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The Study of African History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
In speaking this afternoon on the study of African history, I am very conscious that the choice of subject is ambitious. Many aspects of African history are more and more attracting the close attention of scholars, and I wish to apply to the history of the African continent as a whole the experience gained by the study of some aspects of the history of one of the regions, the West Coast. For I have learned that there are dangers no less than securities in the pursuit in isolation of selected regional or topical studies. Authoritative regional histories—histories of the individual colonies of the European states in Africa—are badly needed. But it seems to me that such tasks of local specialized investigation should not be allowed, as they proceed, to throw out of focus the whole picture of African history. So I would respectfully suggest that a case exists for a broader and more integrated approach to the study of African history and for an interpretation of African events from the point of view not merely of the European but also of the Arab, the Indian, and above all the Bantu and the Negro. My appeal is for the study of African history mainly through African eyes and for its own sake.
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References
page 49 note 1 Harlow, V. T., ‘Recent research in colonial history since 1783’, History, N.S., xxxiii (1948), 80.Google Scholar
page 49 note 2 Lucas, C. P., West Africa (Historical geography of the British colonies, iii; Oxford, 1900)Google Scholar, is a useful introduction to the subject.
page 50 note 1 The following monographs are useful: B. S. Santarem, Recherches sur la priorité de la découverte d'Afrique au-delà du Cap Bojador (Paris, 1842); P. M. Netscher, Les Hollandois au Bresil (The Hague, 1853); J. K. de Jonge, De oorsprong van Neerlands bezittingen op de Kust van Guinea (The Hague, 1871); Cultru, P., Les origines de l'Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1910)Google Scholar; Zook, G. F., Company of royal adventurers trading into Africa (Lancaster, Pa., 1919)Google Scholar; De La Roncière, C. B., La dècouverte de l'Afrique au moyen age (3 vols., Paris, 1924–7)Google Scholar; Monod, J. L., Histoire de l'Afrique occidentale française (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar; Martin, E. C., British West African settlements, 1750–1821 (London, 1927)Google Scholar; Cortesão, A., Subsïdios para a historia do descobrimento da Guiné e Cabo Verde (Lisbon, 1931)Google Scholar; Crowe, S. F., Berlin West African Conference, 1884–5 (London, 1942).Google Scholar Valuable as regional histories are: A. B. Ellis, History of the Gold Coast (London, 1893); Lugard, Lady, A tropical dependency (London, 1905)Google Scholar; Delafosse, M., Haut-Sénégal-Niger (3 vols., Paris, 1912)Google Scholar; Claridge, W. W., History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti (2 vols., London, 1915)Google Scholar; Butt-Thompson, F. W., Sierra Leone (London, 1926)Google Scholar; Arnett, F. J., Rise of the Sokoto Fulani (Kano, 1929)Google Scholar; Burns, A. C., History of Nigeria (London, 1929)Google Scholar; Bovill, E. W., Caravans of the old Sahara (London, 1933)Google Scholar; Gray, J. M., History of the Gambia (London, 1940).Google Scholar Notable studies of the transatlantic slave trade are: Scelle, G., La traité négriére aux Indes de Castille (Paris, 1906)Google Scholar; Donnan, E., Documents illustrative of the history of the slave trade to America (4 vols., Washington, 1930–1935)Google Scholar; Gaston-Martin, , Nantes au xviiie siècle (Paris, 1931)Google Scholar; Wyndham, H. A., The Atlantic and slavery (London, 1935)Google Scholar, The Atlantic and emancipation (London, 1937); Rinchon, P., Le trafic négrier d'après les livres de commerce du capitaine gantois Pierre-Ignac-Liévrin van Alstein (Brussels, 1938).Google Scholar The following unpublished theses in the library of the University of London contain much valuable information: T. G. Stone, ‘The struggle for power on the Senegal and Gambia, 1660–1713’; E. I. Herrington, ‘British measures for the suppression of the slave trade upon the West Coast of Africa, 1807–33’ (Bull. Inst. Hist. Res., ii. 54–6); W. H. Scotter, ‘International rivalry in the bights of Benin and Biafra, 1815–85’ (Ibid., xii. 63–6); G. R. Mellor, ‘British policy in relation to Sierra Leone, 1808–52’ (Ibid., xiv. 122–4); P. G. James, ‘British policy in relation to the Gold Coast, 1815–50’ (Ibid., xiv. 124–7); G. W. Brown, ‘The economic history of Liberia’ (Ibid., xvii. 147–9); I. Bains, ‘British policy in relation to Portuguese claims in West Africa, 1876–84’ (Ibid., xix. 94–6).
page 51 note 1 E.g., Dr. Crowe in her study of the Berlin West-African Conference (op. cit.), though professedly a study in European diplomacy, makes very little reference to tribal land claims and the effects of partition upon the African peoples.
page 51 note 2 Phillips, U. B. describes the march to the coast in his American negro slavery (New York, 1936), pp. 30–1.Google Scholar More recent studies have suggested that the great majority of the slaves came from the coastal regions. See Herskovitz, M. J., The myth of the negro past (New York, 1941)Google Scholar, ch. ii, and his article, ‘The significance of West Africa for negro research’, The Journal of Negro History, xxi (1936), 15–30.
page 52 note 1 Sir Alan Burns, op. cit., in an otherwise admirable work on Nigeria, devotes 5 out of 25 chapters to population and physical features, 17 to the history of the colony since 1851, and 3 to the period 1481–1850. His sixth chapter on ‘the period of unrestricted slave trade, 1481–1807,’ exemplifies the submergence of the main pattern of African history by the concentration on the transatlantic slave trade. Judge Gray, op. cit., attempts a more balanced treatment; even so, 14 of his 32 chapters are devoted to the period since the abolition of the British slave trade. His book, though scholarly, is too often in the earlier chapters a summary of European voyages to the Gambia.
page 52 note 2 E. Hertslet, Map of Africa by treaty (3 vols., London, 1894).
page 53 note 1 On a point of detail, although Axim was the most westerly district of the ‘mine of gold’ from which the Portuguese appear to have obtained gold dust, they thought of Cape Palmas as the western limit. ‘The domains subject to the castell de Mayne’, testified a captain engaged in the trade in 1591, ‘containeth two hundred leagues in length, that is to say, from Caput de Palma unto Rio de Volta’: P.R.O., H.C.A. 13/29 (High Court of Admiralty, Examinations, vol. 29), deposition of Antonio de Sousa, 23 March 1591. See also L. Cordeiro, Memorias do Ultramar (Lisbon, 1881), iv. 12–13. The Dutch appear to have set a more precise western limit to the Gold Coast during the early seventeenth century: W. Bosnian, Description of the coast of Guinea (London, 1705).
page 54 note 1 Johnson, S., History of the Yoruba (1921), pp. 15–16.Google Scholar
page 54 note 2 Claridge, op. cit., i. 192–234.
page 54 note 3 Lady Lugard, op. cit.; Orr, C. W. J., Making of Northern Nigeria (London, 1911)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lucas, op. cit., pp. 242–53; Burns, op. cit., pp. 49–62, 166–8, 172–6, 188–215; Bovill, op. cit., passim. Even the term ‘Nigeria’, recorded Lady Lugard in 1905, ‘cannot be found on a map that is ten years old’.
page 54 note 4 A striking illustration of this was the case of chief Jaja of the Opobo people who, because their country lay astride the creeks affording access from the bight of Biafra to the interior markets, were able to monopolize the trade. In 1884 the treaty by which Jaja, on behalf of the Opobo, accepted British protection, deliberately omitted any reference to freedom of navigation so as not to prejudice the commercial rights of the Opobo. The Berlin Act wholly ignored these rights. See Burns, op. cit., pp. 157–62.
page 55 note 1 A. Churchill, Collection of Voyages, v (London, 1732).
page 55 note 2 João de Barros, Da Asia, dec. I [1552] (Lisbon, 1777); F. Guerreiro, Relaçaoes annuis (4 vols., Lisbon, 1603–11); D'almada, A. A., Tratado breve dos rios de Guiné [c. 1594] (Lisbon, 1946).Google Scholar
page 55 note 3 Barbot, op. cit., p. 13. See also p. 467 on his debt to previous authors for his description of the lands of Gabun, Congo and Angola.
page 56 note 1 J. B. Labat, Nouvelle relation de l'Afrique occidentale (5 vols., Paris, 1728), i, p. i.
page 56 note 2 Pereira, D. Pacheco, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, ed. Kimble, G. H. T. (Hakluyt Society; London, 1937). pp. 173–5.Google Scholar
page 56 note 3 The French claim appears to have originated during the early years of the reign of Louis XIV, and was plausibly advocated by Villaut, N., Relation des cosies d'Afrique (Paris, 1669).Google Scholar First seriously challenged by Santarem, op. cit., passim, the claim was effectively disposed of by C. B. de la Roncière, op. cit. In spite of this. Burns, op. cit., pp. 72–3, hesitates to dismiss the claim, and Buell, R. L., Native problem in Africa (2 vols.. New York, 1928)Google Scholar, repeats (i. 915) the story without even a query.
page 56 note 4 Much of this arises from the national claims of the contemporary writers. It is probable that a fairly coherent picture of the building of the forts could be drawn from a careful study of manuscript records.
page 56 note 5 This allegation, taking its origin from statements in such works as Barbot, op. cit., p. 157, is repeated in H. A. Wyndham, The Atlantic and slavery, pp. 15–17, and exemplified by reference to the fact that the Dutch even expropriated from the local chieftains the tolls on fishing which by custom appertained to the latter. In fact, the Portuguese and the French encouraged the charge as part of a calculated policy of denouncing their Dutch rivals whose success on the Gold Coast they envied; and as early as 1508 the Portuguese levied the fish-toll at Arguin. See Fernandes, Valentim. Description de la côte d'Afrique [c. 1508], ed. De Cenival, P. and Monod, T. (Paris, 1938), pp. 54–5Google Scholar, 116–17.
page 56 note 6 G. E. de Azurara, Chronicle of the discovery of Guinea, ed. C. R. Beazley and E. Prestage (Hak. Soc.; 2 vols., London, 1898–9); Rny de Pina, Chronica del Rey Dom João II [c. 1500] (Lisbon, 1790); Garcia de Resende, Chronica que trata da vida do Dom João II (Lisbon, 1545); Barros, op. cit.; Gomes, D., ‘De prima inventione Guineae’ in Voyages of Cadamosto, ed. Crone, G. R. (Hak. Soc.; London, 1937)Google Scholar; Pacheco, op. cit.; Fernandes, op. cit.
page 57 note 1 Battell, A., Adventures, ed. Ravenstein, E. G. (Hak. Soc.; London, 1901)Google Scholar; d'Almada, op. cit.; J. H. van Linschoten, Discourse (London, 1598); De Marees, P., Beschryvinge ende historische verhael van het Gout-Koninkrijk van Guinea [1602], ed. Naber, S. P. L'honore (The Hague, 1909)Google Scholar; J. and J. I. de Bry, ‘Descriptio regni Guiniae’ in Indiae Orientalis (1604); Guerreiro, op. cit.
page 57 note 2 Villaut, op. cit.; O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686); Bosman, op. cit.; Labat, op. cit.; Barbot, op. cit.
page 57 note 3 Attempts to penetrate into the interior from the coast were made from time to time, and there is evidence to suggest that the Portuguese were conversant during the sixteenth century with Ashanti, the upper reaches of the Senegal even to Timbuktu, and the hinterland of the Congo; the French and English late in the seventeenth century with the headwaters of the gold-bearing region of Wangara. Dr. Stone even goes so far as to claim that in 1690 Cornelius Hodges, a factor of the Royal African Company, anticipated the discoveries of Mungo Park. See F. M. de Sousa Viterbo, Trabalhos nauticos dos Portuguezes nos seculos XVI e XVII (2 vols., Lisbon, 1890–1900), i. 322–4; Cordeiro, op. cit., vi. 18–20; Ravenstein, E. G., History of the Congo and Angola (Hak. Soc.; London, 1901), pp. 102–90Google Scholar; Stone, T. G., ‘Journey of Cornelius Hodges’, Eng. Hist. Rev., xxxix (1924), 89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 58 note 1 Jenkinson, H., ‘Records of the English African companies’, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 3rd Ser., vi (1912), 185–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Martin, Dr. E. C. followed this up with a comprehensive analysis of eighteenth-century records in her paper on ‘English establishments on the Gold Coast’, Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 4th Ser., v (1922), 167–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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page 58 note 3 P.R.O., CO. 267/16.
page 58 note 4 British West African settlement, p. 48; P.R.O., CO. 391/39. Dr. Martin lists the rents being paid in 1816: £72 p.a. for Cape Coast Castle; £36 p.a. each for Tantum, Winnebah and Commenda; £12 p.a. for Sekondi; and £9 p.a. for Dixcove. Meek, C. K., Land Law and Custom in the Colonies (London, 1946), argues (p. 11)Google Scholar that the Africans did not understand the ‘gifts’ or ‘presents’ which the Europeans gave them as ‘rents’.
page 59 note 1 P.R.O., H.C.A. 13/61, 28 June 1648.
page 59 note 2 It seems that the Negroes everywhere on the coast always jealously guarded the right to cut the redwood, even as from time to time they opposed efforts on the part of the whites to mine the gold. See Martin, op. cit., p. 52.
page 60 note 1 P.R.O., H.C.A. 13/61, various depositions in Wood v. Hooper, Hutter, etc.
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page 61 note 1 See, for example, the account of the interview between King John II and chief Bemoyn of the Jalofo in 1488 in Pina, op. cit., ch. 37. It is interesting to observe that the conception of vassalage survived into the seventeenth century, for when the Dutch extended protection over the former African subjects of Portugal on the Gold Coast, they accorded them the status of vassals. See Doorman, op. cit., Appendices ii-v.
page 61 note 2 Macmillan, Bantu, Boer and Briton (London, 1929)Google Scholar, makes the same point (p. 27): ‘Bantu custom… knew only usufructuary rights in land; Bantu chiefs habitually granted the use of the land, in return for cattle, to men who virtually became their vassals; but the idea of title and private ownership in land was as foreign to their way of thinking as to those of feudal Europe.’
page 61 note 3 On the problem of landholding, see Meek, op. cit., passim. On the ‘notes‘ see Claridge, op. cit., i. 192–8, 289–99, 600–5, and Welman, C. W., Native States of the Gold Coast, ii. Ahanta (London, 1930).Google Scholar
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page 62 note 3 Battell, op. cit., pp. 19–35, 83; Ravenstein, op. cit., pp. 149–53.
page 62 note 4 d'Almada, op. cit., pp. 76–87; Guerreiro, op. cit., ii, 139b; Whiteway, R. S., Portuguese expedition to Abyssinia (Hak. Soc.; London, 1902), p. 229.Google Scholar
page 62 note 5 Lady Lugard, op. cit., chs. xl, xli, xlii and xliii; Burns, op. cit., pp. 52–62.
page 62 note 6 There is an unpublished thesis on this subject in the Library of Manchester University: G. Lighten, ‘The advance of Islam in the western and central Sudan’.
page 63 note 1 Seligman, C. G., Races of Africa (London, 1930).Google Scholar
page 63 note 2 Cary, M. and Warmington, E. H., Ancient explorers (London, 1929).Google Scholar
page 63 note 3 The kingdom of Ghana was apparently founded before the Arab Conquests. See Ibn Battúta, Travels [c. 1350], ed. H. A. R. Gibb (London, 1929), pp. 380–1; Bovill, op. cit., pp. 57–66.
page 64 note 1 Vedder, H., South-West Africa in early times, trans, Hall, C. G. (London, 1938).Google Scholar
page 64 note 2 On this point, see Hardy, G., Vue génerale de l'histoire d'Afrique (Paris, 1922)Google Scholar, an essay in African history from the African point of view.
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page 66 note 1 Ibn Battúta did not actually visit Sofala. The best of the Arab records for the student of African history will be found to be Al-Mas'ūdi, Les prairies d'or [c. 950], ed. C. B. de Meynard and P. de Courteille (Paris, 1861–77); Ibn Hawqal, Oriental geography [c. 960], ed. W. Ouseley (London, 1800); Al-Edrisi, Géographie [c. 1160], ed. P. A. Jaubert (Paris, 1836); Aboulfeda, Géographie [c. 1320], ed. J. T. Reinard (Paris, 1848); Ibn Battúta, op. cit.; Leo Africanus, Description de l'Afrique (Lyon, 1556); ‘Chronicles of Kilwa’, ed. A. S. Strong (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, N.S., xxvii, 1895).
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page 68 note 1 W. M. Macmillan, op. cit., p. vii.
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