David Henige

Measuring the Immeasurable: The Atlantic Slave Trade, West African Population and the Pyrrhonian Critic

No problem has exercised Africanists for so long and so heatedly as the slave trade. Now that any difference of opinion as to its morality has ended, debate tends to concentrate on its economic and political aspects, particularly on its magnitude and regional characteristics. In the past few scholarly generations, sophisticated statistical manipulations have supplied more evidence, but it has been concentrated on the number of slaves who arrived in the New World. Nonetheless, dearth of evidence (sometimes total) regarding the other components of the trade has not seemed to discourage efforts to arrive at global figures and, by extension, to determine its effects on African societies.The present paper asks why this should be so, and wonders how any defensible conclusions can ever be reached about almost any facet of the trade that can go beyond ideology or truism. It concludes that no global estimate of the slave trade, or of any ‘underdevelopment’ or ‘underpopulation’ it may have caused, are possible, though carefully constructed micro-studies might provide limited answers. Under the circumstances, to believe or advocate any particular set or range of figures becomes an act of faith rather than an epistemologically sound decision

The problem of feedback in oral tradition : four examples from the Fante Coastlands

Little attention has been devoted to the uncritical and almost reflexive incorporation of available printed information into allegedly oral historical materials. This inclination is particularly strong when oral traditions attempt to cope with material more than a century old. The present paper discusses the mechanisms by which such ‘feedback’ materials were incorporated into the traditional accounts of four coastal Fante stools, and the ambiences which encouraged such processes. Stool, succession, and land disputes were concomitants of Fante political activity, and the imposition by the British of an indirect form of rule allowed Fante traditional historians ample scope for manipulating and creating traditions to fit every contingency. The high level of literacy among the Fante and the relatively large number of early printed works which touched upon the history of the area only served to encourage these propensities. For various reasons many of these barnacles failed to become entrenched, but others were accepted by the British at the time that they were advanced and have since become the accepted and orthodox versions of traditional accounts. While in degree the responses of the Fante were not representative of other African societies, in kind their responses were wholly typical of the development of oral historical materials almost everywhere. The historian must consider a given tradition as having been dynamic over time, and must concern himself not only with its content, but with the circumstances of its development as well.

Primary source by primary source? On the role of epidemics in new world depopulation.

The more sweeping an argument, the more necessary that it be grounded firmly and incontrovertibly in a body of evidence. Henry Dobyns has recently asserted that there were some 700,000 Timucuan Indians in Florida ca. I500. In doing so he marshals data from a number of sources to persuade readers that the sharp decline in numbers he postulates is to be attributed to numerous epidemics. In this paper I argue that Dobyns has been derelict in his use of sources and thereby forfeits the right to have his arguments accepted.

Oral tradition and chronology

Perhaps the weakest aspect of oral tradition is its inability to establish and maintain an accurate assessment of the length of the past it purports to relate. As time passes, societies without calendrical systems tend to become either very vague about this time depth or to relate it to present, changing circumstances. The most common method of measuring the past in many societies is in terms of king lists or genealogies. A comparison of orally transmitted king lists and genealogies in various places and times, for example, the early Mediterranean world and the Ancient Near East, the native states of India, Africa and Oceania, indicates that certain patterns of chronological distortion seem to emerge, sometimes telescoping but more often lengthening the past. The former may occur through omission of usurpers, however defined, periods of chaos or foreign domination, or by the personification of an entire epoch by a founding folk-hero. If the reasons for artificial lengthening are obvious, the mechanisms are less so. In this respect a survey of both welldocumented cases and of orally transmitted lists can be instructive. Lengthening is often the result of euhemerism; more often subtler themes emerge. These include longer reigns in the earlier, less known period, the arranging of contemporary rulers as successive ones and, most importantly, extended father/son succession throughout the list or genealogy. This last is of direct and profound chronological importance, and its occurrence is widespread enough to be termed stereotypical. Yet it is not often recognized as aberrant, even though its documented occurrence is exceedingly rare. The consequent equation of reigns with generations will almost always result in an exaggerated conception of the antiquity of the beginning of the genealogy. Other weaknesses of orally transmitted king lists include lack of multiple reigns and dynastic changes, and suspiciously perfect rotational succession systems. Within its scope this article only attempts to hint at the origin, shape and effects of these distortions. Its main thesis is that much light can be cast on African cases of this nature through a comparative analysis drawing from a whole range of societies and sources.

John Kabes of Komenda: An Early African Entrepreneur and State Builder

The flowering of the Atlantic trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries caused many of the West African societies of the near hinterland to orient themselves increasingly toward the coast. This new focus created new geopolitical conformations. Given the nature of the stimulus, trade and politics went hand in hand and entrepreneurial ability could reap political rewards. These possibilities were greatest along the Gold Coast and in the Niger delta where the actual European presence was small in relation to the extent of the trade. Such a trader cum political leader was John Kabes who, in a career spanning nearly forty years, established the paramount stool of Komenda, hitherto part of the inland state of Eguafo. Kabes began as a trader for the English (and sometimes for the Dutch) and gradually achieved political status which, however it may have been acquired, proved to be lasting because it was acceptable to existing political mores. Such of Kabess activities as are known suggest that his success sprang from his ability to wring advantage from the new exigencies of the time and place in ways which enabled him to acquire legitimacy as well as wealth and influence. Although Kabess career is uniquely documented there is no reason to suppose that it was particularly unusual in its other facets. On this argument it can suggest ways in which other West African trade-derived polities, particularly in the Niger delta, may have coalesced.

Discouraging Verification: Citation Practices across the Disciplines

The purpose of reference notes in scholarly writing is to provide readers with the opportunity to learn more about an issue or to test an authors credibility. As such, they need to include whatever details are necessary to ensure that access be maximally efficient. These data should always include page numbers for both quotes and close paraphrases. Unfortunately, this practice is remarkably uncommon in the sciences and even the social sciences. Failure to include these data is also a failure of good epistemological practice.

Truths yet Unborn? Oral Tradition as a Casualty of Culture Contact

This essay treats the effects of acculturation on oral historical materials. Rather than addressing it as a matter of ‘contamination’, that is, as a question of extraneous data entering and distorting ‘pristine’ traditions, it is considered here to be a facet of the larger question of cultural assimilation – a case of the old and familiar constantly confronting and responding to the new and strange. Seen in this way, oral data continuously adopt and adapt whatever new, relevant and interesting materials come their way in not very different – though decidedly less visible – ways from those that written data have always done. This argument is illustrated by examples from various times and places, largely situations where missionaries, newly literate members, or colonial officials, perceptibly influenced the historical views of societies on their way to becoming literate. In fact this phenomenon seems widespread enough to justify advancing a model that can be tested against specific cases. For our purposes, this model begins with the first meeting of oral and literate cultures, although we can fairly assume that an infinity of similar but unrecorded meetings of oral cultures also resulted in change. After this initial impetus, the constraints of colonial rule, the exigencies of independence, and the aims of modern academic oral historiography each contributed in some measure to this process of ongoing change. As a result, historians, whether primarily interested in the reliability of oral data, or in the process and effects of changes in them, must look to a wider range of sources than has been customary.

Reflections on Early Interlacustrine Chronology: An Essay in Source Criticism

The sources for the details of the early history of the interlacustrine area consist entirely of traditions recorded after i88o, but primarily after 1930. In the past forty years major accounts allegedly based on traditions have been compiled for the three most important kingdoms of the areaBuganda, Bunyoro, and Nkore (Ankole). These accounts purport to record independently of each other the origins, history, and regnal chronology of these states.4 In each case the accounts are richly circumstantial and internally coherent and have been thought to be in large degree mutually corroborative as well. The purpose of this paper is to examine certain aspects of the course of the development of the traditional historiography under the assumption that the historians first task is to regard his sources critically. The present paper will, for purposes of convenient analysis, concentrate on the more explicitly chronological aspects of these traditional accounts, since it is these data which have necessarily provided the framework for the accepted historical interpretation for the area. By doing so I scarcely wish to suggest that other elements of these accounts are not susceptible to similar textual criticism, and in fact a more comprehensive analysis of these traditions is in preparation.

Agaja and the Slave Trade: Another Look at the Evidence

The Atlantic slave trade in its various manifestations has never lacked scholarly attention, be it disinterested or selfish.1 The major focus has often been on the motivations and roles of those who participated in the trade other than as victims. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, interest tended to be confined either to the apologists for the trade or to its critics; but in recent years, the matter has not failed to engage the attention of more serious enquiry. As a major center of the trade throughout the period, Dahomey has been studied extensively from the very beginning. Much of the work has regarded Dahomey as the slave trading state par excellence.2 Recently, however, I.A. Akinjogbin has advanced the stimulating and appealing argument that the Dahomey state was created partially, but explicitly, in defensive reaction to early signs of European interest in slaves on the Guinea coast.3 Akinjogbin further argues that-although Dahomey did in fact eventually develop into an important slave trading polity-it did so reluctantly and only because the Europeans trading along the coast demanded slaves-and only slaves-for their own goods. Needless to say, attractive arguments rather have a way of being more readily (and less discriminatingly) accepted, and Akinjogbins interpretation of early Dahomey history has already re-appeared in several important recent works on the history of west Africa.4 With this in mind, the present paper has two purposes. First, it proposes to examine the validity of Akinjogbins thesis by examining one particular aspect of his argument: the motives of the Dahomey ruler Agaja (ca. 1708 to 1740) in conquering the coastal states of Allada and Whydah between 1724 and 1727. In discussing Akinjogbins elucidation of Agajas motives, we propose to concentrate not so much on the logic of his argumentation, but on his use of the sources on which any assessment of Agajas motives must be based. With a single exception the material examined here is the same used by Akinjogbin, and in this sense the first part of the paper should be seen as a study in the use of evidence and inference.

The Context, Content, and Credibility of La Florida del Ynca

Even if the narrative is ornate, elegant, and copious of words Even if persons, places, and times are conveniently displayed Even if the shape of towns and the site and order of battles are fully described Even if the mind of the reader is artfully attracted to the material If the truth is missing it can never be called history. The historical writings of Garcilaso Inca de la Vega (1539-1616) have evoked varying responses since they appeared. Consideration of his work has concerned its historical value rather less than it has examined Garcilasos literary style, indigenist perspective, ambicultural dilemma, and irrepressible imagination. In turn most of this commentary has concentrated on Garcilasos account of Inca history and customs as embodied in the Comentarios reales . Garcilasos integrated, coherent, and circumstantial account was long regarded as the orthodox version of Inca matters, if only because it so congenially mirrored European ideas of what historical writing should be all about. Of late, however, it has come under fire as it becomes increasingly apparent that the weight of archeological, ethno-historical, and cultural evidence fails to sustain Garcilasos projection of imperial status, utopian social norms, and quasi-Christian habits to the very beginnings of the Inca polity.