Agneta Pallinder - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Agneta Pallinder

Annual bulletin of historical literature, Nov 1, 1983

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1980

The burgeoning generations of African history students of the 1960s cut their teeth on 'Oliver-an... more The burgeoning generations of African history students of the 1960s cut their teeth on 'Oliver-and-Fage', Roland Oliver's and J. D. Fage's pioneering Short history of Africa (1962) and learnt to look at African history 'from the African point of view'. Sixteen years and many disillusions later we have 'Fage-without-Oliver', A history of Africa by J. D. Fage (Hutchinson, 210, pbk 24.99, which provides a necessarily sweeping narrative based on the author's thorough familiarity with sources and literature: a clear, classical, somewhat unsurprising book, no doubt destined to become a standard text. Professor Fage has also brought out a second edition of his Atlas of African history, first published in 1958 and now substantially revised, especially for the precolonial period, in collaboration with M. Verity (Arnold, 110.00, phk f2.95). The Cambridge history ofAfrica has reached publication of volume 11 (C.U.P., WZ), also the responsibility of J. D. Fage. The timespan of the volume, from c.500 BC to A D 1050, means that it is perforce uneven in the extreme with seven of eleven chapters devoted to North and Nilotic Africa. Professor Fage bravely seeks a unifying theme-the beginning of history in Africa-but the justification of the now unfashionable concept of a sub-Saharan African history has seldom been so well demonstrated. A s is to be expected in a Cambridge History individual contributions provide mature consolidations of the existing literature, backed up by an impressive bibliography. Two new books by Basil Davidson together cover the whole of African history: Discovering Africa's past (Longman, f7.50, pbk f3.50), was written as an introductory text for use in British schools, and although it includes a brief critical

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1984

Bibliography and ancillary Unesco's series of Guides to the sources of the history of Africa is n... more Bibliography and ancillary Unesco's series of Guides to the sources of the history of Africa is now complete in eight volumes with the publication of a further Italian volume, Guida delle fonti per la storia dell'Africa a Sud del Sahara negli Archivi della Santa Sede e negli Archivi Ecclesiastici d'ltalia, by L. Pasztor (Zug: Interdocumentation, SFr 168). An inexpensive historical atlas is African history in maps, by M. Kwamena-Poh and others (Longman, pbk f2.50), covering a thousand years in 36 maps, primarily intended for schools and with some good topical selections. B.R. Mitchell has brought together a massive volume of International historical statistics: Africa and Asia (Macmillan, f45). based mainly on government publications and therefore largely confined to the last 40 or 50 years, but with wide coverage and a clear arrangement for maximum comparability. In 1977 the Centre of African Studies at Edinburgh University arranged a symposium on African historical demography, the papers of which were published. A second symposium has now been published, African historical demography, Vol I1 (Edinburgh: Centre

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1981

have collaborated on Af?ican history (Longman, 29.75, pbk 25.95). Anthropologists and historians ... more have collaborated on Af?ican history (Longman, 29.75, pbk 25.95). Anthropologists and historians have divided the continent between them, resulting in somewhat uneven treatment: the North, West and South being well covered by the two historians while the sections on Central and Eastern Africa are anthropological analyses coupled with historical examples. Two books present history through extracts of primary sources: D. Robinson and D, Smith, Sources of the qfrican past (Heinemann, 26.80, pbk f 4) , deals with five major nineteenth-century African powers: the Zulu state, Basutoland, Buganda, the Sokoto and the Asante empires, while B. Fetter, Colonial rule in Africa: readings from primary sources (Wisc:onsin U.P., 24), illustrates its topic through extracts from speeches etc. I. Brownlie has produced another Hertslet in his massive qfrican boundaries: a legal and diplomatic encyclopaedia (Hurst, for the R.

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1979

As is to be expected for this period the continent-wide scope yields a very disparate volume, wit... more As is to be expected for this period the continent-wide scope yields a very disparate volume, with North Africa and the Islamized parts of West and East Africa being represented mainly by dynastic chronological surveys and the rest of the continent relying heavily on nameless archaeology. Chapters by R. Oliver and J. Fage are important reappraisals of the work of the first generation of modem African historians in the light of later research. There is a new dictionary of African historical biography, Les Afn'cains, edited by C. A. Julien, planned as a ten-volume work, of which the first volume is available now (Paris: Editions Jeune Afrique, f12.75). The chapters are substantial biographies by recognised authorities, in this volume notably Y. Person on Samon and C. Coquery-Vidrovitch on Gezo of Abomey. With a total of c.100 subjects it is necessarily very selective and understandably has a pronounced francophone bias. Z. A. and J. M. Konczacki have edited a further volume of their Economic history of tropical Afn.ca, vol. 2: The colonial period (Cass, E l 1). Like the first it is an unadventurous collection of articles and monograph chapters, mostly easily available and often seriously dated. B. M. Perinbam in 'Homo africanus: antiquus or oeconomicus? Some interpretations of African economic history' (Comp. Studs. in SOC. and Hist., 19:2. 156-178) provides a useful review and bibliographical survey of the literature on the nature of precolonial economics. Eighteen historians and anthropologists, mostly American, contribute to S. Miers and I. Kopytoff (eds.), Slavery in Africa: historical and anthropological perspectives (Madison: Wisconsin U.P., 213.15). The case studies are usefully complemented by an eighty-page theoretical introduction by the editors on the variable nature of African slavery as a continuum from chattel slavery to adopted membership of the kinship group. In African kingships in perspective: political change and modernization in monarchical settings, edited by R. Lemarchand (Cass, .€12.50), seven political scientists examine eight historical kingdoms, only one of which-Swaziland-is still an independent monarchy. An unusually large number of works deal with the experiences of whites in Africa. Faith and theflag: the opening of Africa, by J. Murray-Brown (Allen & Unwin, 25.95) is another history of Africa through the eyes of explorers and conquerors. H. S. Wilson's volume in the series Europe and the world in the age of expansion, entitled The imperial experience in sub-Saharan Africa since I870 (O.U.P., f14) relates the stories of the colonial regimes set up by Belgium, France, Germany, Britain and Portugal and deals with African resistance to and involvement in colonial government. The same topics are treated in Europaische Kolonialherrschaft 1880-1940, by R von Albertini (Zurich: Atlantis). More closely focused on the colonial personnel is L. H. Gann's and P. Duignan's The rulers of German Afn'ca 18841914 (Stanford U.P., f12.50), the first in a planned series dealing with the social structure of European colonial services in Africa. In keeping with the authors' stance in earlier works a largely Favourable assessment is made of the impact of the 30 years of German rule. There is a paperback reprint of Cape to Cairo, by M. Strage (Harmondsworth: Penguin, f l. 2 5). Originally published in 1973 this is a fairly superficial but readable study of the core period of colonisation in Africa, 1870-1900. The question of the impact of the colonial period, this time its impact on historians,

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1978

was published earlier, it is in some ways a disappointing work: many of the chapters seem already... more was published earlier, it is in some ways a disappointing work: many of the chapters seem already somewhat outdated, and all of them offer detailed regional studies rather than exploring general themes common to the whole continent. It will, however, serve usefully as a work of reference. A more interesting work, perhaps, is 1. Forbes Munro, Africa and the International Economy 1800-1960: an introduction to the modern economic histoly of Afn'ca south of the Sahara (J. M. Dent, €5.95; pbk. €2.951: this very competent general survey is written specifically for university and polytechnic students, and will be especially useful for teaching purposes. Africa: an economic and social histoy (Blandford: Davison Pub]., €5); Thea Biittner, Geschichte Afrikas van den Anfingen bis zur Gegenwart, TeiI I: Afrika von den Anfangen bis zur territorialen Aufteilung Afrikas durch die imperialistischen Kolonialmachte (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, DM11.801, a work by a German Marxist; and S. A. Akintoye, Emergent Afrcan states: topics in twentieth centu y African histoly (Longman, pbk. €2.101, written for West African secondary school pupils. Z. A. Konczaki and J. M. Konczaki (eds.), The pre-colonial economic histoy ofAfrica south ofthe Sahara (Frank Cass, €6; pbk. €2.93, is a collection of pieces published earlier in periodicals, which would be a superfluous purchase for anyone with access to a reasonably stocked library. There is also a second edition of B. Williams, Modem A f i c a 1870-1970, originally published in 1970 (Longman, pbk. €0.75). A new historical atlas, written for use in secondary schools, is provided by G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, A modem atlas ofAfrican histoy (Rex Collings, €3.50; pbk. €1.50). This very brief work in no way supersedes the earlier atlas by J. D. Fage, An atlas ofAfrican history (1958). Of books dealing with particular aspects of precolonial history, R. W. Hull, Afn'can cities and towns before the European conquest (N.Y.: W. W. Norton, $10.95), is a slight study of no distinction; but B.

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1977

General A major landmark in the historiography of Africa is represented by the appearance of the ... more General A major landmark in the historiography of Africa is represented by the appearance of the first instalment of The Cambridge Histoy of Africa. This work, which is under the general editorship of J. D. Fage and R. Oliver, will comprise when completed eight volumes, covering the whole of African history from the earliest times to the present, and dealing with both northern and sub-Saharan Africa. The series has been in preparation for several years, and has suffered some delay in appearingpublication was originally planned to begin in 1971. The first volume to be published is Volume 4:from c. 1600 to c. 1790, edited by Richard Gray (C.U.P., €15). The structure of this volume illustrates the difficulties involved in any attempt to treat African history on a pancontinental basis: the chapters each deal with a separate region of Africa, and there is only a brief (13-page) Introduction which labours unavailingly to identify general themes common to the history of the whole continent. The delays in publication also mean that some chapters already look rather out of date, but clearly a text of 651 pages dealing with only two centuries of African history constitutes a much more solid and useful work of reference than any which has existed hitherto. Another multi-volume venture in African history, also emanating from Cambridge, is the five-volume study of Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, edited by P. Duignan and L.. H. Gann, which began publication in 1%9.

Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature, 1982

General A joint production by M. Tidy and D. Leeming, A history of 4frica 1840-1914, planned in t... more General A joint production by M. Tidy and D. Leeming, A history of 4frica 1840-1914, planned in two volumes of which the first, covering 1840-1880, has appeared (Hodder & Stoughton, vol 1, pbk 52.95), charts the course of events in African history region by region with emphasis on those personalities, especially African, who were the key actors. R W. Hull, Modern A,jjnka: change and continuity (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, pbk €8.95), adopts an interdisciplinary approach to Africa's nineteenth-and twentieth-century history, integrating cultural, political and social history. &ca in the twentieth century (BatsfordAcad. and Educatioual P., f4.95) by E. Campling is intended for schools and gives an overview of historical events as a background to current affairs. A concise but informative text accompanies the 59 clear and easy to read maps in C. McEvedy, Penguin atlas of &can history (Penguin, E7.50, pbk f2), which covers prehistory to present time. A considerably revised 3rd edition of R July, A history of the African people (N.Y.: Scribner, $22.50), has a new emphasis on the post-independence period and is particularly valuable for its sections with suggestions for further reading. Two complementary books look at post-independent Africa from the metropolitan and the local perspective respectively: W.H. Monii-Jones and G. Fischer have edited a collection of essays from a colloquium of the Association for Franco-British Political Studies under the title Decolonisation and Sfter: the British and French experience (Cass, f17.50), while G.S. Ibingira, an experienced Ugandan lawyer and politician, critically examines the impact of the colonial legacy on the post-independence political development of Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. Aspects of social history are treated in J.L. Watson (ed), Asian and Afiican systems ofslavery (Oxford: Blackweil, f7.95), and in M.A. Klein (ed), Peasants in arica: historical and contemporary perspectives (Sage, 217, pbk 27.50). J.C. Miller has edited The .Ifrican past speaks: essays on om1 tradition and history (Folkestone: Dawson, f17), an important collection of evaluative analyses of the experience of using oral tradition. A fhdamental challenge to the current Western and Anglophone African canon of African history is presented in African historiography: a critique (Zed P., f12.95, pbk f3.95) by A. Temu and B. Swai, while G.O. Roberts in Afro-Arab fraternity: the roots of Terramedia (Sage, f 1 1.25) presents a wide-ranging if idiosyncratic survey of the historiography and culture of Africa and the Middle East seen as a spatial and cultural continuum.

The Journal of African History, 1979

The Journal of African History, 1978

The Journal of African History, 1981

It will be interesting to see what form the answer takes in the third volume, and how long we sha... more It will be interesting to see what form the answer takes in the third volume, and how long we shall have to wait for it to be given. It is sad to have to record Ageron's evident embarrassment, at the conclusion of his text, in a note to the reader which apologizes for the absence of footnotes of any kind. The destination of the work, 'a wide audience', has not allowed him the luxury of documentation. We can only, as we surely must, accept his word that the text is written throughout on the basis of complete familiarity with the original sources, and regret the omission of the references which a work of this length and quality deserves. Still more must we regret the absence of a bibliography, all the more by comparison with the first volume, distinguished as it is by one of Julien's bibliographical masterpieces. The reader is directed instead to the exhaustive bibliography of Les Algeriens musulmans, and to that of Julien's seminal work, L'Afrique du Nord en marche, in its third edition. Extensive as these may be, they are still not up to date for the purpose of this volume, and cannot in any case be much compensation for the absence of its x>wn. The publishers may care to bear the point in mind when the book is reissued perhaps to accompany the publication of the third volume?

UNESCO's eight volume General history of Africa (Heinemann, in association with UNESCO, f13.50 ea... more UNESCO's eight volume General history of Africa (Heinemann, in association with UNESCO, f13.50 each) have appeared: J. Ki-Zerbo (ed), Methodology and African prehistory; and G. Mokhtar (ed), Ancient civilizations of Africa. The much lower price makes this an attractive alternative to the planned eight volume Cambridge history of Africa, which started appearing in 1975. A comparison suggests a more elaborate structure of editorial committee control for the UNESCO project, which together with the simultaneous production of French and English editions would account for the slow progress. One would therefore perhaps have expected a cautious 'definitive' work. But the editorial committee's ideological commitment to African authors, whenever available, has produced a mixture of conservative 'textbook' writing and deliberately unconventional interpretations, which might make the work look very dated before it has even been published in full. A general survey of African culture, history and society, listed here chiefly because of its abundance of well selected illustrations is P. Alexandre, Les africains: initiation a une Iongue historie e t a de vieilles civilisatiom, de I'aube de I'humanitt au dtbut de la colonisation (Paris: Lidis, Fr 225). A curious throwback to nineteenth-century type historical interpretation is to be found in C.A. Hromnik, Indo-Africa: towards a new understanding of the history of sub-Saharan Africa (Cape Town: Juta, f15.75), where the 'new' theory is the hoary old one that any