John Edward Philips is Professor of International “African history has taken wing and spread into different questions Writing African History is an essential work for Society, Hirosaki University, and author of and newer ways to answer those questions since Daniel McCall’s Philips anyone who wants to write, or even seriously Africa in Time Perspective came out in 1964. To bring us up-to- Spurious Arabic: Hausa and Colonial Nigeria read, African history. It will replace Daniel date, John Philips has brought together an outstanding group of (Madison, University of Wisconsin African scholars to introduce the questions that attract Africanists and McCall's classic Africa in Time Perspective as Studies Center, 2000). the methods used to answer those questions. The result will the introduction to African history for the next stimulate students and teachers and should be the standard work generation and as a reference for professional on African history methodologies for years to come.” historians, interested readers, and anyone who —Martin Klein, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto wants to understand how African history is written.  “Philips presents the first comprehensive update to foundational     Africa in Time Perspective was written in the methodological works from the 1960s on writing African history. Writing African History looks great.  I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you.  The His scope is imaginative and wide, covering source methodologies 1960s, when African history was a new field of author has since updated the blurb.  Please use the updated text listed below.  Also, please add and issues of perspective and interpretation. Contributors include research. This new book reflects the development "Edited by" on the front cover in front of John Edward Philips name.  My color printout made it look recognized masters and thoughtful newcomers, with important of African history since then. It opens with a like there is black in the background on the front cover, if so, can you make that a darker version statements from Africa-based scholars. The result is a serious, comprehensive introduction by Daniel McCall, of the brown you are using in the main graphic so that it looks more like a sepia tone? balanced, and useful work.” followed by a chapter by the editor explaining —Joseph C. Miller, T. Cary Johnson, Jr. Professor of History, what African history is (and is not) in the context University of Virginia of historical theory and the development of “African history has clearly come of age with this monumental, historical narrative, the humanities, and social comprehensive guide. The volume demonstrates the wealth of sciences. The first half of the book includes sources available for African historians, from the archaeological chapters on sources of historical data, including and botanical to newly appreciated Arabic documents and oral tradition (David Henige) and oral history extensive African oral traditions. Philips is to be congratulated on his eminently readable epilogue and background chapters that (Barbara Cooper), indigenous written documents provide a unity all too often lacking in similar anthologies.” (John Hunwick), precolonial European —Merrick Posnansky, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA documents (John Thornton), and colonial and mission documents (Toyin Falola), as well as “This is essential reading for anyone interested in African history. chapters on archaeology (Susan Keech The essays, written by many of the leading experts in the field, McIntosh), biology (Dorothea Bedigian), physical brilliantly assess the current state of knowledge of the African past and discuss how we have come to know what we think we anthropology (S.O.Y. Keita), and historical know.” linguistics (Christopher Ehret). The second half —Paul E. Lovejoy FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor, of the book includes chapters about different Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History perspectives on history. Covered in this section are social science (Isaac Olawale Albert), art history (Henry John Drewal), Africanizing history (Diedre L. Badejo), economic history (Masao Yoshida), local history (Bala Achi), memory and history (Donatien DIBWE dia Mwembu), world systems theory (William G. Martin), African links to the African diaspora (Joseph E. Holloway), and gender perspectives (Kathleen Sheldon). The editor's final chapter explains how ISBN 1-58046-164-6 to combine various sorts of evidence into a University of Rochester Press coherent account of African history. Writing 668 Mt. Hope Avenue African History will become the most important Rochester, NY 14620, USA Edited BY guide to African history for the 21st century. P.O. Box 9, Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK J o h n E d wa r d P h i l i p s Jacket design: Lisa Mauro www.urpress.com 9 781580 461641 WRITING AFRICAN HISTORY Toyin Falola, Senior Editor The Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History University of Texas at Austin (ISSN: 1092-5228) Power Relations in Nigeria: Ilorin Black Business and Economic Power Slaves and their Successors Edited by Alusine Jalloh Ann O’Hear and Toyin Falola Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria Voices of the Poor in Africa Edited by Paul Beckett and Elizabeth Isichei Crawford Young Colonial Rule and Crisis in Equatorial Africa: Science and Power in Southern Gabon ca. 1850–1940 Colonial Mauritius Christopher J. Gray William Kelleher Storey The Politics of Frenchness in Colonial Algeria, 1930–1954 Namibia’s Post-Apartheid Regional Jonathan K. Gosnell Institutions: The Founding Year Joshua B. Forrest Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed A Saro Community in the Niger Delta, Edited by Toyin Falola and 1912–1984: The Potts-Johnsons of Christian Jennings Port Harcourt and Their Heirs Mac Dixon-Fyle Sudan’s Blood Memory: The Legacy of War, Ethnicity, and Slavery in Early South Sudan Contested Power in Angola: Stephanie Beswick 1840s to the Present Linda Heywood Writing Ghana, Imagining Africa: Nation and African Modernity Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power Kwaku Larbi Korang in Modern Politics, 1890s–1990s Olufemi Vaughan Labour, Land, and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, West Indians in West Africa, 1808–1880: 1807–1956 The African Diaspora in Reverse Gareth Austin Nemata Blyden Not So Plain as Black and White: Afro- The United States and Decolonization German Culture and History, 1890–2000 in West Africa, 1950–1960 Edited by Patricia Mazón and Ebere Nwaubani Reinhild Steingröver Health, State, and Society in Kenya Writing African History George Oduor Ndege Edited by John Edward Philips WRITING AFRICAN HISTORY Edited by John Edward Philips UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS Copyright © 2005 John Edward Philips All Rights Reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. First published 2005 University of Rochester Press 668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA www.urpress.com and of Boydell & Brewer Limited PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK www.boydellandbrewer.com ISBN 1–58046–164–6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writing African history / edited by John Edward Philips. p. cm. – (Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora, ISSN 1092-5228 v. 20) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58046-164-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Africa–Historiography. 2. Africa–History. I. Philips, John Edward, 1952- II. Series. DT19.W75 2005 960(cid:1).072–dc22 2005000377 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America. IN MEMORIAM John Lavers Boniface Obichere Gloria Waite And in special rememberance of Bala Achi CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Daniel McCall Part I. Background 1 What is African History? 25 John Edward Philips Part II. Sources of Data 2 Archaeology and the Reconstruction of the African Past 51 Susan Keech McIntosh 3 Writing African History from Linguistic Evidence 86 Christopher Ehret 4 Physical Anthropology and African History 112 S.O.Y. Keita 5 The Importance of Botanical Data to Historical Research on Africa 152 Dorothea Bedigian 6 Oral Tradition as a Means of Reconstructing the Past 169 David Henige 7 Oral Sources and the Challenge of African History 191 Barbara M. Cooper vii viii Contents 8 Arabic Sources for African History 216 John Hunwick 9 European Documents and African History 254 John Thornton 10 Mission and Colonial Documents 266 Toyin Falola Part III. Perspectives on History 11 Data Collection and Interpretation in the Social History of Africa 287 Isaac Olawale Albert 12 African Economic History: Approaches to Research 308 Masao Yoshida 13 Signs of Time, Shapes of Thought: The Contributions of Art History and Visual Culture to Historical Methods in Africa 329 Henry John Drewal 14 Methodologies in Yorùbá Oral Historiography and Aesthetics 348 Diedre L. Bádéjo 15 Local History in Post-Independent Africa 374 Bala Achi 16 Africa and World-Systems Analysis: A Post-Nationalist Project? 381 William G. Martin 17 “What Africa Has Given America”: African Continuities in the North American Diaspora 403 Joseph E. Holloway 18 History and Memory 439 Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu 19 Writing About Women: Approaches to a Gendered Perspective in African History 465 Kathleen Sheldon Contents ix Part IV. Conclusion 20 Writing African History 493 John Edward Philips Contributors 511 Index 517