The spatial factor in African history : : the relationship of the social, material, and perceptual / / edited by Allen M. Howard, Richard M. Shain.

• Superior document: African social studies series, v. 8
• TeilnehmendeR: Howard, Allen M.; Shain, Richard M. 1949-
• Year of Publication: 2005
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: African social studies series ; v. 8.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (384 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The authors of this inter-disciplinary collection examine the role of space in six areas of West, Central and East Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They demonstrate the active quality of space and analyze the ways in which people have contested and shaped space, including responses to crises. In addition, a lengthy essay re-interprets tropical African history, 1800-1930, using spatial theory. Contributors look at how people have constructed mental maps, used discourse to organize territories, and perceived social landscapes. The studies employ a tri-level approach, one that moves from specific places to regions to macro-regional or transnational systems and back again. Authors draw upon written and oral sources to reconstruct the past and employ innovative mapping techniques to illustrate spatial dynamics.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; Titles and Locations of Maps and other Figures; Introduction: African History and Social Space in Africa (Allen M. Howard and Richard M. Shain); Nodes, Networks, Landscapes, and Regions: Reading the Social History of Tropical Africa 1700s-1920 (Allen M. Howard); ""Region"" as Historical Production: Narrative Maps from the Western Serengeti, Tanzania (Jan Bender Shetler); Mobility, Genealogical Memory, and Constructions of Social Space in Northern Gabon (John M. Cinnamon); The Disappearing District? Territorial Transformation in Southern Gabon 1850-1950 (Christopher Gray)

The Salt That Binds: The Historical Geography of a Central Nigerian Regional Identity (Richard M. Shain)Habitation and Warfare Strategies in 19th Century Mande-a View from the Kafu (Jan Jansen); Re-Marking on the Past: Spatial Structures and Dynamics in the Sierra Leone-Guinea Plain, 1860-1920s (Allen M. Howard); Abstracts; Contributors; Index