MUSLIM HISTORIES, AFRICAN SOCIETIES: THE VENTURE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES IN AFRICA Muslim Societies in African History. By DAVID ROBINSON. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xx+220. £35/$55 (ISBN 0-521-82627-6); £14.99/$19, paperback (ISBN 0-521-53366-X). The History of Islam in Africa. Edited by NEHEMIA LEVTZION and RANDALL L. POUWELS. Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 2000. Pp. xii+591. $75 (ISBN 0-8214-1296-5); $26.95, paperback (ISBN 0-8214-1297-3).

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
SEAN HANRETTA
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Ohio University ◽  
African History ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Comprehensive Reference

WITH the publication of these two volumes, the historical study of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa has reached its maturity. Drawing on five decades of scholarship since the professionalization of African history, and the long traditions of Islamic and African studies before that, these works – one the first truly usable textbook survey of the field, the other the first comprehensive reference – are both a successful culmination of what has gone before and guides to the paths ahead. In some cases the authors' and editors' careers are virtually synonymous with the field as a whole, as with the late Nehemia Levtzion, and all are among the acknowledged authorities on their specialties. David Robinson, author of Muslim Societies in African History, is one of the few who have established themselves as authorities on both the precolonial and colonial periods, and his work is central to active debates in each subfield. The individual and collective stature of Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels, editors of The History of Islam in Africa, along with that of the twenty-two other contributors, makes the authority of the volume unprecedented.

The History of Romantic Love in Sub-Saharan Africa: between Interest and Emotion

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Love ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Project ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Theoretical Issues

This chapter looks at the history of romantic love in Sub-Saharan Africa. This text comes from a lecture given at the British Academy's 2009 Raleigh Lecture on History. This text attempts to explore some of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in an historical study of love in Africa. It argues that romantic love in Africa is not simply an extension of an imperialist cultural and political project and that emotional regimes cannot be divorced from economic circumstances. It explains that though the configurations of interest and emotion take specific forms in African societies, there is nothing peculiarly African about the evident need of individuals to balance realism and idealism in their emotional lives.

scholarly journals Writing African History in France during the Colonial Era

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Dulucq
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan

In the second half of the 19th century, French imperial expansion in the south of the Sahara led to the control of numerous African territories. The colonial rule France imposed on a diverse range of cultural groups and political entities brought with it the development of equally diverse inquiry and research methodologies. A new form of scholarship, africanisme, emerged as administrators, the military, and amateur historians alike began to gather ethnographic, linguistic, judicial, and historical information from the colonies. Initially, this knowledge was based on expertise gained in the field and reflected the pragmatic concerns of government rather than clear, scholarly, interrogation in line with specific scientific disciplines. Research was thus conducted in many directions, contributing to the emergence of the so-called colonial sciences. Studies by Europeans scholars, such as those carried out by Maurice Delafosse and Charles Monteil, focused on West Africa’s past. In so doing, the colonial context of the late 19th century reshaped the earlier orientalist scholarship tradition born during the Renaissance, which had formerly produced quality research about Africa’s past, for example, about medieval Sudanese states. This was achieved through the study of Arabic manuscripts and European travel narratives. In this respect, colonial scholarship appears to have perpetuated the orientalist legacy, but in fact, it transformed the themes, questions, and problems historians raised. In the first instance, histoire coloniale (colonial history) focused the history of European conquests and the interactions between African societies and their colonizers. Between 1890 and 1920 a network of scientists, including former colonial administrators, struggled to institutionalize colonial history in metropolitan France. Academic positions were established at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France. Meanwhile, research institutions were created in French West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Française [AOF]), French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Équatoriale Française [AEF]), and Madagascar between 1900 and the 1930s. Yet, these imperial and colonial concerns similarly coincided with the rise of what was then known as histoire indigène (native history) centered on the precolonial histories of African societies. Through this lens emerged a more accurate vision of the African past, which fundamentally challenged the common preconception that the continent had no “history.” This innovative knowledge was often co-produced by African scholars and intellectuals. After the Second World War, interest in colonial history started to wane, both from an intellectual and a scientific point of view. In its place, the history of sub-Saharan Africa gained popularity and took root in French academic institutions. Chairs of African history were created at the Sorbonne in 1961 and 1964, held by Raymond Mauny and Hubert Deschamps, respectively, and in 1961 at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, fulfilled by Henri Brunschwig. African historians, who were typically trained in France, began to challenge the existing European scholarship. As a result, some of the methods and sources that had been born in the colonial era, were adopted for use by a new generation of historians, whose careers blossomed after the independences.

Radiocarbon Dates for Sub-Saharan Africa

1961 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Carbon 14 ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Southern Rhodesia

In the belief that the results of this system of absolute dating are of considerable interest to historians and others concerned with the pre-colonial history of Africa, the Journal of African History has decided to publish from time to time lists of dates since c. 1000 B.C. which are being established for sub-Saharan Africa by the Radiocarbon (Carbon 14) method. (A description of this technique will be found in Professor F. E. Zeuner's Dating the Past.) The Rhodes-Livingstone Museum has kindly agreed to compile these lists for the Journal, and would be most grateful if those possessing relevant results could send a note of them to the Director, the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, P.O. Box 124, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. The attention of readers is also drawn to the new dates for Southern Rhodesia published in the appendix to Mr Roger Summers'ps article in this number of the Journal.

African History in the United States

1967 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Leonard M. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
American University ◽  
Howard University ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
History Department

The growth of the study of the history of Africa south of the Sahara is an interesting example of contemporary intellectual developments. Until the mid-1950's African history was ignored by the historical profession in the United States even more completely than in Europe; and if an American historian had paused to consider why this was so, he would probably have anticipated Trevor-Roper's well-known verdict that the history of sub-Saharan Africa is undiscoverable (on the ground that it is not documented) and that, even if it were discoverable, it would be devoid of intellectual significance (on the ground that traditional African societies were barbarous and static). No professor with tenure at an American university was designated as a historian of sub-Saharan Africa; American publishers had produced very few books or articles dealing with African history, and Americans generally knew scarcely anything about it. There were, however, several pioneer activities which were on the periphery of African history. At Howard University there were long-established courses on Negro history, inspired by W. E. B. DuBois and Carter Woodson, which included some West African material, but the American historical establishment paid little attention to this work. William L. Hansberry, who lectured on precolonial African history for some years, was never given tenure by the Howard authorities and was eventually excluded from the faculty. At Northwestern University, Melville Herskovits founded a program of African Studies in 1947. He invited historians to attend the seminars conducted under the program, and he himself published a book on the kingdom of Dahomey and was interested in questions of change as well as structure in African societies. Nevertheless, Herskovits was by training and status an anthropologist, and the history department at Northwestern did not provide lecture courses or seminars on African history before 1958.

History of Medicine in Sub-Saharan Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Schumaker
Keyword(s):  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Colonial Medicine ◽  
African History ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Medical Traditions

This article aims to bring together two historiographical strands, one originating in the discipline of the history of medicine, and the other originating in African history. It begins with African medicine and its historical development and discusses colonial medicine, which is the subject of much recent scholarship. Africa's experience of colonial medicine has challenged the traditional view of colonial hegemony. It shows that valuable insights have come through study of the variable acceptance of colonial medicine in Africa and it has strengthened the racial cleavages of colonial societies. It discusses the historiography of medicine in Africa, pointing out its gaps and failures as well as its accomplishments. It directs attention to the underlying conditions of the production of research — funding priorities and publication targets that maintain the dominance of the history of Western medicine as a subject, while marginalizing the medical traditions of Africa and the developing world.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document