The Import of Firearms into West Africa in the Eighteenth Century

1980 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
West African ◽  
Sharp Reduction ◽  
Intense Competition ◽  
West India Company

The records of probably the biggest Birmingham gun-making firm specializing in the African trade and records of the Dutch West India Company are used in this article to throw more light on the quantities, types and quality of the guns imported into West Africa and on their effects in the eighteenth century. Inikori's estimate of 45 per cent as the proportion of English firearms in the total annual West African import of between 283,000 and 394,000 guns per annum is probably an underestimate because of the unknown quantities of English guns which were re-exported from Continental ports to West Africa. It is estimated tentatively that 180,000 guns per annum were being imported into the Gold and Slave Coasts by 1730, and that some of the most dramatic effects of the import of guns occurred between 1658 and 1730. A revolution in warfare began in the 1690s in the Senegambian coastal areas and along the Gold and Slave Coasts. The trebling of slave prices and the sharp reduction in gun prices between 1680 and 1720 enabled large militarized slave-exporting states to develop along the Gold and Slave Coasts. There was a strong demand for well-finished and well-proved guns as well as for the cheapest unproved guns, and the dangerous state of many of the guns imported into West Africa has been exaggerated. The reputations of European nations for the quality of their guns fluctuated. There was probably no steady deterioration in the quality of English guns imported between 1750 and 1807, but the quality of the cheapest guns deteriorated during periods of intense competition.

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.

The Import of Firearms into West Africa 1750–1807: a quantitative analysis

1977 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Inikori
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Crop Protection ◽  
Strong Preference ◽  
African History ◽  
Agricultural Commodities

A series of articles on firearms in Africa published in the Journal of African History in 1971 raised a number of questions which have not been given adequate attention since those articles appeared. In the present paper an attempt is therefore made to shed some light on some of these questions in relation to West Africa in the second half of the eighteenth century. On the basis of import figures from England total imports during this period was estimated to be between 283,000 and 394,000 guns per annum, excluding imports into the Congo–Loango area which Phyllis Martin estimated to be about 50,000 yearly at this time. These guns went largely to the major slave exporting regions of West Africa, especially the Bonny trading area. The sellers of slaves showed a very strong preference for firearms, which is an indication of a strong connexion between guns and the acquisition of slaves. This reinforces the gun-slave cycle thesis. The evidence fails to support the idea that firearms were used primarily for crop protection in West Africa in the eighteenth century. If this were so it should have been reflected in the European goods demanded by sellers of agricultural commodities. It is likely, however, that the use to which firearms were put in West Africa changed after 1900. While the quality of firearms imported into West Africa during the period of this study was generally low, it would seem that those firearms largely served the purposes for which the African buyers purchased them.

scholarly journals Constitutional and Succession Crisis in West Africa: The Case of Togo

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adewale Banjo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Human Security ◽  
West African ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
African Nation ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Ethnic Divide ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe politics of succession in post-independence West Africa has left much to be desired and, by extension, has affected the quality of democracy and human security in the sub-region. This article briefly assesses succession politics in Togo, a small West African nation of approximately 5 million people, following the death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema, one of Africa's longest serving dictators. The author describes the military takeover and subsequent election that legitimized the illegal take over of power by Eyadema's son despite sustained domestic opposition from politicians and civil society, as well as sub-regional, regional and international condemnation of a Constitutional "coup d'etat" in Togo. The article concludes that the succession crisis in Togo is far from over, given the continuing manipulation of what the author calls the geo-ethnic divide in that country.

scholarly journals The Export Competitiveness of Ghana’s Cocoa Industry in West Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Alhassan Abukari ◽  
Tan Cunfeng
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
West African ◽  
Downward Trend ◽  
Cocoa Beans ◽  
Regression Framework ◽  
The World ◽  
Export Competitiveness ◽  
Cocoa Production

Ghana in the year 1911 became the world’s largest exporter of cocoa. However, cocoa export in Ghana nearly came to standstill in the 1970s as a result of the outbreak of swollen shoot disease of cocoa. Ghana since then has not been able to rejuvenate its cocoa export as expected. The years 1999 to 2018 have witnessed a downward trend in the export of cocoa in Ghana. This raises questions of whether the phrase “Ghana is cocoa, and cocoa is Ghana” is still valid. The study attempts to analyze the competitiveness of Ghana’s cocoa sector vis-à-vis its neighbors. In doing so, the authors calculate the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) for Ghana to compare with other West African exporters of cocoa and assess the determinants of Ghana’s cocoa exports. The authors adopt a regression framework to explore the determinants of cocoa exports. The results revealed that Ghana is highly competitive in the export of cocoa beans. The study attributed this advantage to the quality of the cocoa beans Ghana exports. The results further showed that Ghana’s cocoa production volumes and the World consumer price of cocoa beans were the major determinants of the volume of cocoa beans exported in Ghana. The study concluded that although Ghana enjoys a comparative advantage in the export of cocoa beans, Ghana’s cocoa production volumes fluctuate thus affecting the volume of cocoa exported. Ghana, therefore, needs to invest in new hybrid climate-smart cocoa cultivation to boost production and export.

West African Anansesem as Timeless Conversation Pieces: A Gricean Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis Kaburise ◽  
Grace Ramachona
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
The West ◽  
Verbal Interactions ◽  
Structural Characterisation ◽  
Gricean Maxims ◽  
Required Quality

The West African anansesem (short stories about the spider, Ananse) are considered ageless classics in many countries and continents; and their appeal has remained constant over generations. Although anansesem is a word taken from the Ashanti tribe in Ghana, the stories have impacted in the whole of West Africa and can also still be heard in Caribbean households. The appeal of anansesem is quite personal—but analysts have isolated varying characteristics; and these include linguistic, structural, characterisation, themes, plot, and a certain ambience. One quality of anansesem, which has enabled them to still command extensive audience, is their ability to reflect ‘‘a conversation’’ in line with Grice’s maxims. Grice is a theorist in pragmatics, who outlined the salient features or maxims of verbal interactions that should govern a conversation. These four maxims are—quantity (make your conversation as informative as is required), quality (do not say what you believe to be untrue), relation (be relevant) and manner (avoid obscurity of expressions). The aim of this article is to analyse selected ananse stories as examples of conversation pieces in accordance with these Gricean maxims. The analyses was based on the assumption that these short stories exhibit features different from the attributes of traditional short stories, and that this difference is the essence of anansesem’s timeless appeal. The results illustrated that despite the brevity of these stories, a certain ambience, created by their conversation-like writing style, ensures their ability to create sustaining humour, while being politically, socially, and economically relevant ‘‘conversations’’ for today. 

scholarly journals Islam in West Africa

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-93
Author(s):  
Ahmed Sheikh Bangura
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Volta Basin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Systems

Islam in West Africa is a collection of nineteen essays written by NehemiaLevtzion between 1963 and 1993. The book is divided into five sections. dealingwith different facets of the history and sociology of Islam in West Africa.The first section focuses on the patterns, characteristics, and agents of thespread of Islam. The author offers an approach to the study of the process of thatIslamization in West Africa that compares pattems of Islamizacion in medievalMali and Songhay to patterns in the Volta basin from the seventeenth to thenineteenth centuries. He also assesses the complex roles played by Africanchiefs and kings and slavery in the spread of Islam.Section two focuses on the subject of lslam and West African politics fromthe medieval period to the early nineteenth century. Levtzion identifies twotrend in African Islam: accommodation and militancy. Islam's early acceptancein West African societies was aided by the fact that Islam was initially seen asa supplement, and not as a substitute, to existing religious systems. Levtzionanalyzes the dynamics of Islam in African states as accommodation gave wayin time to tensions between the ruling authorities and Islamic scholars, callingfor a radical restructuring of the stare according to Islamic ideals. The tensionsbetween the Muslim clerics of Timbuktu and the medieval Songhay rulers. andthe ultimately adversarial relationship between Uthman dan Fodio and the Gobirleadership in eighteenth-century Hausaland, are singled out for sustained analysis ...

A poisonous plant of the genus Datura (Solanaceae) in an eighteenth-century Danish garden in West Africa

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-159
Author(s):  
Daniel Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Ornamental Plant ◽  
Poisonous Plant ◽  
Guinea Coast ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century

There was disagreement among colonialists about whether the Africans around the Danish West African forts made use of native poisons in the early nineteenth century, but it appears that the Danes themselves may have introduced a poisonous ornamental plant of the genus Datura in one of their own gardens on the Guinea Coast.

scholarly journals Differences in Colonial Experience and the Institution-Economic Growth Nexus in West Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-58
Author(s):  
Isiaka Akande Raifu ◽  
Obianuju Ogochukwu Nnadozie ◽  
Olaide Sekinat Opeloyeru
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Panel Data Estimation ◽  
Quality Of Institutions ◽  
Colonial Experience ◽  
The Impact

Does the quality of institutions affect economic growth in West African countries? Which institutional variable aids or harms economic growth in the region? Is the effect of institutions on economic growth in former French-colonised countries different from that of British-colonised countries? This study addresses these questions. Specifically, we first examined the effect of six institutional variables on economic growth for each of the 13 West African countries. Then, we employed panel data estimation techniques to examine the overall effect of the quality of institutions on the economies of the region. Finally, we grouped the 13 countries into French-colonised and British colonised countries following the argument of Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2001,2005) and then examined the impact of institutional quality on the economic growth of these subgroups. Our findings reveal that the effect of institutional variables on the economy of each country varies. Overall, we find that government stability and democratic accountability have a positive and significant influence on economic growth, while control of corruption and socioeconomic conditions have deleterious effects on economic growth. Finally, institutions contribute positively to economic growth in French-colonised countries compared to British-colonised countries. The results imply that there is a need to strengthen institutions in West Africa, especially in former British colonies.

scholarly journals Guinea- Bissau

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (312) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
West African ◽  
Guinea Bissau ◽  
The Government ◽  
External Sector ◽  
The Imf

A technical assistance (TA) mission on external sector statistics (ESS) visited Guinea-Bissau during February 3 to 7, 2020. The mission was conducted in Bissau at the request of the National Directorate for Guinea-Bissau of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO-DNGB). The mission assisted in improving the quality of ESS. This was the fourth and final mission under the JSA-AFR project for improving ESS in 17 francophone countries of Central and West Africa, financed by the government of Japan and administered by the IMF.

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.

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