ahead towards futurity, reflected through the use of live looping, layering, and circular storytelling. Closed captions available.

Observations on the Oviposition of Aëdes aegypti, Linn., in Relation to Distance from Habitations

1927 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Aedes Aegypti ◽  
Yellow Fever ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past

During the past few months the writer conducted observations to determine, first, if Aëdes aegypti preferred places of oviposition within habitations or those located outside with natural shelter near by, and, second, the distance from human habitations at which this species may breed. These investigations were carried out in, or near, the compound of the West African Yellow Fever Commission at Yaba, near Lagos, Nigeria.

Matricide in Ghana: Victims, Offenders, and Offense Characteristics

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1925-1946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mensah Adinkrah
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Western World ◽  
Physical Force ◽  
The West ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Media Reports

At present, scholarship on matricide across many regions of the non-Western world is lacking. For instance, in Ghana, despite the intermittent, yet recurrent, availability of media reports describing matricidal acts over the past quarter century, no existing study has systematically analyzed matricidal killings in the West African nation. To contribute to the literature and extend knowledge about matricide and other forms of lethal violence in Ghana, this article presents the results of an analysis of 21 matricidal acts that occurred in Ghana from 1990 to 2016. Issues studied include demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, modus operandi, temporal and spatial aspects, as well as the motives and circumstances surrounding the crime. The results show that sons were substantially more likely than daughters to kill their mothers, matricide offenders were more likely to suffer from serious psychiatric disorders, matricide offenses generally occurred in the victim’s home, and all cases of matricide were characterized by massive physical force and extreme violence. Matricide offenses in Ghana differed from matricides in Western nations in four important respects: (a) none of the 21 matricides was perpetrated with a firearm, (b) in none of the cases did the offender act with a co-offender (accomplice or accessory), (c) none of the matricide offenses was perpetrated by a juvenile or adolescent offender, and (d) suspicion that the mother-victim was a maleficent witch was an important trigger in matricide perpetration.

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