In 1669, the Frenchman Nicolas Villault de Bellefond published a travel account entitled Relation des costes d’Afrique appelées Guinée. In this document, the author reports in great detail that the Normans passed Cape Bojador as early as 1364, i.e. almost seventy years before the Portuguese; then, they made numerous voyages to West Africa until the beginning of the 15th century. It was only in the first half of the 20th century, thanks to the works of Charles de La Roncière and Raymond Mauny, that this story was definitively considered as a legend. The two historians consider that Villault de Bellefond wrote in order to support Colbert's colonial project in Africa. Without ruling out this conclusion, my research has led me to develop another hypothesis: this legend would have been elaborated by Africans living on the Gold Coast in the early 17th century to attract the French to the region and put an end to the Portuguese monopoly. It then evolved over the course of the seventeenth century to become a tool in the fight against the Dutch monopoly that had been established, particularly in the kingdom of Eguafo. Nicolas Villault de Bellefond would have simply taken up and enriched this legend – of which he became aware during his visit to the region – in his travel report.
La série « Réunion » des Archives nationales d’outre-mer conserve plusieurs lettres en arabe issues des correspondances entre les Français et les souverains musulmans d’Afrique de l’Est. L’une d’elles, écrite en 1819, est traduite en français et éditée pour la première fois. Son étude apporte un éclairage crucial sur la nature des relations entre Swahili, Omanais et Français au début du xixe siècle. Elle fait apparaître l’importance des réseaux négriers pour la diplomatie française et leur persistance après l’abolition officielle de la traite. Elle permet également de comprendre comment le sultanat de Kilwa tente de se défaire de la mainmise omanaise. De plus, elle montre l’importance de l’emploi de la langue arabe pour les correspondances diplomatiques dans l’océan Indien. La lettre de mfalme Sulaymān b. Ḥasan à Louis XVIII vise en effet à sceller une alliance entre la France et le sultanat de Kilwa contre les Omanais installés à Zanzibar, grâce aux bons offices d’un arabisant et d’un négrier. L’étude de ce document comprend une reproduction et une analyse de la lettre et de son enveloppe, une retranscription, une traduction et une analyse permettant de comprendre le contexte (acteurs, situation politique) et de dégager ses apports quant à la connaissance des stratégies de résistance des souverains swahili face à l’expansionnisme omanais en Afrique de l’Est.
The DGB (diy-geɗ-biy) sites, perched on the northern heights of the Mandara Mountains, have revealed two pottery traditions that we will seek to compare with those that make up the chrono-cultural sequences of the surrounding foothills and plains. This comparison, which reveals a time offset between the traditions of the summits and their analogues in the foothills, sheds new light on the settlement process in the interior of the mountain chain. In particular, we propose a hypothesis concerning the geographical origin of the builders of the DGB monuments. In line with many migration and origin accounts, the Mowo-Gudur region may have played a special role in the settlement process of highlands.
Between the official end of the first English occupation of Senegal in 1783 (Treaty of Versailles) and the second English occupation of St. Louis in 1809, France concluded only three treaties with the Fuuta-Tooro, aiming to revive trade, ensure the security of its merchants, and resolve issues related to customs and taxes. In 1776, Fuuta-Tooro underwent a Theocratic Revolution, rejecting the authority of Saint-Louis in order to uphold one of the revolution's core principles: combating the slave trade while continuing to collect taxes. The sovereignty of Fuuta-Tooro clashed with the pressures of French authority in Saint-Louis, which sought to conduct its commercial activities in the region freely. The three treaties signed in 1785, 1802, and 1806 between France and Fuuta-Tooro were all similar in nature, and each ultimately failed as both parties sought to protect their own interests.
Between the official end of the first English occupation of Senegal in 1783 (Treaty of Versailles) and the second English occupation of St. Louis in 1809, France concluded only three treaties with the Fuuta-Tooro, aiming to revive trade, ensure the security of its merchants, and resolve issues related to customs and taxes. In 1776, Fuuta-Tooro underwent a Theocratic Revolution, rejecting the authority of Saint-Louis in order to uphold one of the revolution’s core principles: combating the slave trade while continuing to collect taxes. The sovereignty of Fuuta-Tooro clashed with the pressures of French authority in Saint-Louis, which sought to conduct its commercial activities in the region freely. The three treaties signed in 1785, 1802, and 1806 between France and Fuuta-Tooro were all similar in nature, and each ultimately failed as both parties sought to protect their own interests.
In the 14th century, West Africa presented a stable political landscape comprised of large sultanates. However, between North Africa and the Sahel, the Sahara is still seen as an area lacking political organizations of any worth, and the nomadic powers are still far from being seen as legitimate authorities over their own territories. Taking the example of the main group in the Saharan West in the fourteenth century, the Massūfa, whose men wore the liṯām, a veil concealing the face, this article proposes a historical and political reading of their trans-Saharan territory. A critical discussion of historiographical prejudices towards Saharan nomads and their space also accompanies the reflection.
This article aims to shed light on the history of politico-theological debates in Ghadames, focusing on two distinct case studies through discourse analysis. The particular geographical location of Ghadames, situated between two prominent states—Morocco and the Ottoman Empire—each with their respective caliphal claims, has historically enabled the scholars of the city to formulate and substantiate their own political stances. As a result, a substantial body of written materials, including chronicles, biographies, and letters, has emerged from Ghadames, reflecting the political discourse as articulated by its scholars, who adapted their perspectives in response to shifts in regional power dynamics. Notably, this adaptation was facilitated by the active intellectual engagement of the city’s scholars. In this context, the article investigates the politico-theological discussions in Ghadames from the 1750s to the 1850s, analysing the persistent yet varied arguments and justifications, as well as the intellectual milieu that intersected with them.
In the Faro Region, Northern Cameroon, megalithism appears on recent remains of modern villages and continues still today. But this heritage is still largely underexploited and threatened by destruction. The goal our study is first of all aims to analyze the current and sub-current megalithic practices distribution, and to show how the results of such an approach can concretely enlighten the history of settlement strata and human interactions in the Faro. Due to the variety of approaches, we used, we discovered the existence of two geographic specific stylistic features, beyond an apparent uniformity; the west shore is marked by standing stones associated with wooden posts, and the east shore is indicated by circles made up of monoliths and millstones. These two major cultural trends distinguished these territories, but at the same time sufficiently interpenetrate, to attest the existence of a common background for the whole region.
Swedish merchant C.H. Braad’s illustrated description in 1750 of the rulers, people, crops, livestock and wildlife of ‘Johanna’ (Anjouan/Nzwani) in the Comoros is translated, with extensive annotations, from part of his manuscript account of a voyage to India on the Götha Leijon.
African intellectuals started to write history before academic historians began to take an interest in Africa. Often, they spent decades elaborating research methods and research practices, perfectioning their knowledge, and presenting and debating their findings. Their efforts were rarely noticed by academic scholars, who turned their attention to colonial archives and oral sources which they then processed with the techniques of the newly founded African history discipline. This article discusses the life and historical work of Seetsele Modiri Molema, doctor and historian of the Barolong of Mafikeng, in modern South Africa. It follows the development of his methods between the 1930s and 1965, demonstrating that his less-known books are valuable for historians today. Finally, it proposes a first reconstruction of the three drafts of an unpublished manuscript, the History of the Barolong, which may constitute the most important work about the deep past of central southern Africa.
Following on from the underwater archaeological investigations carried out between 2000 and 2015 in Ambodifotatra Bay on Sainte-Marie Island (Madagascar), a new mission aimed at uncovering the terrestrial remains of a pirate occupation also had the opportunity in May 2022 to re-examine all the artifacts from a wreck, a ship sunk by pirates whose identification has yet to be determined. Initially identified as the supposed Fiery Dragon, sunk in 1721, the wreck was photogrammetrically surveyed and two soundings were taken. The latter have yielded a large quantity of material, notably more than 2,800 fragments of Chinese porcelain, Southeast Asian ceramics, metal objects, glassware and archaeozoological remains. Packaged, sometimes desalinated, this collection was deposited in the Musée de la Reine Betia on îlot Madame. Nevertheless, no reliable inventory or study report has been submitted to the Malagasy authorities. This article, based on the report written in 2023 by the mission team, aims to reveal to the scientific community the interest of re-examining this exceptional furniture coming from a pirate context of the 18th century.
Prior to the pre-colonial period in Central Africa, human populations were dispersed throughout the forests, where they engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture. Starting in the 19th century, they gradually established permanent settlements in villages, resulting in vast areas of abandoned forest. In present-day southern Cameroon, the forest canopy is primarily composed of large emergent trees, which are often attributed to past human activities. The aim of this study is to assess the significance of past human activities on the current floristic composition. Throughout the study area, there were shards of pottery, burnt palm nuts, and charcoal, indicating widespread human occupation and fire. This human occupation dates back to 2200 to 1500 BP, and more recently, three centuries ago. The frequent occurrence of fire and the presence of oil palm, both of recent origin, suggest the use of slash-and-burn agricultural practices. This coincides with the age of the large emergent trees and the dry climate phases recorded in the early 17th century. Therefore, these findings support the hypothesis that these activities have influenced the current floristic composition of the Central African forest.
This study intends to show the importance and role of the city of Musumb in the history of the Lunda State in Central Africa. This role will be examined by analysing the reigns of the various emperors who succeeded each other on the throne during the pre-colonial period, and the political and social dynamics which pushed the movements of this capital into the Lunda State. A detour through an etymological analysis of the term musumb allows us to grasp unexplored parts of this history. The causes of these mobilities during the middle and penultimate decade of the 19th century are both endogenous and exogenous. The endogenous causes are explained by the electoral process, which is linked to the rules of succession and inheritance negotiations. Sociological, political and economic factors explain the distant and immediate external causes. These have had notorious consequences, such as the very frequent assassinations of the Lunda emperors and the spatial mobility of the Musumb capital from one place to another.
In sub-Sahelian Africa, ironmaking is the oldest, most widespread and most important metallurgy that has been practised. Its trajectory, which is therefore long term – at least three millennia – declines with the importation of European iron from the 15th century and ends in the early 20th century. In the medieval period, when urbanisation, trans-Saharan trade, the arrival of Islam, and the founding and succession of kingdoms took place, iron production and use became widespread. This metal is no longer rare, and for several centuries it has replaced stone for agricultural and craft tools. It is traded in raw form or already transformed into objects. But what is the real place of this human activity in the development of societies? Is it central or peripheral? Is it an economic, political or societal issue for the powers that be? Does the place of iron production differ according to the type of political regime?Beyond the analysis of strictly technical questions related to iron production, paleometallurgy allows us to address more general questions in an original way. Fluctuations in the production and consumption of metals and metal objects offer the opportunity to question the needs of a population and thus to approach demography and settlement dynamics. The location of the production sites of raw materials, raw or manufactured products reflects the system of networks and control in which technical activities and exchanges take place. The circuits, the nature of the products and the identity of the actors of this activity can then be reconstructed.In this paper, a research project will be presented with the aim of collecting all the archaeological occurrences on the production and use of iron in order to re-interrogate, century after century, the relationship between the production of iron and the different political hegemonies that have crossed time and space. Using retrospective maps, we will follow the impact of the iron industry on the lives and activities of medieval populations. This re-exploitation of archaeological data will also make it possible to visualise the geographical, chronological and methodological gaps to be filled in order to fully achieve the restitution of the history of iron. In order to test the validity and relevance of the approach, we delimited a study area. This covers 1.5 million km2 and includes part of Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Benin. In this area and in this article, we will attempt to understand more specifically the successive issues of the relationship between the iron industry and the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Gao and Mossi.
This paper focuses on the study of burial practices, including biological anthropology and archaeothanatology, through archaeological excavations of two burial sites in the historical city of Mbanza Kongo, the former capital of the Kongo kingdom. Beyond some aspects related to funerary archaeology, the goal of this paper is to understand the chronology of excavated burials, the spatial distribution of graves and their architecture as well as burials methods. The main objective is also trying to understand how in the burials area, local worship practices alight themselves in a dogmatic and ideological environment influenced by Christianity. The paper aims to compare burials dynamism and practices between ancient’s christian and public cemeteries in Mbanza Kongo as well as those in the Northern provinces of the Kongo Kingdom. This medieval African society at the forefront of cultural blending, has experienced various forms of resilience including in the field of burials.
In the ethnographic and recent past, forested areas of West and Central Africa were populated by forest foragers and food producers who maintained multidimensional interrelationships. While the timing of the emergence of these interrelationships is unknown, forest forager-farmer interactions are rarely considered as a process of cultural or ecological change in the archeological record of Central Africa. Here we argue that Central African prehistoric forager-farmer interactions likely had far-reaching demographic, social, political, and ecological consequences that may have profound implications for the material record. Archaeological research focused on the spread of Bantu-speaking populations should consider the influence of indigenous forager populations on the spread and lifeways of migrating food and iron producers into forested regions. We advocate for the development and use of ethno-archaeological frameworks in identifying some of these interactions in the prehistoric record.
