A Comparison of African Kingdoms

Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Vansina
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
West African ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Few Data ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Central South

Opening ParagraphIt has long been recognized that there is a distinctive category of African political systems, which is characterized by centralized authority. The preliminary analysis and classification of African kingdoms proposed in this article are based on comparison of most of the States in Central, South, and East Africa. Only a few data on West African kingdoms have been incorporated, but we feel that the classification will prove generally valid for West Africa as well.

scholarly journals Some new West African species of Anopheles (sensu lato), with notes on nomenclature

1911 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Natural History ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Tropical Medicine ◽  
London School ◽  
African Species ◽  
New West

In describing the following new species from West Africa, some words of explanation are needed as to the generic names used. In the first place, it is necessary to say that the writer follows Messrs. Dyar and Knab in considering that most of the genera into which Meigen's genus Anopheles has recently been split up are not genera in any accepted sense, and should sink under the old name Anopheles. Provisionally, however, Stethomyia, Chagasia, Calvertina and Bironella are considered as distinct; as none of these genera are African, this will not affect the present paper. Lieut.-Col. A. Alcock, of the London School of Tropical Medicine, has kindly allowed me to see the manuscript of a paper on the classification of Anopheles, which he is about to publish in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and I have been able to concur entirely with his views; he recognises only five sub-genera of Anopheles, the sub-genus Nyssorhynchus including all those species with flat scales on thorax and abdomen, i.e., the genera Nyssorhynchus, Cellia and Neocellia of Theobald's Monograph.

scholarly journals The Intraseasonal Variability of African Easterly Wave Energetics

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (17) ◽  
pp. 6559-6580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan J. Alaka ◽  
Eric D. Maloney
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Energy Conversion ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Diabatic Heating ◽  
Heating Temperature ◽  
Intraseasonal Variability ◽  
West African ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Baroclinic Energy Conversion

Abstract African easterly waves (AEWs) and associated perturbation kinetic energy (PKE) exhibit significant intraseasonal variability in tropical North Africa during boreal summer. Consistent with East Africa (e.g., east of Lake Chad) being an initiation region for AEWs, previous studies have shown that increased East African PKE precedes and leads to increased West African AEW activity on intraseasonal time scales. In this study, reanalysis budgets of PKE and perturbation available potential energy (PAPE) are used to understand this behavior. The variability of PKE and PAPE sources is analyzed as a function of Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) phase and a local 30–90-day West African PKE index to diagnose when and where eddy energy conversions terms are important to periods of increased or decreased intraseasonal AEW activity. In East Africa, an increased meridional temperature gradient locally enhances baroclinic energy conversion anomalies to initiate periods of increased intraseasonal AEW activity. Downstream barotropic and baroclinic energy conversions associated with strong AEWs are important for the maintenance of intraseasonal AEW activity in West Africa. Barotropic energy conversions dominate south of the African easterly jet (AEJ), while baroclinic energy conversions are most important north of the AEJ. In both East and West Africa, diabatic heating does not appear to aid intraseasonal PKE creation. Instead, negative PAPE tendency anomalies due to the diabatic heating–temperature covariance act as a negative feedback to increased baroclinic energy conversion downstream in the AEJ.

Patterns of Authority in West Africa

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Brown
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Size And Structure

Opening ParagraphThe development of large centralized states in West Africa has long been recognized. The complexity of organization of the few well-known kingdoms, but not their differences in size and structure, is constantly emphasized in the literature. The number and variety of West African groups which have not developed states have, on the other hand, frequently been underestimated. In a comparative review by Professors Fortes and Evans-Pritchard two types of political system, centralized and segmentary, have been described for Africa as a whole, with examples of each in West Africa. A survey of West African societies suggests, however, that finer distinctions are possible and that not all these societies can be placed in one or other of these two categories. In particular, this classification omits consideration of ‘stateless’ societies in which associations, rather than a segmentary lineage system, regulate political relations; and it fails to distinguish different types of authority and political structure in states.

Social Administration of the Kru. A Preliminary Survey

Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Scudder Mekeel
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Physical Type

Opening ParagraphThe Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

The Classification of West African Tone Languages: Igbo and Efik

Africa ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Green
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Subsequent Research ◽  
Tone Languages ◽  
Tone Pattern

During the last twenty years a new chapter has been opened in the study of the Sudanic languages of West Africa by research into their tonal structure. The presence of semantic or lexical tone had long been recognized in these languages: it was known, that is to say, that words otherwise homonymous were distinguished by differences of tone pattern, and that these differences were significant for meaning. It was, however, the work of Dr. Ida Ward in Nigeria which first made clear the essential part played by tone in the grammar of some of these languages, and subsequent research has confirmed this fact.

Some Problems in the Development of Air Transport in West Africa

1953 ◽  
Vol 57 (512) ◽  
pp. 477-490
Author(s):  
Hubert Walker
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Ivory Coast ◽  
West African ◽  
Early History ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Air Transport ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
History Of

West Africa, particularly British West Africa, has been one of the last areas to be opened up to Air Transport and because of physical and financial difficulties, progress has been slower than in most other parts of the Empire.As West Africa, even today, is not very well known in other parts of the Empire, it will be useful to give a brief description of the territory and the early history of aviation there before dealing with the special problems encountered in the development of air transport. While the particular territories dealt with in this lecture are the four British West African Colonies and Protectorates of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria, it will be necessary, from time to time, to make passing reference to the adjacent French territories and even to the Anglo–Egyptian Sudan. The four British territories, unlike those in East Africa, are not contiguous but each is surrounded on the land side by the intervening French territories of Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Volta, Niger, Chad and the Cameroons.

Nilotic, ‘Nilo-Hamitic’, and Hamito-Semitic: A Reply

Africa ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 364-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H. Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
General Classification ◽  
Present Discussion ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphIn my general classification of African languages, the so-called ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ languages of East Africa were placed in the same subdivision as the Nilotic languages within a much larger linguistic stock called Macro-Sudanic. In a recent review of this work Welmers has suggested the geographic designation Chari-Nile as more appropriate, an emendation in terminology which is herewith accepted. In the same work, the traditional Hamito-Semitic family was accepted with some modifications, not relevant to the present discussion, as another major African linguistic stock, distinct from the Chari-Nile family although perhaps distantly related to it. On this view, the term ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ is inappropriate for this group of languages and the name ‘Great Lakes’ was suggested in its place. In his recent work on the Nilotic languages, Oswin Köhler takes a position very similar to my own in regard to the ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ languages. Moreover he suggests that the Bari-Masai group of languages forming the bulk of ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ is as distant from Nandi-Suk, hitherto always included under the same designation, as it is from the Nilotic languages proper. He therefore proposes a threefold division into Western Nilotic (Shilluk, Dinka, Nuer, &c), Eastern Nilotic (Bari, Masai, Lotuko, &c), and Southern Nilotic (Nandi-Suk). I am inclined to agree with him and this view is borne out by the material assembled in the later part of this article.

The System of Native Administration in Tanganyika

Africa ◽  
1931 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Perham
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
East Africa ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
The West ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Indirect Rule

Opening ParagraphThe object of my visit to Southern and Eastern Africa was to make a comparative study, but I intend in this paper to deal with Tanganyika. This is not because I over-estimate its importance or its singularity. Indirect rule in its general sense is not an invention of this age, and even in the special sense it has acquired during the last twenty years the classic example is in Nigeria. I know that you will all feel with me what a privilege it is for us to meet here at the invitation and in the presence of that administrator whose career was first bound up with the acquisition of East Africa and then with the construction of the system of government in West Africa, the influence of which now reacts upon the East. Exactly what Tanganyika owes to Nigeria could only, perhaps, be learned by ‘listening in’ at a conversation between Lord Lugard and Sir Donald Cameron of a kind that we may suspect has been taking place during the last few weeks. I certainly do not know myself, though I hope to go out shortly to the West Coast in order to find out, if only in part.

Vernacular Text-Books in South African Native Schools

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement M. Doke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
South West ◽  
Northern Sotho ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphIn this survey of vernacular text-books I am confining my attention to the Union of South Africa and the three High Commission Territories of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland. In this area we have five important literary language forms in use, viz. Xhosa and Zulu (belonging to the Nguni cluster of Bantu), and Southern Sotho, Tšwana, and Northern Sotho (belonging to the Sotho cluster). Reference will be made to two other languages spoken in the northern and eastern Transvaal, Venda and Tonga (commonly written as Thonga, and belonging to the cluster of languages spoken in Portuguese East Africa from Delagoa Bay northwards). I do not intend to deal with the languages spoken in the Mandated Territory of South-west Africa, nor with such intrusions as that of Kalanga into the Bechuanaland Protectorate.

The Social Organization of Credit in a West African Cattle Market

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abner Cohen
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
African Cattle ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Cattle Market

Opening ParagraphCredit is a vital economic institution without which trade becomes very limited. In the industrial Western societies, where it is highly developed, it operates through formal, standardized arrangements and procedures by which the solvency of the debtor is closely assessed, securities against possible default are provided, and the conditions of the agreement are documented and endorsed by the parties concerned. Ultimately, these arrangements and procedures are upheld by legislated rules and sanctions administered by central, bureaucratized, fairly impartial, efficient, and effective courts and police. In West Africa, on the other hand, where long-distance trade has been fostered by varying ecological circumstances, such organization has not yet evolved, particularly for long-distance trade. Nevertheless extensive systems of credit have been developed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document