Project MUSE®: African Economic History - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in African Economic History.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 36 (2008) through current issueLatest Articles: African Economic HistoryTWOProject MUSE®African Economic History2163-91080145-2258Latest articles in African Economic History. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Organiser et réguler les marchés de captifs et de gomme arabique en Sénégambie: Monnaies, taxes, prix et fraudes (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècle)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986542
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Au XVe siècle, alors que les Portugais commençaient la traite des captifs en Afrique, peu de pays européens avaient pris conscience des enjeux économiques que constituaient l’esclavage et le commerce maritime transatlantique. De la fondation par le Portugal du comptoir d’Arguin, en Mauritanie, en 1443, à la chute du château d’Elmina, conquis par les Hollandais en 1640, les Portugais restèrent les maîtres du commerce esclavagiste en Afrique de l’Ouest. Ils contrôlaient presque toutes les zones côtières, avec une présence marquée en Mauritanie, en Sénégambie, sur la Gold Coast, au Bénin, dans les Slave Rivers, ainsi qu'au Congo-Angola.1 Les Portugais s’appuyaient sur le commerce méditerranéen, très actif dans la
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallOrganiser et réguler les marchés de captifs et de gomme arabique en Sénégambie: Monnaies, taxes, prix et fraudes (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècle)2026-03-26text/htmlen-USOrganiser et réguler les marchés de captifs et de gomme arabique en Sénégambie: Monnaies, taxes, prix et fraudes (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècle)2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1298612026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26British Pragmatism or “Native” Inertia? Agricultural Practice in Ilorin Emirate of Northern Nigeria, 1900–1939
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986543
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This study is on Ilorin, southernmost of all emirates within the old Sokoto caliphate in Northern Nigeria. Several studies have been conducted on the impact of colonial rule on the emirates of Northern Nigeria.1 Considerable attention has been focused on economic effects of colonial rule. Indeed, an important focus of research has been the characteristics of agricultural practices during colonial times. Some of these studies have generally focused on how Britain, the colonial government in Northern Nigeria, pursued its main colonial objective of cultivation of cash crops by farmers in Northern Nigeria to meet the needs of her industries in England.2 For instance, Robert Shenton has argued that part of British
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallBritish Pragmatism or “Native” Inertia? Agricultural Practice in Ilorin Emirate of Northern Nigeria, 1900–19392026-03-26text/htmlen-USBritish Pragmatism or “Native” Inertia? Agricultural Practice in Ilorin Emirate of Northern Nigeria, 1900–19392026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®880292026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26The Two Quilengues and the Baculamento Taxation System: Colonial Dispossession, the Law, and the Plantationocene in Late Eighteenth-Century West Central Africa
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986544
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The Portuguese colonial state’s imposition of taxes on two separate groups of chiefdoms with the same name, Quilengues, evidences how the appropriated precolonial tribute system called baculamento was used to extract foodstuff and not only enslaved people in Angola and Benguela in the 1790’s.1 Although the colonial state added to this system a demand in enslaved people when it imposed vassalage on these chiefdoms as previous scholarship has demonstrated (below), this article shows that this tax did not substitute the tribute in foodstuff, which continued to play a central role both for the Portuguese and local chiefdoms.2 Crops included manioc, corn, beans, and sorghum, which were among the most widely consumed in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallThe Two Quilengues and the Baculamento Taxation System: Colonial Dispossession, the Law, and the Plantationocene in Late Eighteenth-Century West Central Africa2026-03-26text/htmlen-USThe Two Quilengues and the Baculamento Taxation System: Colonial Dispossession, the Law, and the Plantationocene in Late Eighteenth-Century West Central Africa2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1263892026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26La société agraire du sultanat de Sennar dans les récits de voyages Européens
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986545
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Acteur décisif de transition entre la Nubie chrétienne médiévale et le Soudan musulman moderne, le sultanat des Funj, aussi connu sous le nom de sultanat de Sennar, du nom de sa capitale, fut un État intrinsèquement lié à la pratique de l’agriculture; et, via le contrôle de l’eau, des couloirs de transhumance et des réserves de grains, à la préservation de l’ordre social, auprès des populations autant sédentaires que nomades. Je souhaite explorer, dans cet article, toute la complexité de la structure agraire funj dans une approche englobante touchant à la fois à la pratique même de l’agriculture, de l’élevage et de la sylviculture, mais aussi l’organisation sociale et économique de l’État.Le consensus historique
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallLa société agraire du sultanat de Sennar dans les récits de voyages Européens2026-03-26text/htmlen-USLa société agraire du sultanat de Sennar dans les récits de voyages Européens2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1128292026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Migrants’ Personal Development: A Historical Focus on Nzema Migrants in Côte d’Ivoire, 1893–1995
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986546
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In modern times, migration has gained prominence on the global agenda due to its recognized potential for economic and social growth. The migration literature primarily views Africa as a source location for international migration. Nonetheless, the current research indicates that intra-African migration flows surpass migration from Africa to the global North.1 Migration has also been a vibrant and historically rooted phenomenon in West Africa. Studies of the drivers of migration have portrayed a changing trend over time. Unpredictable push and pull factors for migration are emerging at the same time as the sheer number of aspiring migrants is skyrocketing.2 Adepoju provides a trajectory of the changing motivations
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallMigrants’ Personal Development: A Historical Focus on Nzema Migrants in Côte d’Ivoire, 1893–19952026-03-26text/htmlen-USMigrants’ Personal Development: A Historical Focus on Nzema Migrants in Côte d’Ivoire, 1893–19952026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®972342026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26The African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century by Richard Reid (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986547
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Richard Reid’s new history of nineteenth-century Africa argues that the “scramble for Africa” stemmed from long-term developments rather than sudden events. While not a new claim, the book offers a fresh perspective by linking East and West African histories. The African Revolution is structured into five parts comprising seven chapters, in addition to a prologue and an epilogue. Each part is introduced by an “act” or vignette featuring one or more male nineteenth-century social actors. Reid aims to shed light on “political instability and reinvention, economic transformation, social aspiration, violence, and historical memory,” (p. xvi). The narrative provided in these vignettes is very compelling but
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallThe African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century by Richard Reid (review)2026-03-26text/htmlen-USThe African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century by Richard Reid (review)2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®113782026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26The Texture of Change: Dress, Self-Fashioning, and History in Western Africa, 1700–1850 by Jody Benjamin (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986548
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Historical scholarship on textiles and dress cultures in West Africa often straddles three dominant themes: trade, production, and consumption. In tracing the circulation of both foreign and local textiles across the region, as well as the patterns of consumption within communities, historians have underscored the important function of textiles in African societies and the impact African traders had on the development of the global textile industry. Jody Benjamin’s monograph is a vital contribution to this growing body of scholarship. With a focus on western Africa, a region that stretches from modern-day Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone to Western Mali, Benjamin explores how textiles featured in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/482/image/coversmallThe Texture of Change: Dress, Self-Fashioning, and History in Western Africa, 1700–1850 by Jody Benjamin (review)2026-03-26text/htmlen-USThe Texture of Change: Dress, Self-Fashioning, and History in Western Africa, 1700–1850 by Jody Benjamin (review)2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®92522026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26