Hist 4339

Society and Ethnicity in Africa

Paper Workshop: Mon, April 4

• Form groups of three

• Exchange email addresses

• Email draft to group by Saturday at 5pm

• Recommended length = 3-5 pages

• Focus on quality rather than quantity

Final Paper Guidelines

• Five primary sources minimum

• Ten secondary accounts minimum

• Where you should be now:

            —set on topic

            —well along with secondary reading

            —all or most of primary sources assembled

            —making progress towards identifying argument

• Paper due Friday, April 29 (last day of class)

Traditional African Territoriality

• African state’s focus on communal benefit vs. colonial state’s focus on imperial benefit

• Belief that living hold land in trust for past, future generations

• Diverse forms of political control

• For states with weak control in hinterlands, boundaries less important

            —“The limit of one’s strength, that was the boundary.”

• For states with stronger control, boundaries clearly defined

            —Asante’s royal officials, Sokoto caliphate’s walled towns

• African conceptions of boundaries (Nugent)

            —political space as centers of power with areas of “no man’s land” in between

            —boundaries as fluid

            —free movement of some peoples

            —limits to political center’s ability to project power