Liberia an(d) Empire?: Sovereignty, ‘Civilisation’ and Commerce in Nineteenth-Century West Africa

ABSTRACT

In the 1840s, Liberia was a black settler state on the West African coast which avowedly supported the connected ideologies of Christianity, commerce, and ‘civilisation’. However, from the 1870s, as the rest of West Africa began to be divided up into colonies, adherence to these ‘Western’ values did not spare Liberia’s leaders from some of the disruptive consequences of European expansionism. This article frames these consequences in the context of commercial clashes between the Liberian state and European traders (and their companies). These clashes predated Liberia’s declaration of independence in 1847, worsened thereafter, and later became increasingly politicised with the stricter enforcement of colonial law in the region in the 1870s, partly as a result of economic crisis. On the coast, Liberian officials struggled legally and militarily to stave off the activities of European smugglers with diplomatic backing. In the interior, commercial alliances were forged with local authorities in an attempt to keep out the French and the British, in particular. Conflicts over the collection of customs duties, the setting of borders, and, ultimately, the nature and extent of Liberian sovereignty, reached a climax during the Berlin Conference (1884–1885). The Conference led Liberia, by 1904, to implement its own version of colonial ‘indirect rule’: first and foremost to safeguard its independence, secondarily as a tool of expansion. In spite of major losses Liberian leaders were ultimately able to strengthen the country’s standing as a member of the international community of nations.     

A new fossil genus in Pamphiliidae (Hymenoptera) from China

A new genus with two new species, Scabolyda orientalis gen. et sp. nov. and Scabolyda incompleta sp. nov., assigned to the subfamily Juralydinae in the family Pamphiliidae are described and illustrated. They were collected from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation and the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in northeastern China. They represent the first fossil pamphiliids described from China.     

Strategy for Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) in Africa: A Case Study

Africa is both fortunate and unfortunate as far as Cultural Heritage Management (CHM) is concerned. Fortunate because the continent is a warehouse for the heritage resources, which document the origin and development of our humanity. In the meantime, it is very unfortunate that Africa is too poor to take care of such vast cultural treasures. In this paper, I use Tanzania as a case study to explore ways that Africa can generate revenue and public support for CHM. An effective means of accomplishing this goal is to make the products of the past attractive and accessible for cultural tourism. Only in this way does Africa's past heritage become economically sustainable for long-term survival, productivity, and contribution to global education, research, tourism, and pride in the past accomplishments of humanity.L'Afrique est à la fois heureuse et malheureuse en ce qui concerne la Gestion du Patrimoine Culturel (GPC). Heureuse parce que ce continent est un entrepôt de ressources de documentation sur l'origine et le développement de l'humanité. Mais en mème temps, il est trés malheureux que l'Afrique soit si pauvre pour prendre soin d'un si grand trésor culturel. Dans cet article, je me suis servi de la Tanzanie comme cas d'étude pour explorer les moyens par lesquels l'Afrique pourrait générer des recettes et un appui public à la GPC. Un moyen efficace pour accomplir ce but est de rendre les produits du passé attrayants et accessibles pour un tourisme culturel. C'est par ce moyen seul que l'héritage du passé africain deviendra économiquement soutenable pour réaliser une survie à longue portée, la productivité, et une contribution a l'éducation mondiale, à la recherche, au tourisme et à la fierté des réalisations du passé humain.     

States,Money and the Persistence of Colonial Financial Hierarchies in British West Africa

This article contributes to debates about the persistence of colonial hierarchies in global finance by examining the reproduction of key features of colonial monetary and financial systems through the end of formal colonialism in West Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The article draws together engagements with Marxian theories of money and of the colonial state, and an examination of a key period which has often not received sufficient direct attention in debates about colonialism and financial subordination: the breakdown and end of formal colonial rule, roughly between 1930 and 1960. The central puzzle addressed in this article is how, despite the explicit desire on the part of nationalist political leaders to overturn colonial financial systems, these wound up being reproduced through the negotiation of political independence. The article shows how the entanglements of colonial monetary and financial systems with processes of state formation posed severe limits on efforts to articulate a ‘developmental’ colonialism after World War II. Efforts to work around these limits ultimately reinforced the reliance of the colonial and postcolonial state on extractive and hierarchical structures of global finance. In short, the article shows how the contradictory position of the state in colonial capitalism is vital to understanding the persistence of colonial monetary and financial structures.     

A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae)

Cai, C., Clarke, D.J., Huang, D. & Nel, A., 2014. A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). Alcheringa 38, 557–562. ISSN 0311-5518.

A remarkable new genus and species of rove beetle, Eocenostenus fossilis gen. et sp. nov., is described and figured based on one well-preserved specimen from the late Eocene of Monteils (near Alès, Gard, France). Eocenostenus is definitively placed in the extant subfamily Steninae, based on the combination of dense and coarse body punctation, globular and protruding eyes, exposed and closely spaced antennal insertions on the vertex, and six visible abdominal terga. Eocenostenus differs from the two extant stenine genera Stenus and Dianous most notably in the structure of the prothorax, which is strongly transverse and with unusual anterolateral projections, and in the anteriorly placed antennal insertions. This new discovery highlights the palaeodiversity of a genus-poor subfamily and suggests that the early diversification of Steninae is probably complicated.

Chenyang Cai [caichenyang1988@163.com] and Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Rd., Nanjing 210008, PR China; Dave J Clarke [dclarke@fieldmuseum.org], Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA; and André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr], Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB, UMR 7205 CNRS UPMC EPHE, CP50, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France. Received 23.1.2014; revised 2.5.2014; accepted 12.5.2014.     

Variation in Venues of Slavery and Freedom: Interpreting the Late Eighteenth-Century Cultural Landscape of St. John, Danish West Indies Using an Archaeological GIS

An archaeological GIS is used to examine the late eighteenth-century cultural landscape of St. John, US Virgin Islands. Land use patterns are reconstructed using a combination of historic maps, tax records, and survey reconnaissance. The study demonstrates significant, heretofore undocumented, transitions taking place that reflect dynamic cultural and economic change within Danish West Indian plantation society that includes a significant trend towards land ownership by free-colored St. Johnians more than a half a century before emancipation. These venues of freedom are discussed in relation to broader patterns of estate consolidation and economic shifts.     

The Transition to the Acheulean in East Africa: an Assessment of Paradigms and Evidence from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

The origin of the Acheulean constitutes a key aspect of current research in the archaeology of human evolution. Olduvai Gorge is one of the main sites in Africa in the study of the transition from the Oldowan to the Acheulean, due to both the uniqueness of its archaeological record, and the influence of early investigations at Olduvai on the development of Early Stone Age research. This paper reviews the impact of work at Olduvai in shaping a modern view of cultural evolution from the Oldowan to the Acheulean. It also evaluates the lithic assemblages excavated by Mary Leakey in Olduvai Middle and Upper Bed II, based on a first-hand review of the collections. We conclude that previous paradigms used to explain inter-assemblage variability are not superseded as much as generally assumed, and that a modern view of the origins of the Acheulean requires a reassessment of the cultural, biological, and paleoecological evidence at Olduvai and elsewhere in Africa.     

Restructuring of the European chocolate industry and its impact on cocoa production in West Africa

During the 1990s, both the European chocolate industry and thecocoa butter industry have become increasingly centralised.Today only a handful of companies in each segment control theproduction of intermediate goods and massmarketed brands. Thecocoa sectors of the major producing countries in West Africahave at the same time been liberalised and privatised due tothe dismantling of state marketing boards. This paper examinesthe relationship between the new raw material requirements (bothin qualitative and quantitative terms) of the processing industryin Europe and restructuring processes in the cocoa sectors ofmajor African producer countries.     

A tale of regional transformation: From political community to security regions the politics of security and regionalism in West Africa

This article draws attention to the intersection between the politics of regionalism and the politics of security by investigating the recent reorganisation of the West African space. It shows how international actors’ reinvestment in West Africa is driven by their security priorities, and how these actions, in particular those of the European Union, are deconstructing West Africa into smaller security regions such as the Sahel. This transformation is legitimised through a regional imaginary depicting the Sahel as a fuzzy region constituted by fluctuating boundaries of networks of organised crime and terrorism. This imaginary strongly contrasts with an earlier one that conceived of West Africa as a regional political community. The tensions between these two imaginaries raises important questions about how these perceptions emerged, which agencies and interests have driven them, and what consequences this has for the re-allocation of political authority and sovereignty practices in West Africa. Hence, drawing on International Political Sociology, Critical Geopolitics and Political Geography, this article symmetrically engages with the simultaneous processes of spatialisation of security and securitisation of space to understand the production and transformation of security regionalism in West Africa.     

Changing Crafts in the Spaces Between States: Formal,Functional, and Decorative Transformations in Fifteenth-Century CE Ceramics at Kirikongo,Burkina Faso (West Africa)

The fifteenth century CE in central West Africa saw the rise and/or expansion of states and empires, major shifts in settlement patterns, and growth of new trading connections between the forest and Sahel. However, very little is known about how these events affected areas not incorporated into states, such as western Burkina Faso, which was likely home to diverse noncentralized societies. Previous archaeological work at the site of Kirikongo, in the Mouhoun Bend, Burkina Faso, examined the histories of these communities from ca. 100 to 1400 CE. This paper introduces the fifteenth-century (Red IV) ceramics from Kirikongo, exploring their form, function, and decoration and assessing their presence at other sites in the region. Based on these distributions, many communities in the Mouhoun Bend decreased in size or were abandoned during Red IV. During Red IV, potters also adopted new ceramic forms and decorations. These may be associated with new economic activities and with increasing entanglements with Mande and/or Dogon communities.     

A Presence in the West: Religious Contributions to the Secular Ideology of an Australian University

Between 1972 and 1984, the rise of social justice and religious vocational movements in an increasingly self‐conscious Western Sydney intersected with the rise of an increasingly influential cadre of politicians, public servants, and educationalists. Mobilising a broader sense of grievance, and organising in community, political, and social groups, these people contributed to a widespread campaign for a university in Western Sydney which extended from the streets of Mount Druitt to the Prime Minister's Office. This article traces the contribution of these religious motivations to the secular legitimisation, mission, and implementation of the University of Western Sydney.     

Early Evidence for Domestic Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in the Horn of Africa

Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus L. 1758) are one of the most valued farm animals in the world today. Chickens are widespread and economically and socially significant in Africa. Despite their importance, little is known about the nature of their introduction and subsequent integration into African economies. One reason for this is the morphological similarity of domestic chickens to wild galliform birds in Africa such as guineafowl and francolin. Here, we present direct dates and morphological evidence for domestic chickens recovered from Mezber, a pre‐Aksumite (>800–450 BCE) rural farming settlement in northern Ethiopia. Key morphological markers differentiated these domestic chickens from francolins. The Mezber direct chicken element accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates of cal 820–595 BCE and indirect/charcoal AMS dates of cal 921–801 BCE constitute the earliest osteological evidence for chickens in Africa. Chicken bones in the domestic food waste of an early rural settlement at Mezber and their presence in later Aksumite urban contexts show that chickens were integrated into diverse Ethiopian highland settings. The Mezber specimens predate the earliest known Egyptian chickens by at least 550 years and draw attention to early exotic faunal exchanges in the Horn of Africa during the early first millennium BCE. These findings support previous archaeological, genetics and linguistic data that suggest maritime exchange networks with South Arabia through ports along the African Red Sea coast constitute one possible early route of introduction of chickens to Africa. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.