African Languages and Societies Commons^™

Gold, Manuscripts, And Misunderstanding: The Forgotten Intellectual Wealth Of Timbuktu, Caroline A. Valdovinos

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This article re-examines Timbuktu’s legacy, challenging European myths that imagined the city as a hidden African “El Dorado” while overlooking its intellectual wealth. From the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, Timbuktu thrived as a hub of trade, religion, and scholarship, home to mosques, libraries, and networks of learning that drew scholars from across the Islamic world. Manuscripts on theology, law, medicine, and science circulated widely, placing the city at the heart of West Africa’s intellectual life. Yet European explorers and mapmakers, influenced by accounts like those of Leo Africanus, recast Timbuktu as a treasure-laden city of gold. This obsession, reinforced by …

Rethinking Resource Exploitation: Shared Capitalist Motivations In Ghana’S Gold Mining Sector, Benedicta Donkor

Senior Theses

The relationship between Chinese involvement in Ghana's gold mining sector and its impact on sovereignty, development, and resource governance has ignited significant debate. While neo-colonial frameworks often dominate discussions, this thesis argues that such perspectives oversimplify the complex dynamics at play. Instead, Chinese involvement is better understood as mutual capitalist exploitation, where both Chinese and Ghanaian actors are driven by shared profit motives within a global capitalist system. This mutual exploitation is enabled by weak governance, regulatory gaps, and systemic corruption, creating a permissive environment for resource exploitation at the expense of societal and environmental well-being. The thesis critically examines …

The Endurance Of West African Textiles Through The Ages, Sarah Isak-Goode

The Confluence

West Africans have a long history of creating distinctive textiles. Yet, they are frequently misunderstood. Though often bold, the patterns and colors used in textiles have a subtle meaning. Separately and together, many of these patterns and symbols represent an unspoken language among natives. Research from the pre-colonial era to the contemporary era has shown that these textiles have persisted because of the reverence West Africans hold for both their heritage and personal expression. Further research is recommended to gain understanding of these textiles, from both the past and the present, as well as the West Africans who have intently …

Presence Of The Past: The Translation Of Traditional Culture Into Contemporary Form Among The Igbo Peoples Of Southeastern Nigeria, Nelson Agalaba

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture serves as the physical embodiment of a group’s cultural values, history, and social dynamics- or identity. The arrival of European colonialism and modernism brought about a paradigm shift, prioritizing a universal European aesthetic and “international style”, displacing indigenous architectural traditions and severing the deep connections between culture and the natural and built environments. The global south has experienced the brunt of this process, especially the African continent. For example, the Igbo peoples of southeastern Nigeria have lost nearly all examples of their building traditions and have been in a constant struggle to create an architecture that captures their rich …

Mami Wata, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Mami Wata (2023), directed by C.J. "Fiery" Obasi.

A Socioeconomic Analysis Of Francophone And Anglophone West Africa, Jackson Gagne

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project seeks to examine and analyze the socioeconomic performances of four West-African countries; two from Francophone (French-speaking) West Africa and two from Anglophone (English-speaking) West Africa. It will tackle questions such as:

• What is the current socioeconomic condition of countries in this region?
• Which country is most suitable for investment?
• Is there a marked difference between the Francophone and Anglophone countries of West Africa?

And many more.

Are Menstrual Cycles A Biological Determinant Of Well-Being Amongst Sierra Leonean Schoolchildren?, Ashwini Shridhar

Master's Theses

The influence of hormones and biology on behavior is a topic that is rife with controversy, especially when it comes to sexual hormones. There is even more murkiness when it comes to the topic of menstruation and knowledge about women’s menstrual cycles. Recent research on this topic have seen a link between the hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and various behavioral implications on competition, cooperation, and risk behavior. This study tries to expand existing knowledge by examining whether there is a link between hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and risk preferential behavior using economic experiments in the largely understudied context …

Parting The Waters Of Bondage: African Americans’ Aquatic Heritage, Kevin Dawson

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Since the 1960s, when the United States Center for Disease Control began compiling racial statistics on drowning death rates, it has been painfully obvious that African Americans are far more likely to drown than their white counterparts. While segregation denied black people access to most public swimming pools and racial violence transformed natural waterways into undesirable places for swimming a leisure, perceptions that swimming as an “un-black” or “white” pursuit have marginalized its acceptability within African American communities. “Parting the Waters of Bondage” is an original article based on decades of the author’s historical scholarship. It seeks to reduce the …

In Search Of Askia Mohammed: The Epic Of Askia Mohammed As Cultural History And Songhay Foundational Myth, Joe Wilson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis offers a detailed historical analysis of The Epic of Askia Mohammed, a foundational myth that ranks among the more well-known global tales of cultural heroes and state formation. The sudden regime change that resulted in the collapse of the Songhay Sunni dynasty and the ascent of the Songhay Askia dynasty in 1492-93 is one of the most important events in West African history. This swift rebellion reversed decades of destructive economic and religious policies. As such, the memory of these dynamic and transformative times was captured by the griots, the oral historians of the Sudan. Nouhou Malio, …

Baye Fadioul Niang: A Brief Biography Of An Ebeniste In Senegal, Katie Jo Niang

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

Baye Fadioul Niang described himself as a traditional European designer of wood furniture, doors, and trim. In 1945, at age 22, Fadioul began designing furniture as an apprentice in the state labor department of Kaolack. He settled in Dakar, where Fadioul not only designed and constructed furniture, but was a popular informal educator in the business. His furniture shop became a center for education in Menuserie and Ebenisterie, which is the art of furniture making. In 2005 Fadioul retired from furniture making because of deteriorating eyesight. Includes photos taken in February 2013 in Dakar, Senegal.

New Media And Ethno-Politics In The Guinean Diaspora, Mohamed S. Camara

Security Studies & International Affairs - Daytona Beach

This paper discusses the resurgence of ethno-politics in Guinea in conjunction with the reintroduction of multiparty politics after three decades of single-party and military rule, and the trend’s multilayered repercussion into the Guinean Diaspora of North America. It further examines the principal ways in which ethno-regionalist organisations populating that Diaspora use and misuse new media outlets (web sites,web radio stations, and blogs) in order to promote the political agenda of their respective ethno-political elites. The article scrutinises the deficit of professionalism that characterises the performance of most of those publishing on such web sites and broadcasting on such stations and …

New Media And Ethno-Politics In The Guinean Diaspora, Mohamed S. Camara

Humanities & Communication - Daytona Beach

This paper discusses the resurgence of ethno-politics in Guinea in conjunction with the reintroduction of multiparty politics after three decades of single-party and military rule, and the trend’s multilayered repercussion into the Guinean Diaspora of North America. It further examines the principal ways in which ethno-regionalist organisations populating that Diaspora use and misuse new media outlets (web sites,web radio stations, and blogs) in order to promote the political agenda of their respective ethno-political elites. The article scrutinises the deficit of professionalism that characterises the performance of most of those publishing on such web sites and broadcasting on such stations and …

Media, Civil Society And Political Culture In West Africa, Mohamed S. Camara

Security Studies & International Affairs - Daytona Beach

From the premise that a free and democratic society is impossible without free and responsible media and an active civil society and that freedom and democracy must evolve from within a particular society in order to mature into a way of life for the society and its media, the present study examines the symbiotic role of the media and civil society in West Africa’s struggle for democratic governance. It addresses the question of the independence and accountability of West Africa’s media vis-à-vis foreign donors, local business and political forces along with the effects on local audiences of giant Western/global media …

Media, Civil Society And Political Culture In West Africa, Mohamed Saliou Camara

Humanities & Communication - Daytona Beach

From the premise that a free and democratic society is impossible without free and responsible media and an active civil society and that freedom and democracy must evolve from within a particular society in order to mature into a way of life for the society and its media, the present study examines the symbiotic role of the media and civil society in West Africa’s struggle for democratic governance. It addresses the question of the independence and accountability of West Africa’s media vis-à-vis foreign donors, local business and political forces along with the effects on local audiences of giant Western/global media …

Dust And Smoke: Desertification, Fire And Elephants In Togo, West Africa, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Dust and smoke: from desert and fire. Everyone south of the Sahara in Africa, and not just those in the region where I lived, knows them intimately. From Abidjan to Mombassa, Africans understands what these twinned hazes mean to their lives, their futures. Dual signs of the destruction of the savanna—born of the over-use of farmland and of wood burned as fuel—they’ve become omens, precursors of the desert sands certain to follow. Signals, they are, that life in the villages will only get harder as time passes. This is a story of dust and smoke--and elephants--in one small area in …

Chaos Temporel Et Chaos Romanesque Dans Allah N'Est Pas Obligé D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Nathalie Roy

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper proposes an analysis of time representation in Allah n’est pas obligé with concepts taken from Temps et récit. It aims to show that in relation to Kourouma’s novel, one of Ricoeur’s hypothesis is revealingly insufficient. This hypothesis actually questions representation modes occuring in the text, exposing one of the sources of fictional chaos.

The Nwagu Aneke Igbo Script: Its Origins, Features And Potentials As A Medium Of Alternative Literacy In African Languages, Chukwuma Azuonye

Africana Studies Faculty Publication Series

The present paper is a study of the origins, features and significance of the Nwagu Aneke Igbo Syllabary (otherwise known as the Umuleri Igbo Script), one of the thirty or so indigenous systems of writing which (re-)emerged in West Africa during the colonial period as a medium for challenging alien cultural values and for the re-assertion of the superiority of African spiritual and moral traditions and of the thought-patterns which lie behind them. Beyond the claims of a one-time prosperous land-owner and diviner, the late Ogbuevi Nwagu Aneke of the village of Umuleri in the Anambra Local Government Area of …