Archaeological Research in West Africa

Antiquity ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 18 (71) ◽  
pp. 147-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Arkell
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
West African ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
West Africans

The pilgrimage to Mecca made on foot across Africa from west to east between the desert and the tropical forest keeps many West Africans in close touch with the valley of the Nile. The pilgrims follow a route along which culture must from the earliest times have been spread by refugees, traders, military expeditions and the like. (In these latter days motorized convoys of West African troops and aerial reinforcements for the Middle East have followed the same route).Over twenty years’ service in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (of which twelve years were spent in Darfur, where the cultural and political influence of West Africa was strong in medieval times, and is still felt today), has left me much interested in West Africa, although I have never been there.

Takrūr The History of a Name

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
'Umar Al-Naqar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
West African ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
West Africans ◽  
History Of

The generic term Takarīr (also Takarna) is a popular Middle Eastern concept applied to all West African Muslims. The progenitor of the name, to which the attribution Takarīr is made, is the ancient state of Takrūr, which existed briefly on the Senegal basin from ca. a.d. 1OOO and which was the first West African chieftaincy to accept Islam. This paper suggests that probably the earliest West African Muslims to be seen in the Middle East in recognizable numbers may have come from that state. Because the milieu of the Hijaz and the diversity of races frequenting the annual pilgrimage ceremonies encouraged generalizations, the name Takarīr was conveniently applied to West Africans. The ambiguity of the term may thus be seen to have progressively increased with the expansion of Islam in West Africa, while the name itself became sufficiently entrenched in popular usage for it to survive the fame of great West African empires like Mali and Songhay. The term ‘Bilad al-Takrūr’ is essentially the extension of the Middle Eastern concept of Takrūr and has therefore received various territorial definitions.

Jihad in West Africa: early phases and inter-relations in Mauritania and Senegal

1971 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip D. Curtin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Religious History ◽  
West African ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
External Influence ◽  
Religious Leadership ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Early Phases

The tradition of religious revolution directed against partially Muslim rulers is traced to the religious reform movement among the zwāya of Mauritania in the 1660s, and to the jihad that brought them briefly into control of Futa Toro, Cayor, Walo, and Jolof in the 1670s. In spite of the reconquest of these states by their secular rulers and the re-establishment of Hassānī control in southwestern Mauritania, the tradition of religious revolt and the aim of establishing an imamate under religious leadership lived on, to reappear in other Fulbe states. It came a generation later, with the jihad of Malik Sy in Bundu during the 1690s, and direct connexions can be traced between the leadership in Bundu and the leadership in the later jihad in Futa Jallon. The jihad in Futa the 1770s and 1780s followed in the same tradition. This evidence suggests that the external influence of the mid-eighteenth-century revival of Islam in Arabia and the Middle East has been overemphasized in West African religious history. Forces working for the reform of Islam based in Africa itself were already at work.

scholarly journals The Middle East and Brazil

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-107
Author(s):  
Philipp Bruckmayr
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South America ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Political History ◽  
West African ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
American Power ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States

The title at hand is a valuable and timely edited volume that sheds light onthe economic, political, literary, social, cultural, religious, and historical connectionsbetween Brazil and the Middle East. Whereas the Middle East in thisrespect primarily means the area historically referred to as bilād al-shām (i.e.,Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel), the book also tackles the historicallinkages among Brazil, Muslim Andalusia, and West Africa. Structurally,the volume is divided into three parts, which are preceded by anintroduction by the editor.Part 1, “South-South Relations, Security Politics, Diplomatic History,”includes five papers, the first four of which are more or less straightforwardtreatments of political history/science. Paul Amar sketches the dynamic strategicchanges in policy toward the region and hegemonic American power duringthe early presidency of Dilma Rousseff (2010-13) in the face of majorchanges in the Middle East that rendered her continuation of the “handshakepolitics” that her predecessor Lula had extended toward the now-crumblingdictatorial regimes unfeasible. In the following chapter, Paulo Daniel EliasFarah discusses one of the fruits of Lula’s endeavors: the formation of theSummit of South America-Arab States in 2003. He situates this diplomaticconcord within a long history of contacts between Brazil and the Arab/Muslimworld as well as the transnational flows of forced and free migration, as epitomizedby the presence of enslaved West African Muslims and then, later on,Syro-Lebanese settlers in Brazil.Carlos Ribeiro Santana’s contribution sheds light on Brazil’s pragmatismin fostering relationships with the Middle East to secure its oil supplies againstthe background of the energy crises of the 1970s. This thread is also pickedup in the following paper by Monique Sochaczweski, which details how thesevery configurations caused Brazil to abandon its “equidistance” policy ...

scholarly journals High mammalian diversity in the newly established National Park of Upper Niger, Republic of Guinea

Oryx ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Ziegler ◽  
Gerhard Nikolaus ◽  
Rainer Hutterer
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
National Park ◽  
West African ◽  
Flying Squirrel ◽  
Priority Area ◽  
Republic Of Guinea ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Park Area ◽  
Remnant Forest

This paper presents the results of a mammal survey conducted between 1995 and 1997 in the newly established National Park of Upper Niger in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. Ninety-four species of mammals were recorded in the park area and its environs; 19 of these species were newly recorded or confirmed for Guinea. The fauna of the park includes about 50% of the known mammalian diversity of the country. Among the species found are West African endemics such as the Gambian mongoose Mungos gambianus. The park, although situated in the Guinea savannah belt, includes some remnant forest, which harbours tropical forest mammals such as Thomas's galago Galagoides cf. thomasi, hump-nosed mouse Hybomys planifrons, soft-furred rat Praomys rostratus and flying squirrel Anomalurops sp.. This National Park is a high priority area for the conservation of the vertebrate diversity of West Africa.

The Archaeology of Political Complexity in West Africa Through 1450 CE

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Dueppen
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
West African ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Political Complexity ◽  
Power And Authority

Political complexity in archaeological research has traditionally been defined as socio-political differentiation (roles, statuses, offices) integrated through centralized systems of power and authority. In recent decades the assumption that complex organizational forms tend to be hierarchical in structure has been called into question, based upon both archaeological research and ethnological observations worldwide, including in classic archaeological case studies of centralization. Moreover, there has been an increasing interest in exploring variability in political legitimizations and articulations of power and authority globally. Until these theoretical shifts, West African complex societies, both archaeological and from ethnographic analyses, were largely ignored in discussions of political complexity since many (but not all) conformed poorly to the expectations of highly centralized power and administration. West African ethnohistoric and archaeological examples are now playing important roles in current discussions of heterarchical organizational structures, checks on exclusionary power, cooperation, urbanism, ethnicity, and the nature of administration in states.

The Script

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Dyonne Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Black Body ◽  
West African ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
African Music ◽  
West Africans ◽  
Cultural Expressions

This chapter examines seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European and American travel journals to reveal the manner in which they portrayed West Africans in order to create the moral and social justifications for slavery and racial stereotypes. It argues that European travelers often ignored the ritualistic purpose of West African music and dance and instead reduced West Africans to servants, prostitutes, and entertainers. These societal positions were developed on the premise of European hegemony and aimed to create an African commodity. Throughout West Africa, music, song, and dance were important cultural expressions. However, from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, European and American travelers distorted these expressions in order to project and fulfill their own desires. This chapter shows how travel narratives presented the identity of West Africans as malleable and capable of being shaped according to the desired purpose of the gazer. Through their creation of the innate dancers and singers, it contends that travel journals contributed to the subjugation and reconfiguration of the black body through its neglect of the actual culture and tradition of the performing arts.

The Mecca Pilgrimage By West African Pastoral Nomads

1977 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Birks
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Savanna ◽  
Pastoral Nomads ◽  
West Africans

Each dry season many Um Borroro or nomadic Fulani set off eastwards to Mecca. They are some of the 5,000 or so West Africans who make the pilgrimage (the haj) each year by travelling along the savannas through Cameroun, Chad, and the Sudan.1 About four-fifths of them come from what is generally called Hausaland and Bornu in Nigeria and Niger, but some pilgrims from all the West African savanna countries travel overland.2 Although they comprise only about six per cent of the total arriving in Mecca from West Africa (the majority come by air and sea), they represent an important relict movement which earlier this century involved more than 15,000 migrants per annum.3

Marabout Women in Dakar: Creating Authority in Islamic Knowledge

Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber B. Gemmeke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dream Interpretation ◽  
The World ◽  
Esoteric Knowledge ◽  
West Africans ◽  
And Gender

In studies concerning Islam and gender in West Africa, the expertise of women in Islamic esoteric practices is often overlooked. These practices, that include divination, dream interpretation and prayer sessions, are central in politics, economics and the daily life of most West Africans. Furthermore, their products (such as amulets) and their practitioners (marabouts) travel to Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. Despite the importance of Islamic esoteric practices in West Africa and the rest of the world, they are understudied. In this article, I focus upon the life and work of two marabout women living in Dakar: Ndeye Meissa Ndiaye and Coumba Keita. Their position is exceptional: Islamic esoteric knowledge is a particularly male-dominated field. This article describes how two women's Islamic esoteric expertise is negotiated, legitimated and publicly recognized in Dakar.

African Power

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-60
Author(s):  
Amber Gemmeke
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Spiritual Power ◽  
African Migrants ◽  
West Africans ◽  
African Soil

This paper explores how West African migrants’ movements impacts their religious imagery and that of those they encounter in the diaspora. It specifically addresses how, through the circulation of objects, rituals, and themselves, West Africans and Black Dutchmen of Surinamese descent link, in a Dutch urban setting, spiritual empowering and protection to the African soil. West African ‘mediums’ offer services such as divination and amulet making since about twenty years in the Netherlands. Dutch-Surinamese clients form a large part of their clientele, soliciting a connection to African, ancestral spiritual power, a power which West African mediums enforce through the use of herbs imported from West Africa and by rituals, such as animal sacrifices and libations, arranged for in West Africa. This paper explores how West Africans and Dutchmen of Surinamese descent, through a remarkable mix of repertoires alluding to notions of Africa, Sufi Islam, Winti, and Western divination, creatively reinvent a shared understanding of ‘African power’.

The Alliance between Fundamentalist Christians and the Pro-Israel Lobby: Christian Zionism in US Middle East Policy

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-187
Author(s):  
Donald E. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Conservative Movement ◽  
International Media ◽  
Christian Zionism ◽  
The Us ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Middle East Policy ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Political Scene

It is a common assumption in the international media that the fundamentalist Christian Right suddenly appeared on the US political scene following the 11 September 2001 tragedy, and that it became a major force in shaping US policy in the Middle East. While it is true that fundamentalist Christians have exercised considerable influence during the George W. Bush administration, their ascendance is neither new nor surprising. The movement has demonstrated political influence in the US and England intermittently for more than a hundred years, particularly in the formation of Middle East policy. This article focuses on the unique theology and historical development of Christian Zionism, noting its essential beliefs, its emergence in England during the nineteenth century, and how it grew to gain prominence in the US. The alliance of the pro-Israel lobby, the neo-conservative movement, and several Christian Zionist organizations in the US represents a formidable source of support for the more maximalist views of Israel's Likud Party. In the run-up to the 2004 US presidential elections this alliance could potentially thwart any progress on an Israeli–Palestinian peace plan in the near future. Moreover, Likud ideology is increasingly evident in US Middle East policy as a result of this alliance.

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