scholarly journals “May It Please Your Honor”: Letters of Petition as Historical Evidence in an African Colonial Context

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chima J. Korieh
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
African History ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Real Factor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic

I humbly lay my reputation on your verdict, and beg that your acute interest to help your subjects in this time of conflict mark you [as] an asset and real factor, helpful figure whose merciful eye would reflect upon my case which stands me a subject of compassion. — Odili Ezeoke to the Authority Controlling Food Supply, Aba, 9 July 1943.Historians have relied on a variety of sources to analyze Africa's encounter with Europe and response to colonialism. Several scholars, who have published in the Heinemann African Social History Series, have relied on oral accounts to add an indigenous perspective to the history of colonialism in Africa. African history nevertheless suffers from a lack of other sources, such as diaries, journals, and personal narratives, which can enrich the historical narrative. Letters of petitions provide one of the very few opportunities to locate African men and women's voices as they confronted the new political, economic, judicial and social system that emerged in the colonial context. Petitions were widely used by every class of the African population in the colonial period and can help to re-evaluate African-European interactions and dialogues in a colonial context. Their existence challenges the notion of colonial authorities as a hegemonic force in the making of colonized societies in light of new forms of evidence that redefine this encounter. Petitions were used by individuals as well as groups as a means to seek remedy for grievance for a number of types of actions, ranging from taxation, court cases and a variety of other issues.

Sons and Fathers in the Major Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis A. Sussman
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
History Of Rhetoric ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Male Adolescents ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
History Of

Abstract: A major focus of the school themes in the collections of Roman declamations knowrn as controversiae (practice court cases) is the period of a young man's adolescence, and especially his relationship with his father during this period. In part this can be explained because teachers in the private schools of rhetoric selected themes that naturally appealed to their students——male adolescents in their mid and late teens. This focus is especially notable in the Major Declamations, and since they are the only full examples of controversiae,the phenomenon can most easily be explored in reference to this werk. In its nineteen declamations youths are generally portrayed sympathetically, in contrast to their fathers who are often cruel and harsh. Relations between the two are generally very strained. The themes were popular because they reflected the reality of growing up in a paternally dominated society where fathers had absolute power(even of life and death) over their sons. These declamations therefore had a cathartic effect and escapist value fer Roman teenaged boys,who could vent or explore in legitimate and acceptable ways their repressed, pent-up, and often hostile feelings toward their fathers. The declamations therefore provide an important resource, when used judiciously, for associating social history with the history of rhetoric.

The Coca Leaf in Bolivian History

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Brewer-Osorio
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Inca Empire ◽  
History Of ◽  
Potent Drug ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Peasant Farmers ◽  
Leaf P

Coca is deeply interwoven into the political, economic, and social history of Bolivia from the Inca Empire to the 21st-century rise of President Evo Morales Ayma. As such, generations of Bolivians, from powerful hacendados to peasant farmers, have resisted efforts to destroy the coca leaf. Coca is a mild herbal stimulant cultivated and consumed by indigenous Andeans for centuries, and the primary material for making the potent drug cocaine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Spanish colonizers promoted coca production on large haciendas to supply mining towns, giving rise to a powerful class of coca hacendados that formed part of Bolivia’s ruling oligarchy after independence. In the early 20th century, the coca hacendados shielded coca from international drug control. Following the 1952 Revolution, agrarian unions replaced hacendados as guardians of the coca leaf. The unions formed a powerful social movement led by Evo Morales Ayma, an indigenous leader and coca farmer, against US-led efforts to forcibly eradicate coca. During the 1990s, Morales and his allies created a political party called the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS). In late 2005, Morales was elected president of Bolivia and his new government deployed state power to protect the coca leaf.

Digital Resources: Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centro América

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary A. Joyce ◽  
Russell N. Sheptak
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
Digital Resources ◽  
Document Collections ◽  
Reference Number ◽  
History Of ◽  
Original Record ◽  
Opening Up

The Online Finding Aid for the Archivo General de Centro América will provide increased ways for researchers to identify documents of interest in a widely distributed microfilm copy of this primary resource for the history of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Chiapas (Mexico). The original archive, located in Guatemala, houses approximately 147,000 registered document collections from the colonial period, ranging in date from the 16th century to independence from Spain in 1821. The microfilm copy, composed of almost 4,000 reels of microfilm, is organized according to basic keywords designating the original province in colonial Guatemala, a year, and a subject-matter keyword. Also associated in the basic records of the finding aid (which are already available online) are the reference number assigned each document in the original archive, and the specific reel(s) on which it is found. With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, enhanced records are being created for documents dating between 1700 and 1821 identified as associated with Guatemala, the administrative heart of the colony, for which there are no published indices. Enhanced records add names of people and places not recorded in the original record, opening up the microfilm collection, and through it, the original archive, to broader social history including studies of the roles of women, indigenous people, and African-descendant people.

Reconsidering Secularism and Historical Narrative of Christianity

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
F. Kubra Aytac
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Pastoral Psychology ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Short History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Essential Contribution

Abstract In this review article, Graeme Smith, A Short History of Secularism, is reviewed with its main arguments regarding secularisation debate. A radical reconsideration of secularism and its social history, starting with the Greeks and continuing to modernity and the contemporary period, are offered by this book. The book’s attempt to construct a historical narrative of Christianity is an essential contribution to literature. It highlights the changes Christianity is exposed to as it moved across Europe and different mindsets that influenced people during this period. Students who are interested in studies in pastoral psychology, religion, and secularism are the primary audience for this monograph. However, anyone interested in the secularism debate will find it interesting.

Rabbinic Texts and the History of Late-Roman Palestine

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Introductory Section ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Roman Palestine ◽  
Late Roman

This volume brings together studies in the rabbinic literature of late antiquity by specialists in the history of the Jews in that period in order to reveal the value of rabbinic material as historical evidence and to show the problems and issues which arise in its exploitation. An introductory section discusses the current state of knowledge about Palestine in this period and debates the difficulties involved in editing and dating rabbinic texts. Specific core texts and text categories are then introduced to the reader in a series of ten discrete studies. The volume concludes with six thematic analyses which illustrate the use and limitations of rabbinic evidence for cultural, religious, political, economic and social history.

Imperial Business in Africa Part II. Interpretations

1976 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Business History ◽  
African History ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance

This article, which is in two parts, aims to establish expatriate business history as a necessary and important part of modern African history. Part I surveyed approximately fifty histories of European companies in West, Central and East Africa during the colonial period and drew attention to newly-discovered and little-known records. Part II begins by assessing the quality of the studies listed in Part I, and suggests ways in which the level of scholarship can be raised to meet standards set by professionally-written business history. The article then formulates and explores a number of propositions concerning the spatial distribution and changing size, structure, strategy and performance of expatriate business in Africa. It is argued that many of these propositions cut across established but inadequately supported views, and that the development of business history has wider implications for the study of the colonial history of Africa.

The Oral History of Royal Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate: An Interview with Sallama Dako

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Sean Stilwell ◽  
Ibrahim Hamza ◽  
Paul E. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sokoto Caliphate ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Royal Slavery ◽  
Official Sources

A powerful community of royal slaves emerged in Kano Emirate in the wake of Usman dan Fodio's jihad (1804-08), which established the Sokoto Caliphate. These elite slaves held administrative and military positions of great power, and over the course of the nineteenth century played an increasing prominent role in the political, economic, and social life of Kano. However, the individuals who occupied slave offices have largely been rendered silent by the extant historical record. They seldom appear in written sources from the period, and then usually only in passing. Likewise, certain officials and offices are mentioned in official sources from the colonial period, but only in the context of broader colonial concerns and policies, usually related to issues about taxation and the proper structure of indirect rule.As the following interview demonstrates, the collection and interpretation of oral sources can help to fill these silences. By listening to the words and histories of the descendents of royal slaves, as well as current royal slave titleholders, we can begin to reconstruct the social history of nineteenth-century royal slave society, including the nature of slave labor and work, the organization the vast plantation system that surrounded Kano, and the ideology and culture of royal slaves themselves.The interview is but one example of a series of interviews conducted with current and past members of this royal slave hierarchy by Yusufu Yunusa. As discussed below, Sallama Dako belonged to the royal slave palace community in Kano. By royal slave, we mean highly privileged and powerful slaves who were owned by the emir, known in Hausa as bayin sarki (slaves of the emir or king).

From the history of the formation of the economic system of the Caliphate

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (03) ◽  
pp. 108-116
Author(s):  
Yegana Chaghlayan ◽  
Erhan Chaghlayan
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Social History ◽  
Financial Policy ◽  
Monetary Reform ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tax Practice ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Umayyad Caliphate

The era of the rise and prosperity of the Caliphate puts before researchers many problems of political, economic and social history. Among these problems, the history of the formation of the economic system of the Caliphate is one of the most relevant for medieval studies. This article examines the process of feudalization in the Caliphate, in particular, the administrative and tax practice of the new state, the monetary reform of the Caliph Abd al-Malik, as well as the financial policy of the Umayyad Caliphate. Based on the extensive material of medieval sources and numismatic data the place and role of the city in the economic structure of the Caliphate are investigated.

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