Reflections on the Notions of “Empire” and “Kingdom” in … (original) (raw)
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Use of the Term 'Empire'in Historical Research on Africa: A Comparative Approach
codesria.org
This paper explores the use of the term 'empire' in historical research on Africa to illustrate the problem of 'comparability' and the requirement for measurement and appropriateness of the 'measurement language'. Taking the reader through a review of the literature, beginning with Maurice Delafosse's popularisation of the concept in his essays on ancient Ghana, Mali and Songhai in 1912 and climaxing with pointers in the multi-volume UNESCO General History of Africa in the late twentieth century, the author exposes the essential inconsistency in African and Africanist use of the term, 'empire', which inevitably crept into the study of African history in the heydays of 'conceptual Eurocentrism'. He maintains that the usage of the term 'empire' in African historiography was employed due to the need to name those African states which were extensive territorially and multi-ethnically; and states designated 'empires' were characterised by certain elements of an imperial organisation rather than by a fully formed imperial system. And for analogues and comparisons, the form of dependence between the centre and the subordinated tribes and early states that developed in Africa reminds us rather of the relations existing on the other continents in the early stages of large state formation. Hence, the term 'early empire' seems more justified to describe these states in research on the history of Africa. The author calls for the need to conduct discussion, with the help of a comparative method, on the specific features of those 'early empires'. Résumé Cet article étudie l'utilisation du terme «empire» dans la recherche historique sur l'Afrique, afin d'illustrer le problème de la «comparabilité» ainsi que le besoin d'un système de mesure et d'opportunité du «langage de mesure». En transportant le lecteur dans une revue de littérature, qui commence par la popularisation de ce concept par Maurice Delafosse, dans ses essais sur les anciens empires du Ghana, du Mali et l'empire Songhaï, et aboutit à des indica
African Empires was an umbrella term used in African studies to refer to a number of historical states in Africa with multinational structures incorporating various populations and polities into a single entity, usually through conquest. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Listed below are known African empires and their respective capital cities.
Research Africa Reviews, 2020
Winner of both the African Studies Association’s and the American Historical Association’s 2019 Book Prizes (Herskovits and Martin A. Klein Prizes), African Dominion marks Michael A. Gomez’s timely return to African history after his 1992 Pragmatism in the Era of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu (Cambridge University Press). In the intervening years, Gomez has cemented his reputation as scholar beyond Africa and across the Atlantic, exploring questions of race, culture, and slavery in the Americas and the African Diaspora (Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South [University of North Carolina Press, 1998]; Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora [Cambridge University Press, 2005]; Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas [Cambridge University Press, 2005]). These concerns are evident in the conceptualization of his new book, an ambitious project which has attracted a great deal of attention, receiving both abundant praise and sharp criticism, as exemplified in the American Historical Review’s “Review Roundtable” dedicated to the work (April 2019).
Africa Spectrum, 2021
The disciplines of politics and history tend to be Eurocentric. Even at the best universities, World or Global history tends to be limited to the study of certain societies. Large, sophisticated and in some cases transcontinental historical empires are ignored by the social sciences. The tools used to study the few non-Western cases (China, Japan or Iran) are also artifacts of Western civilization. Outside the small and specialized discipline of African Studies, nearly no attempt is made to understand these societies on their own terms, let alone appreciate and grapple with their achievements and practices. This is especially the case with Africa. Michael Gomez' African Dominion: A New History of Empire in East and Medieval West Africa is a book in the classical tradition of African studies as exemplified by Patrick Chabal, Stephen Ellis, John Fage, and Ann Hugon among others. In addition to oral histories, the book is built upon previously unpublished and unexplored archival data. Organized in 4 parts and 14 chapters, it uses a classical historical methodology. Inspired by his mentor, John C. Wood, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, the author learned Arabic to be able to read the manuscripts from the Islamic era onward in Western Africa. The book is a close look at the cycle of West African empires, focusing especially on Mali and Songhay using the chronicles of medieval West Africa, Ta'rı̄kh as-Sūdān and Ta'rı̄kh al-Fattāsh. These works focus on the rise and fall of imperial Songhay (20). Gomez argues that West Africa has had a significant impact on world history and must not be ignored. Critiquing World History, he argues that while the study of civilization often starts with the Near East and Egypt, the discipline disdains West African empires like Mali and Songhayif they are mentioned at all (12). The author connects West Africa to the World system through the Middle East and North Africa. As the 2012-2013 warfare in Mali showed, the region is deeply connected to the Middle East and North Africa, and in many ways, the conflict there was an extension of the Arab Spring which had devastated Libya and opened its vast arsenals to whoever can loot them. Immediately, after Muammar al-Qadhafi's death in October 2011, over two thousand of his loyalists crossed the border with Mali, joining forces with local opponents of the Malian government (369).
RUDN Journal of World History
This article aims to address the question of the emergence of empires in West Africa from the ninth century to the present day. The author plans to make an in-depth analysis of the political formation of the different empires which have succeeded each other in this vast West African space which nowadays shelters the current republics of Mali and Mauritania in particular and in general throughout other West African countries (Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Niger). The largest and most famous empires that appeared on the territory of what is now Mali is called the Ghana Empire in the 9th century and was succeeded by the Mali or Mandé Empire in the 13th century. The influence of these empires throughout Africa and the rest of the world shows us a particular interest in understanding over time the notion of the State in Africa before the colonization and destruction of the African political system and its replacement by colonial state with the arrival of Europeans. ...
Africa: Before and after colonization
All colonial empires based their colonial expansion on controlling geopolitical strategic areas in order to gain greater influence and by extension, more power. In this map essay, the writer analyzes the influence of France on colonial Africa, what changed through the course of time and what is the current situation. 'Border making‘, also known as 'bordering' is caused by the process of securing and governing of the 'own' economic welfare and identity (van Houtum & van Naerssen, 2002).