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Samenvatting History of Modern Africa
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- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
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History of Modern Africa 2020-2021Course objective: deducting out of “the heart of darkness?”
•“Africa is a country”: perceiving “Africa” as a homogeneous social, cultural and geographic
entity.
•“Timeless Africa”: denying the autonomous historicity of African cultures and civilizations.
Demonstrating that there is no such thing as “Africa”, but a diverse, rich and
historically active array of communities
Looking at the role played by Africans in globalisation processes, and their historical
agency under colonialism
Studying the contribution of Africans to intellectual, cultural and political
“modernity”
Encompassing the history of diasporas in the broader narrative of Africa’s past
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,Introduction
What is “Africa”
The African continent hosts an enormous diversity of languages, cultures and
societies
“Africa” is often used as a metonym for sub-Saharan, “Black” Africa: the desert acts
as an ocean of sand dividing the continent in two, difficult but not impossible to cross
Distinguish Africa as a continent and as an idea:
The “Idea of Africa” (V.Y. Mudimbe) as the embodiment of difference for (European)
outsiders, which determines how Africans are perceived and depicted. Africa is seen
by Europeans as the absolute opposite of Europe.
Time line of Africa in European perspectives
1. Greek-Roman civilisation: Libya: southern shore of the mediterranean, further south:
the land of the ethiopians (burnt faces).
2. Africa is a Roman province after the conquest of Carthage (146 BC)
3. Conquered by the Arab world in the 7th century
4. 15th century: circumnavigation of the continent by portugese mariners: Africa
becomes a land mass
Periodisation in Modern Africa history
Academic African history starts in the 1950s. At first, deeply bound with movements
for self-determination: provides “usable pasts” to emerging nation-states
Experiences a socio-economic turn in the 1970 (marxism)
since the 1990s :a focus on bottom-up experiences of colonialism since the 1990s
Classic periodisation:
- precolonial (until c. 1885)
- colonial (c. 1885-c.1960)
- post-colonial (since 1960)
A much criticised chronological division: Eurocentric, overlooks continuities and the
historical agency of Africans
Is “modern” african history Different? A nuanced answer:
Africans historical experiences are similar to those of all other human communities:
power struggles, creation and procreation, thriving and surviving
Historical dynamics and records of the past took particular forms in Africa:
Harsh climates and endemic diseases (sleeping sickness) made significant parts of the
continent inhabitable
Population density remained limited, most communities were nomadic and did not
use a writing system: left few material traces (absence of written sources)
African history is not “different” but might be more “challenging” to study. Its the
oldest continent, but with the least knowledge of history
Sources of African history: Written Documents
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, From the 5thC. AD: documents written in Ge’ez by the Ethiopian Coptic Church:
Bibles, royal chronicles, landholding records
From the 8thC.: travelogues of Arab merchants and travellers. 15thC., from European
mariners and residents of coastal outposts
From the 15thand 16thC: histories written by Africans in Arabic: the Kilwaand
Timbuktu chronicles
From the 19thC onwards, increase of written sources
- The paper trail of colonial institutions : presence of “fragments” of African voices in
those documents (petitions, testimonies,) wrote by Africans
- Written production of Christian missions: religious literature, grammars, dictionaries
in vernacular languages
- Written production of African converts (ex: Samuel Johnson, History of the Yoruba)
- Written production of African middle classes: verry early in the gold coast (19th) ><
Congo: 1960: not manny middle class people.
Sources of African History: Oral Tradition
Interviews as historical data:
- Oral tradition: tales, (hi)stories passed down from generation to generation
- Oral history: first-hand memories limited to the interviewee’s lifespan
Example: the Luba epic history :Recorded and passed down within the Bambudye
secret society,Narration supported by a Lukasa(memory board), a mnemonic, non-
written form of history recording
Oral traditions contain more information about a culture’s tastes and vision of
historical change than facts about past events
Pros and of oral history:
- A way to collect and study the past of marginalised peoples
- A way for historians to gather information at the source, without the mediation of
the archiv
Cons of oral history
- Distortion of the past through confusion and reinterpretation
- Trust: why shoul the interviewee open her/himself to perfect stranger?
- Nostalgia: a rose-tinted view of the past, often to criticise the present
- Some cultures share a lot of stories in a different form and that isn’t possible
Oral history informs us about past-present relations and about the values, cultures
and everyday issues of past societies
The recurrence of anecdotes, stories, expressions in different interviews are worth
studying , Example: Interview with ValérienneNgoye, Likasi, 20 June 2018
Sources of African History: Material culture
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, Artefacts provide information on a community’s cosmogonies and social structures,
while tools and instruments inform us on everyday practices (ex: hoe or plough
agricultural techniques)
Example: Pendecarved chief seat, early 1930s:
- Pende were forcibly recruited form palm oil labour and heavily taxed
- Chiefs chosen by the Belgian administration played a crucial role in enforcing colonial
domination
- Carvings evoke forced labour, colonial encroachment and associate chiefs with
symbols of theft and corruption, ex: lepard (voetstuk): thiefs stealing from someone
Sources of African History: Immaterial Heritage
Using (African) music as a source:
- Songs as snapshots of a given space and time: styles, themes and popularity inform
historians about a specific culture
- Music as a reflection of (African) modernity, shaped by cosmopolitan cities and
outside influences, no such thing as pure tradition, outside influence (migration)
Example: IndépendanceCha-Cha (OK Jazz, 1960)
- A trace of Léopoldville’s thriving musical scene
- An example of popular Rumba (Afro-Cuban music)
- The first pan-African hit: shows the existence of a continental public and the
aspiration for self-determination
Conclusion Introduction
•Historians of African societies face different challenges:
- The existence of the “idea of Africa” as an embodiment of otherness and savagery
- A Eurocentric temporal framework (“modernity”, colonialism as a central historical
watershed)
- A shortage of “classic” written archives
- A vast variety of sources, each requiring another methodological framework
A recognized academic discipline for only 60 years, African pasts greatly needs to be
further studied and taught, to shed light on the historical experiences and agency of
Africans
Part 1 Chapter 1: From Houses to Empires: pre-colonial political organisation
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