Mansā Mūsā and Global Mali

2019 ◽  
pp. 92-143
Author(s):  
Michael A. Gomez
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Minimalist Theory

This chapter describes Mali's most legendary figure: Mansā Mūsā. A remarkable period of stability and expansion ensued under Mansā Mūsā, resulting in a West Africa at its pinnacle. Mūsā would embrace Islam emphatically, breaking with predecessors by building mosques in key cities, laying the foundation for Mali's reputation as a Muslim land. Islam would soon become a principal cultural signifier, articulating a realm of growing ethnic diversity while compensating for an imperial presence guided by a minimalist theory of governance. For all of Mūsā's accomplishments, however, he would never fully escape rumors of matricide and intrigue. But in paying close attention to what the sources say, it is as critical to note what they do not say, which leads to the stunning realization that the very zenith of the Malian moment is essentially disregarded in the oral traditions.

Intimacy through Time and Space in Fieldwork Interviews

2021 ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Sabina Perrino
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Novel Synthesis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Intimate Relations ◽  
Anthropological Fieldwork

Chapter 5 continues to engage with theory, meta-methodology, and methodology through a novel synthesis of work on scalarity, intimacy, stancetaking, chronotopicity, kinship, and narrative. After defining intimacy as “. . . an emergent feeling of closeness in combination with significant levels of vulnerability, trust, and/or shared identities that can very across time and space” (Perrino & Pritzker, 2019), it goes on to provide the reader with a discursive and procedural view of what intimacy, vulnerability, and trust look like. In doing so, this chapter provides a discursive picture to terms that have often been associated with the notion of rapport while demonstrating that close attention to the discursive features of anthropological interviews not only provides unique insights into the co-construction of different types of rapport but also offers further evidence that challenges the notion that one needs to establish rapport before engaging in interviews. More specifically, Perrino explores how the co-construction of intimacy becomes a central aspect of researcher/collaborator’s rapport in anthropological fieldwork settings. She shows how intimate relations are processual phenomena of interaction in speech participants’ oral narratives as they unfold in interview settings in two field sites: Senegal (West Africa) and Northern Italy. In doing so, she highlights how kinship chronotopes are also discursively appropriated and co-constructed as part of both her and her consultants’ ongoing efforts to inhabit particular participant roles (i.e., to engage in role alignment).

African perceptions of Europeans in the early period of Portuguese expeditions to West Africa

Itinerario ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Tymowski
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Early Period ◽  
West African ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
The Common ◽  
Distinct Features

The aim to this article is to analyse the judgments and opinions of Africans about Europeans during the early Portuguese expeditions to West Africa in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. While opinions of Europeans about Africans are for that period certified by numerous and varied sources, the opinions of Africans are difficult to examine. Cultures of the West African coast in the fifteen and early sixteen century were illiterate. Local oral traditions do not go back – within the scope of this field of interest – to such distant centuries. There are two types of sources: Firstly, African statements written down in European texts, which require a particularly critical approach; secondly, some Africans expressed their opinions about Europeans in works of Art. These include the statues of Europeans from the area of present-day Sierra Leone (the Sapi people), and from the state of Benin (the Edo people). In this article the author examines: 1) the circumstances in which the Africans expressed their opinions (ad hoc meetings, political negotiations, trade, court ceremonies); 2) the authors (individuals or social and ethnic groups), which were attributed the judgments; 3) the content of speeches; and 4) the motives which guided the Africans. Then author compares individual cases, analyses the common characteristics and the distinct features of judgments and opinions known to us, and discusses the possibility of identification of general traits of Africans’ opinions about Europeans.

The Empire of Ghana

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolas Gestrich
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
West African ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Western Sahel ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

The Empire of Ghana is one of the earliest known political formations in West Africa. Within the context of a growing trans-Saharan trade, Arabic sources begin to mention “Ghāna,” the name of a ruler as well as of the city or country he ruled, in the 9th century. Repeatedly named in connection with fabulous riches in gold, Ghāna had acquired a preeminent role in the western Sahel and was a leader among a large group of smaller polities. Ghāna’s influence waned, and by the mid-14th century its ruler had become subordinate to the Empire of Mali. Over the course of a complex history of research, the Empire of Ghana became equated with the Soninké people’s legend of Wagadu and the archaeological site of Kumbi Saleh in southern Mauritania was identified as its capital. Yet between historical sources, oral traditions, and archaeological finds, little is known with certainty about the Empire of Ghana. Most questions on this early West African empire remain unanswered, including its location, development, the nature and extent of its rule, and the circumstances of its demise.

The Early Sources on Guinea

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 87-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.E.H. Hair
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Hard Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
Written Sources

The Guinea coast and near interior was a region of almost wholly preliterate societies before the coming of the Europeans. Islamic culture, with its literate strands, which had been spreading through the northern parts of West Africa over many centuries had barely begun to touch the Guinea region—although a handful of literate itinerant merchants and missionaries was to be encountered by the Portuguese, and Islamic religious practice had penetrated at least one royal court in Senegal. Hence the “medieval” sources in Arabic which are informative on the history of the Sudanic states of West Africa tell us little or nothing about the Guinea region. As for the oral traditions of the region, mostly collected only since 1850, these have an inbuilt “horizon” of recollection which falls far short of the arrival of the Europeans five centuries ago. Ethnographic, cultural, and linguistic evidence, systematized in recent times, can be extrapolated backwards to earlier times, but this can only be done, with any security, when trends over time have been identified from earlier hard evidence.Such trends can of course be obtained from archeology, as well as from written sources. But the limited investigations of archeologists in Guinea to date, while they certainly inform on general issues such as agriculture and technology, are as yet decidedly weak, for a variety of good reasons, on the regional details of human settlement and population, and on the varieties of political structure. Moreover it is doubtful whether archeology per se can inform to any significant extent on ethnicity, language, and social characteristics. It is therefore only marginally debatable to refer to the earliest European written sources on Guinea as “the early sources.”

Badagry

Prieto ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Henry B. Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Religious Training

This chapter examines Prieto’s childhood and upbringing in Africa to confront the primitive stereotypes about pre-colonial African societies. Since there is no documentation surrounding Prieto as a child in West Africa, pinpointing the origins of an enslaved African taken to the Americas is challenging. As a result, the focus turns to establishing the significance of Yoruba kinship groups, oral traditions and religious training in Sango. Prieto’s West African childhood influenced Prieto’s leadership in Cuba. The chapter also discusses the likelihood of Prieto’s enslavement surrounding the expansion of the kingdom of Oyo and the destruction of the slave trading port, Badagry.

scholarly journals Indigenous Technological Capability in Developing Countries: A Preliminary Approach to Identification

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (4II) ◽  
pp. 517-527
Author(s):  
M. M. Huq
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Present Author ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Technological Capability ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Technology Transfers ◽  
University Of Edinburgh

There are two important issues, though closely related, which follow from technology transfers. One of these refers to the appropriateness of imported technology to the recipient countries and the other one refers to the development of indigenous technological capability. The first issue has already attracted close attention from a number of people including the present author.' So far as the issue of indigenous technological capability in less developed countries (LDCs) is concerned, a major discussion centering round the topic took place at a conference held at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, in May-June 1982.2 Although a number of important areas were debated in the above conference, no attempt was made to make any measurement of ITC achievement in LDCs, the theme of the present paper. In an earlier article, the author had an opportunity to make observations on the use of indigenous and imported technologies in East and West Africa. The present article while making general observations on ITC achievement in developing countries will, however, make specific references to three countries of the Indian sub-continent- India,Pakistanand Banglades

2008 Update on the Medicare Exceptions Process

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Robert C. Fifer
Keyword(s):  
Close Attention ◽  
Submission Process ◽  
Final Rule ◽  
Fee Schedule

Abstract Since 1999 when Medicare caps first became effective, providers have had to pay close attention to the claims process. This article summarizes the Medicare Exceptions Process that, for 2007, underwent a number of changes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule of November 27, 2007 made three important changes. These changes addressed certification for patient plan of care, personnel qualifications for therapists, and a review of Part B policies and their application to Part A settings that are projected to go into effect in July of 2008. Particular attention was given to explanations of the manual submission process and the change in definitions of “complexities” and of a “therapist.”

Wrestling with ethnic diversity: toward empowering health educators

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Kai ◽  
John Spencer ◽  
Nicola Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Health Educators
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