Travel Writing, Experiences, and Silences: What is Left Out of European Travelers' Accounts—the Case of Richard D. Mohun

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Barrett-Gaines
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
African History ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Recent contributions to this journal have taken various approaches to travelers's accounts as sources of African history. Elizabeth de Veer and Ann O'Hear use the travel accounts of Gerhard Rohlfs to reconstruct nineteenth-century political and economic history of West African groups who have escaped scholarly attention. But essentially they use Rohlfs' work as he intended it to be used. Gary W. Clendennen examines David Livingstone's work to find the history under the propaganda. He argues that, overlooking its obvious problems, the work reveals a wealth of information on nineteenth-century cultures in the Zambezi and Tchiri valleys. Unfortunately, Clendennen does not use this source for these reasons. He uses it instead to shed light on the relationship between Livingstone and his brother.John Hanson registers a basic distrust of European mediated oral histories recorded and written in the African past. He draws attention to the fact that what were thought to be “generally agreed upon accounts” may actually reflect partisan interests. Hanson dramatically demonstrates how chunks of history, often the history of the losers, are lost, as the history of the winners is made to appear universal. Richard Mohun can be seen to represent the winners in turn-of-the-century Central Africa. His account is certainly about himself. I attempt, though, to use his account to recover some of the history of the losers, the Africans, which Mohun may have inadvertently recorded.My question is double; its two parts—one historical, one methodological—are inextricably interdependent. The first concerns the experience of the people from Zanzibar who accompanied, carried, and worked for Richard Dorsey Mohun on a three-year (1898-1901) expedition into Central Africa to lay telegraph wire. The second wonders how and how well the first question can be answered using, primarily, the only sources available to me right now: those written by Mohun himself.

“We cannot spare you”: Phillips Brooks's Break with the Evangelical Party, 1859–1873

1999 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 930-953
Author(s):  
Gillis J. Harp
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
Liberal Protestantism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
American Evangelicalism ◽  
Church Historians

Despite renewed scholarly interest in Evangelical Episcopalianism recently, important questions persist about the party's demise in the last third of the nineteenth century. Though church historians have advanced some plausible explanations for its disappearance, these interpretations need now to be tested by more narrowly focused studies of individuals, both committed party men and their less partisan allies. Concomitant questions also linger about the relationship between Evangelicals and the emergent Broad Church movement within the American church and within the Anglican communion generally. Exactly how did Low Church Evangelicals become Low Church liberals by the turn of the century? More importantly, this subject has a broader significance for the history of American Christianity at large. Pursuing the foregoing questions can shed considerable light on the parallel transformation of a moderately Reformed American evangelicalism into turn-of-the-century liberal Protestantism.

Mapping the Malagueta Coast: a History of the Lower Guinea Coast, 1460–1510 through Portuguese Maps and Accounts

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 331-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Massing
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Iron Ore ◽  
West African ◽  
African History ◽  
Guinea Coast ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
World Demand ◽  
History Of

The Malagueta Coast can serve as a classic example of a region which was integrated into the world economy as a result of world demand for its resources—spices and labor in the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries, and again in the nineteenth century palm oil, cocos fiber, and labor—and has sunk into oblivion once the demand ceased. It is similar with Liberia's rubber and iron ore industry of the twentieth century. I had wanted to write this paper, which reconstructs the discovery and commercial exploitation of the coast through a systematic analysis of published maps and reports, ever since I walked and paddled along this coast in 1968. Furthermore I intend to review the discovery of the coast in the perspective of overall Portuguese policy and politics (interior and foreign). Last, but not least, this is to help students of Liberian and West African history with a review of the early sources—among which maps are by far the most abundant.The Portuguese legacy to Africa is enshrined in coastal toponymy until today. Avelino Teixeira da Mota in his “Topónimos de origem portuguesa” focused on Portuguese names still surviving in the nineteenth century, but I will focus here on contemporary fifteenth- and sixteenth-century nomenclature and what it might reveal about the African discoveries. The Portuguese initially were attracted by gold at the Rio d'Ouro (later Spanish Sahara), then slaves, and eventually malagueta—a substitute for Indian pepper—commodities known on the Lisbon market and which served to name the coasts: malagueta, marfim, ouro, esclavos. Diogo Gomes was the first to actually see Malagueta on the Gambia in 1445, but the malagueta coast was not discovered until after Henry's the Navigator's death in 1460.

scholarly journals Cholera, British seamen and maritime anxieties in Calcutta, c.1830s–1890s ‘The William Bynum Prize Essay’

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-329
Author(s):  
Manikarnika Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Contagious Diseases ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Epidemic Diseases ◽  
Prize Essay

AbstractFrom the mid-nineteenth century, seamen were increasingly identified as vectors of epidemic diseases such as cholera. The rising acceptance of the germ theories of disease and contagion and the transition from sail to steam at this time increased the fear of the rapid spread of contagious diseases through these mobile people. This article examines how the British naval authorities, ship surgeons and the medical and municipal authorities in the Calcutta sailortown sought to improve maritime health and hygiene to prevent the spread of cholera among and by British seamen. Nineteenth century Calcutta is an ideal context for this study on account of its epidemiological notoriety as a disease entrepot and the sea route between Calcutta and British ports was one of the most closely monitored for disease in the Empire. The article argues that a study of cholera among British seamen can generate important insights into the relationship among disease, medicine and colonialism and in doing so shed light into a neglected aspect of the history of nineteenth century cholera, the British anxiety regarding disease dispersion, practice of hygiene and sanitation and British seamen’s health.

scholarly journals L’enjeu Ouest- Africain De La Securite Au Burkina Faso

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 366
Author(s):  
Bertin G. Kadet
Keyword(s):  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Economic History ◽  
State Violence ◽  
West African ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
The People ◽  
Military Violence ◽  
Regular Army ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

This study addresses the issue of military violence affecting security in Burkina Faso and its implications in the West African geopolitics. Studies on the political and economic history of this country and surveys on recent proceedings in Burkina reveal that in this country, the security front has for several years been marked by state violence. For nearly half a century (1966- 2014), the military have seized state power and used the regular army of the country at the expense of the people and also towards destabilizing neighboring countries. With the just-ended political transition, the advent of a civil regime in this country in November 2015 could be a driver of peace and security at the national and regional levels only if the ruling Burkinabe authorities embark on institutional reforms that will pave the way to participatory democracy, and if public action is channeled as a matter of priority into human development.

Mali: A Bibliographical Introduction

1966 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 74-87
Author(s):  
Charles H. Cutter
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Source Material ◽  
African History ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
History Of

Bibliographical research on Mali must begin with the monumental Bibliographie générale du Mali, prepared by Paule Brasseur (Dakar, IFAN, 1964). The present essay is in no way a substitute for such a basic volume. It is an attempt to introduce the reader to some of the best and most important works concerning Mali, at the same time stressing materials that have appeared in English or since the publication of the Brasseur work. Neither the Brasseur bibliography nor this essay takes adequate account of the manuscript sources in Peul and Arabic concerning the western Sudan. Still in private hands or in the archives of Paris, Dakar, Zaria, Kano, Ibadan, or Timbuktu, these manuscripts are largely unclassified and unstudied. Once analyzed, they will provide an important source for the study of Malian history. Vincent Monteil, “Les manuscrits historiques arabo-africains,” Bulletin de l'IFAN, série B, XXVII, No. 3-4 (July-October 1965), 531-542, surveys efforts being made to collect and classify such manuscripts in West Africa. H. F. C. Smith, “The Archives of Segu,” Bulletin of News of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Supplement to Vol. IV, No. 2 (September 1959), presents a brief analysis of some of the great collection of manuscripts captured by Archinard in 1890 and now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. In addition, in “Source Material for the History of the Western Sudan,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, I, No. 3 (December 1958), 238-248, Smith surveys significant materials from the Gironcourt Collection, in the Institut de France, Paris. This is updated by him in “Nineteenth-Century Arabic Archives of West Africa,” Journal of African History, III, No. 2 (1962), 333-336, a brief listing of literary works, diplomatic correspondence between West African emirates, etc.

scholarly journals Methodological questions regarding the economic history of Byzantium

2001 ◽  
pp. 9-23
Author(s):  
Angeliki Laiju
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The People ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Economic Ideology ◽  
The Relationship

"The Economic History of Byzantium", now in press, has been discussed on the basis of new archaeological data, a broader historiographical environment and on the economic ideology. The methodological problems concern chronology, the role of the state, the relationship between ideology and reality, the significance of smallholdings, the usefulness of modern economic theory. The economy was a mixed one, providing some of the important needs of the people.

Turkish Archival Sources for West African History

1967 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. 59-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. G. Martin
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Early History ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
African History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamic Society

About 1960, the study of West African history took a new turn as historians became aware of the interest and value of Islamic sources for their work, particularly manuscript materials in Arabic. To be sure, the use of Arabic sources for the history of West Africa is nothing new: in 1841, W. Des-borough Cooley published his The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained; or, an Inquiry into the Early History and Geography of Central Africa. But Cooley's pioneering book was discounted by later British and American writers on Africa as the work of an eccentric. In the 1880's and 1890's, many of these writers were spellbound by their vision of what Christianity might do for the African, while others were preoccupied by what they deemed to be the morally indefensible activities of the Muslims as slave-raiders and traders in West and East Africa. As late as the 1930's, the well-known British anthropologist C. K. Meek indicted Islam in northern Nigeria when he wrote: “The institution of slavery is a pivotal feature of Islamic society, and we are justified with charging Muhammadanism with the devastation and desolation in which Northern Nigeria was found at the beginning of this century.” Other writers, like Sir A.C. Burns for Nigeria, and A. W. Cardinall and W. E. F. Ward for Ghana, dismissed the Islamic side of West African history in few words, or gave it no mention at all. There were other reasons for this lack of emphasis. In northern Nigeria, for example, many British officials were apprehensive of an outbreak of “Mahdism” among the Muslims; and very frequently, French officials looked on Islam as a rival political system, dangerous and potentially subversive.

Historia económica regional de España, siglos XIX y XX. Edited by Luis Germán, Enrique Llopis, Jordi Maluquer de Motes, and Santiago Zapata. Barcelona: Crítica, 2001.

2003 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-256
Author(s):  
David Ringrose
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
European Union ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Autonomous Regions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This volume is a collection of nineteen essays, seventeen of which summarize the economic history of the individual autonomous regions established in Spain as part of the transition to democratic government that began in 1975. The last two essays are valiant efforts to synthesize some of the information in the first seventeen. The first of the concluding essays discusses the persistence of pre-nineteenth-century structures in Spain during the nineteenth century. The second examines the relationship of the various autonomous regions within Spain to the European Union.

‘Here is No Resisting the Country’. The Realities of Power in Afro-European Relations on the West African ‘Slave Coast’

Itinerario ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Law
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
West African ◽  
African History ◽  
Trading System ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Political Dominance ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Trading ◽  
The Military

Perceptions of the earliest stages of interaction between European nations and the indigenous peoples of Africa, from the beginnings of European maritime expansion in the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, are easily clouded by consciousness of the subsequent imposition of European rule over almost the entire African continent. There has, arguably, been a tendency to read back into earlier periods the military and political dominance which became manifest in the European Partition of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The temptation is, perhaps, especially strong in relation to the history of the Atlantic slave trade, which appears so obviously damaging to the African societies involved that it is readily assumed that their participation in it must have been somehow coerced. Although strongest in popular perceptions, this tendency has been reflected in the work of some academic historians also: perhaps most emphatically in the general survey of Afro-European commercial relations by the late Walter Rodney, which remains probably the most widely read book on African history. There we are told, for example, that ‘From the beginning, Europe assumed the power to make decisions within the international trading system […] Above all, European decision-making power was exercised in selecting what Africa should export – in accordance with European needs.’ Primarily, according to Rodney, this was a question of disparity of economic power; but ‘as a last resort’ armed force could be used ‘to ensure the pursuit of favourable policies in the dependent areas’.

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