An Historical Assessment and Analysis of Economic Imperialism in West Africa

The West African political economy has been shaped by the policies, decisions and actions of dominant European imperialist countries since about over 500 years. Starting with imperial merchant capitalism along the West African coast in the 16th Century and French gradual acquisition of Senegal as a colony as from 1677, West Africa has remained under the imperialist hold. West Africa remains economically dependent on its former colonial masters despite more than 60 years since the countries started gaining independence. The consequences of economic imperialism on West Africa have included exploitative resource extraction, proxy and resource influenced civil wars, illegal trade in natural resources, mass poverty, and external migration of skilled workers necessary for national development. The world sees and broadcasts poverty, starvation, conflict and Saharan migration in the West African sub-continent, but hardly reports the exploitative imperialistic processes that have produced poverty and misery in West Africa in particular and across sub-Saharan Africa in general.

On vortices initiated over West Africa and their impact on North Atlantic tropical cyclones

Using 38 years of the ERA Interim dataset, an objective tracking approach is used to analyze the origin, characteristics and cyclogenesis efficiency (CE) of synoptic-scale vortices initiated over West Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. Many vortex tracks initiated near the coast or over the ocean result from a vertical expansion of a “primary” vortex track that was initiated earlier over West Africa. Low-level (850hPa) primary vortices are initiated mainly in July near the Hoggar mountains (5°E, 24°N), while mid-level (700 hPa) primary vortices are initiated mainly in August-September near Guinea highlands (10°W, 10°N). The CE of all these vortices is about 10% in July and 30% in August. The average CE is however smaller for low-level “Hoggar” vortices because they peak in July when the cyclogenesis potential index of the Atlantic Ocean is weak. Seasonal and interannual modulations of the cyclogenesis is related more to this index than to the number of vortices crossing the West African coast. Cyclogenesis is nearly equally distributed between the coast and 60°W, but the part of the cyclogenesis due to vortices initiated over West Africa decreases from 80% near the coast to about 30% at 60°W. The most probable delay between the vortex vertical expansion and cyclogenesis is 2 days, but it can be up to 10 days. This analysis also confirms previous results, such as the larger CE for vortices extending at low-levels over the continent at 10°N, or the delayed and therefore west-shifted cyclogenesis of low-level “Hoggar” vortices.

DESIGN AND REALIZATION OF A SANDBAR BREAKWATER, LEKKI, NIGERIA

The nature-based concept of the Sandbar Breakwater was born based on the typical natural dynamics of the West African coast (Gulf of Guinea). Learning from the development and coastal impact of the existing port infrastructure in West Africa, the application of sand as a construction material for marine infrastructure seemed very obvious. Along this coast, ports experience heavy sedimentation at the western updrift side of the breakwaters, leading to the rapid burying of valuable armour rock. The Sandbar Breakwater concept is based on this principle by using natural accretion as the basis for the port protection. Such a concept is advantageous as a large sediment drift naturally supplements the sand lling works during construction and the required rock volumes are reduced signicantly, saving construction time and minimising the environmental impact. To counteract the downdrift coastal retreat, a replenishable sand engine completes the scheme. The realisation of a Sandbar Breakwater at Lekki, Nigeria, in 2018, with subsequent safe and continuous port operations, proves the feasibility of the concept. Sustainable future development is further pursued by integrated maintenance campaigns following the Building with Nature principles to guarantee the operability of the port while preserving the alongshore sediment balance and minimising the environmental impact.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/-1wCqqB9f8E

Chinese Fort Creolization: on the Origin of Xining Mandarin

Xining Mandarin (Qinghai province, Northwest China) strikingly diverges from the usual syntactic profile of Sinitic languages, featuring an array of head-final categories which are inherent instead to the local substrate languages. In this paper, the formation of the dialect is considered from a historical perspective and it is seen to have emerged in a fort creolization (Bickerton, 1988) scenario, comparable to that found for European lexifier creoles along the West African coast. Linguistically relevant aspects of the socio-historical scenario underlying the dialect are reconstructed and Xining Mandarin is argued to have formed as the language of Ming dynasty Chinese colonists was acquired imperfectly due to poor access to Chinese among the local population. The speed of creolization and the role of language shift is evaluated, and it is argued that Ming creolization was gradual (rather than abrupt), reflecting cases of fort creolization elsewhere in the world.

This Accursed Thing Slavery

In 1844, seventeen-year-old Wesley Harlan, Agnes Harlan’s son, writes to Ben Major and pens one of the most moving passages in the Major collection of letters. “I hope the United States are almost giving up the habit of slaveholding . . . I am ashamed of the U States or that part that indulges in this accursed thing slavery. . . .” This chapter explores the continuing slave trade and ongoing attempts to halt it along the West African coast. Wesley Harlan’s letter provides an overview of the governing structure of Liberia and its economy.

A ARMADILHA DA POBREZA: UMA ANALISE DA CONTRIBUIÇÃO DAS INSTITUIÇÕES MULTILATERAIS E REGIONAIS PARA O FRACO DESEMPENHO ECONÔMICO E SOCIAL DOS PAÍSES DO OESTE AFRICANO

This paper analyzes the conditions for seven countries located on the West African coast to practically set growth and economic development policies in order to overcome what we call the poverty trap. These countries could seek at the regional and multilateral levels the resources needed to overcome their backwardness. However, we identified that the main policy proposed by these institutions for these countries, which was trade liberalization, not only maintained the condition of being exporters of natural and agricultural resources and were unable to generate sufficient employment and income to overcome their poverty.

Senegal, the African Slave Trade, and the Door of No Return: Giving Witness to Gorée Island

Recently, the Senegalese people have learned to speak more openly of their history. But, as late as the 1980s—the years of my youth and early schooling—the wounds of colonialism were still fresh. I contend that slavery had been so powerful a blow to the Senegalese ethos that we—my family, friends, and schoolmates—did not speak about it. The collective trauma and shame of slavery was apparently so powerful that we sought to repress it, keeping it hidden from ourselves. We were surrounded by its evidence, but chose not to see it. Such was my childhood experience. As an adult, I understand that repression never heals wounds. The trauma remains as a haunting presence. But one can discover its “living presence,” should one choose to look. Just 5.2 km off the west African coast of Senegal lies Gorée Island, where millions of Africans were held captive while awaiting transport into slavery. Much of the four-century history of the African slave trade passed through Senegal, where I grew up. In this essay, I explore the history of the island and its role in the slave trade. I describe my own coming to terms with this history—how it has haunted me since my youth. And I argue for the role of visual rhetorics in the formation (and affirmation) of Senegalese ethos. As Baumlin and Meyer (2018) remind us, we need to speak, in order to be heard, in order to be seen: Such is an assumption of rhetorical ethos. And the reverse, as I shall argue, may be true, too: Sometimes we need to see (or be seen), in order to know what to speak and how to be heard. It is for this reason that we need more films written, directed, produced, and performed by Africans (Senegalese especially).