Showing papers on "African studies published in 1980"

Symbolic dimensions of the Southern Bantu homestead

Abstract: Some years ago one of the very few structuralist anthropologists to contribute to Southern African studies complained that ‘Aucune etude n'a encore ete consacree a l'organisation spatiale et aux relations qu'elle implique chez les Bantu du Sud-Est’ (Roumeguere- Eberhardt 1963: 77). This was not strictly accurate. For example, Holleman (1940) had provided an important analysis of the Zulu homestead, borrowing something of the methods and concerns of the Leiden school's studies in Indonesia; and one cannot ignore Walton's (1956) wide-ranging if unsystematic treatment of the Southern African village. Yet the topic has been largely neglected despite the highly-ordered nature of the Southern Bantu homestead and the legal and symbolic significance of the traditional homestead plan.

The Awakening of ‘informal Sector’ Studies in Southern Africa

Abstract: Research on the ‘informal sector’ in Southern Africa began only during the late 19705. The backdrop to this awakened concern and a review of the extant literature on Southern Africa are presented. The growing interest is related to a restructuring of Southern African studies as a whole, a recognition of the chronic problems of structural unemployment and to the accordance of the concept with reformist strategies of capitalist development. The existing literature divides first into macro-level studies debating the size of the ‘informal sector’ and its relevance to development planning in Southern Africa and, second, micro-level studies focussed on particular ‘informal sector’ activities past and present.

Studying the History of Urbanization in India

Abstract: The history of urbanization in India: Has such a field even developed yet? Experts have asserted it has not—or, at least, nearly not. Ashish Bose, leading demographer and bibliographer of Indian urbanization, wrote in 1976, "in India, Urban History is almost non-existent."1 In 1977 S. N. Mukherjee, distinguished social historian, student of the history of Calcutta, and pioneer in the use of computer methods in studying Indian urban history, added: "Urban history is a neglected subject in India.... [It] has not yet evolved as a subject in its own right."2 K. N. Chaudhuri of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, speaks of the indifference with which Indian historians have approached the urban heritage of the subcontinent in the

The Emergence of a Grain Market in Bamako, 1883–1908

Abstract: (1980). The Emergence of a Grain Market in Bamako, 1883–1908. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 37-54.

The Political economy of underdevelopment : dependence in Senegal

Abstract: The Political Economy of Underdevelopment considers the aspects of the world economic system which limit the possibility for autonomous development by a country such as Senegal. Its relationship with France and the rest of the world, and the relationships of classes within the country are considered in the light of recent developments and history. A bibliography of key texts is also provided. '...this book will stand as a seminal work in the study of the political economy of underdevelopment in Africa.' -- Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Vol 2 No 1, 1982

Folktales of Egypt

Abstract: In this book Hasan M. El-Shamy has gathered the first authentic new collection of modern Egyptian folk narratives to appear in nearly a century. El-Shamy's English translations of these orally presented stories not only preserve their spirit, but give Middle Eastern lore the scholarly attention it has long deserved. "This collection of seventy recently collected Egyptian tales is a major contribution to African studies and to international distribution studies of folktales. In the face of the recent anthropological trend to use folkloric materials for extra-folkloric purposes, the preeminence of the text must be asserted once more, and these are obviously authentic, straightforwardly translated, fully documented as to date of collection and social category of informant, and for all that . . . readable."-Daniel J. Crowley, "Research in African Literatures" "Western knowledge of virtually all facets of contemporary Egyptian culture, much less the roots of that culture, is woefully inadequate. By providing an interesting, varied, and readable collection of Egyptian folktales and offering clear and sensible accounts of their background and meaning, this book renders a valuable service indeed."-Kenneth J. Perkins, "International Journal of Oral History"

The domestication of Islam and Christianity in African societies: A Methodological Exploration

Abstract: A critical question facing the student of religion in Africa is the continuing vitality of indigenous religions and their status in Muslim and Christian Africa. The picture has been complicated by attempts to project models of traditional religions on the basis of what Islam and Christianity appear to tolerate, or find tolerable. In spite of the positive yield of such an approach it has not seriously moved us beyond assumptions rooted in the ancient competition between Islam and Christianity, a competition now being fostered on the unstated ground that the African religious heritage offered little challenge and was consequently abolished by whichever of the two religions first came on the scene. The rival claims to superiority of Islam and Christianity have followed these religions into Africa where the lure of numerical prizes stiffened the competitive resolve. Without necessarily abandoning such a competitive view of religious encounter some Western scholars, with a scarcely concealed prejudice against Christianity, in which they have been imitated by scores of educated Africans, grant to Islam in Africa the capacity for tolerance and adaptation which they refuse to a begrudged Christianity. In addition to belittling the role of African religions, this approach sedulously propagates old religious rivalries and thus gravely distorts the process of religious change and adaptation in which the African environment has continued to play a formative role. The challenge thus facing Islam and Christianity in Africa is not the facile one of carving up the continent between them but one that demands creative involvement. We should therefore now apply to these two religions the crucial test of responsiveness to Africa's religious traditions. This produces a wholly different situation whose implications should make us less complacent about accepted designations.

The Zimbabwe election: the political and military implications

Abstract: (1980). The Zimbabwe election: the political and military implications. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 17-37.

Defending peasant political space in independent Africa.

Abstract: (1980). Defending Peasant Political Space in Independent Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 157-167.

Zambia: class formation and government policy in the 1970s

Abstract: (1980). Zambia: class formation and government policy in the 1970s. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 91-108.

An account of trade patterns in the Banda Sea in 1797, from an unpublished manuscript in the India office library

Abstract: (1980). An account of trade patterns in the Banda Sea in 1797, from an unpublished manuscript in the India office library. Indonesia Circle. School of Oriental & African Studies. Newsletter: Vol. 8, No. 23, pp. 41-57.

The environmental factor in African studies

Abstract: The geographer’s contribution to African studies has been much -concerned with the role of environmental factors in creating or reinforcing underdevelopment. Recent problems such as drought in Ethiopia and the Sahel have done little to dispel the notion that a harsh climate, diflicult soils, the prevalence of epidemic disease and a tendency for population to outgrow a slender resource base are in some way intrinsic to the African condition. The survival of an environmental determinist paradigm in geographical writing on Africa also owes something to cognate contributions from natural scientists interested in development questions, e.g. Owen (1973), and a tendency for historians and sociologists to ground models of social and economic change in unanalysed assumptions concerning resource endowments (for varying approaches, but all assuming an autonomous role for resource factors, see CoqueryVidrovitch, 1976; Goody, 1971; 1976; Hopkins, 1973; «’ilks, 1977). If environmental determinism is vocal, healthy and living in the forests and savannas of precolonial Africa especially, the last decade has seen the articulation of a particularly lively opposition in which it is argued that any objective significance possessed by environmental hazards and resource issues is almost entirely obscured by their meaning in ideological term’s. In this alternative version of the debate concerning environment and development the ’intrinsic poverty’ hypothesis is seen as a strategy for legitimating colonial and neocolonial technological intervention. This review provides background for assessing recent work in this alternative paradigm. ’

The Greatest-Diversity Concept and African History

Abstract: misses is the complex intervening history of population movements and political geography in the region before the middle of the 19th century. The interpretation that \"Akanij\" was not a state, but a geographical region, while \"Akan\" and \"Great Akanij\" were polities is also untenable. This interpretation by both Boahen and Daaku (1966) appears to have been based on the fact that there are no direct indications of any early state in this area before the arrival of the people of Assin from Adanse ca. 1659 (Daaku 1970, Effah 1974). What is either forgotten or deliberately overlooked in this interpretation isthat there were several Etsi settlements in this area at the time of the Assin immigration and settlement (Brown 1929).1\" It is also overlooked that this area was between \"Great Akanij\" and Denkyira to the west. The several conflicts between these two peoples-for example, the war between \"Akan\" and Denkyira and another war between \"Asante\" and Denkyira in which some 3,000 \"Akim\" were killed (Bosman 1967)-may have been fought in this area, thus causing displacement of peoples and the disappearance of any states that might have been there earlier. It is evident, therefore, that the term \"Akan\" has eluded precision of definition. Increasingly, it appears, the term has been used consensually-that is, on the assumption that the readers of a particular article or monograph know what is meant by the term even if no specific definition is provided. From the foregoing it is clear that more is implied by this term than is revealed. It is unfortunate that, over the years, the use of the term \"Akan\" has obscured the complexity of the social and cultural composition of the region in the ages or periods that preceded the more recent processes of regional unification. In the absence of a recognition of the extent of influences or forces pressing toward cultural unity during the past two or three centuries, it is quite unlikely that clear and useful identifications and interpretations can be made of the physical remains left by peoples of an earlier time. Such identifications must rest on a specific and consistent erminology. This article is intended to unveil the complexity that has been folded into and lost within the loose concept of \"Akan.\" It is also intended to provoke comments and suggestions that may stimulate research on the nature, if not the identity, of the societies that may have inhabited this forest region of southern Ghana prior to the 15th century.

Patron-Artist Interactions in Africa

Abstract: The papers on patron-artist interactions in this issue were originally presented at the annual African Studies Association Meeting on November 3, 1978, in Baltimore. The papers were part of the panel "Systems of Patronage in African Art," organized by Norma Wolff and Judith Perani. This introduction to some of the issues and problems regarding artistic patronage in traditional Africa is based on my discussion of the papers at the meeting. The following articles represent a range of different types of artist-patron relationships that can lead to useful comparisons. In addition, they have broken away from certain conventional approaches to African art. This departure is most clearly felt in the discussion of "out-group patrons": if nothing else, the essays show how longstanding and how integral a part of artistic activity those out-group dealings have been. So, while the grave was already dug for the notion that each tribe is a separate artistic universe, these authors give it a very fine Second Burial. As a corollary, we can see that tourist production is not an aberrant phenomenon but can be approached as part of the overall question of foreign patronage. Furthermore, the focus on artist-patron relationships brings an important economic and sociological dimension, which has often been lacking, to the study of African art.

Towards Ghana's Third Republic

Abstract: (1980). Towards Ghana's Third Republic. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 471-477.

Slaves, Peasants and Capitalists in Southern Angola 1840–1926. By W. G. Clarence-Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979 (Cambridge African Studies Series 27). Pp. xii, 132, maps, bibl.

Abstract: The rise of Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia, the would-be moderniser, and unifier; his use of foreign missionaries to cast him cannon; his despatch of a letter to Queen Victoria which the Foreign Office left unanswered; his consequent quarrel with the British Government from whom he had hoped to obtain assistance; his imprisonment of a British consul, an envoy from Queen Victoria and a handful of other Europeans; the despatch against his mountain fortress of Magdala of a powerfully armed Anglo-Indian expedition complete with breech-loading Snider rifles, elephants and a twelve-mile long railway; his dramatic decision to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the victorious British; the looting by British troops of a thousand manuscripts he had collected; and the withdrawal of the British without any attempt at establishing a colony or protectorate—these are events which will for ever fascinate students of Ethiopian, African and indeed world history. The Magdala story is destined to be retold by writers of many nationalities and from various angles—and will soon be the subject of a film spectacular. Sir Darrell Bates, C.M.G., C.V.O., a former British Colonial Secretary in Gibraltar, became interested in these matters for a fortuitous reason—because Robert Napier, the commander of the British expedition to Magdala, ended his career as Governor of that island. Sir DarrelPs initial preoccupation with Napier, however, gradually widened, and at least partially justifies his sub-title. The Abyssinian Difficulty, though telling us little about Tewodros and his aspirations, presents a gripping account of the Emperor's conflict with the British Government, as well as of the Magdala expedition, and the Ethiopian response thereto. Sir Darrell writes from a somewhat ethnocentric point of view. He is, however, sufficiently detached to describe the inefficiencies on the British side—28,673 of the expedition's 36,000 mules were for example 'destroyed or abandoned', and to raise the question why Napier decided to attack Magdala after Tewodros had released the prisoners whose liberation was the declared raison d'etre of the campaign. Sir Darrell, though remiss in not clearly citing his authorities, provides a valuable bibliography, and has made good use of some little-known sources. He appears, surprisingly enough, to be the first author extensively to utilise Dr Austin's despatches to The Times (which clearly would repay the attention of an enterprising reprint firm).

Problems of socialist orientation in Africa

Abstract: Papers from a Seminar on Non-capitalist Development in Africa Organised by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, in Co-operation with the Institute of Development Studies, Helsink ...