Forts, castles and society in West Africa, : Gold Coast and Dahomey, 1450 - 1960 / / edited by John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu.

• Superior document: African history ; volume 7
• TeilnehmendeR: Osei-Tutu, John Kwadwo,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden,, Boston: : Brill,, [2019].; copyright 2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: African history (Brill Academic Publishers) ; v. 7.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xvii, 276 pages).

Long regarded as disturbing remnants of the Atlantic slave trade, the European forts and castles of West Africa have attained iconic positions as universally significant historical monuments and world heritage tourist destinations. This volume of original contributions by leading Africanists presents extensive new historical views of the forts in Ghana and Benin, providing both impetus and a scholarly basis for further research and fresh debate about their historical and geographical contexts; their role in the slave trade; the economic and political connections, centred on the forts, between the Europeans and local African polities; and their place in variously focused heritage studies and endeavours. Contributors are Hermann W. von Hesse, Daniel Hopkins, Jon Olav Hove, Ole Justesen, Ineke van Kessel, Robin Law, John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Jarle Simensen, Selena Axelrod Winsnes†, Larry Yarak.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright -- -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Figures -- Introduction / John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu -- Gold Coast Forts and Castles: Key Themes and Perspectives / Jarle Simensen -- ‘Heaven Is High Above and Europe Is Far Away’, so Christiansborg Prevails* / Selena Axelrod Winsnes -- ‘Creative and Expedient Misunderstandings’: Elmina–Dutch Relations in the 19th Century / Larry Yarak -- Wax Prints in West Africa: Unravelling the Myth of Dutch Colonial Soldiers as Cultural Brokers / Ineke van Kessel -- William’s Fort: The English Fort at Ouidah, 1680s–1960s / Robin Law -- The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850 / Daniel Hopkins -- Political Relations between Osu and Christiansborg, 1803–1826 / Ole Justesen -- Cosmopolitan Conundrums: Impacts of Trade Fortresses on the Gã Space, 1450–1870 / John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu and Hermann W. von Hesse -- Forts and Castles in the Colonial Period: Uses and Understandings of the Pre-colonial Fortifications / Jon Olav Hove -- Back Matter -- Index.