WESTERN AFRICAN STUDIES

"This study offers a 'social interpretation of environmental process' for the coastal lowlands of southeastern Ghana.". "The Anlo-Ewe, sometimes hailed as the quintessential sea fisherman of the West African coast, are a previously non-maritime people who developed a maritime tradition. Since the mid-seventeenth century they have attempted to domesticate the lagoons and the sea through the exploitation of salt and fish, the use of waterways as trade routes, and the struggle to obtain security from lagoon flooding and sea erosion.". "As a fishing community the Anlo yet have a strong attachment to their land. In the twentieth century persistent coastal erosion has brought a collapse of the balance between nature and culture, compounded by progressive marginalization in the late-colonial and post-colonial political economy of Ghana. The Anlo have sought spiritual explanations for environmental disaster, at the same time that they have responded politically by developing broader cultural and ecological ties with Ewe-speaking peoples along the coast."--BOOK JACKET.

In Themes in West Africa's History, editor Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong and his contributors examine key themes in West Africa's prehistory to the present through the lenses of their different disciplines. The contents of the book comprise an introduction and thirteen chapters divided into three parts. Each chapter provides an overview of existing literature on major topics, as well as a short list of recommended reading, and breaks new ground through the incorporation of original research. The first part of the book examines paths to a West African past, including perspectives from archaeology, ecology and culture, linguistics, and oral traditions. Part two probes environment, society, and agency and historical change through essays on the slave trade, social inequality, religious interaction, poverty, disease, and urbanization. Part three sheds light on contemporary West Africa in exploring how economic and political developments have shaped religious expression and identity in significant ways. --From publisher's description.

"Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries Ouidah was the most important embarkation point for slaves in the region of West Africa known to outsiders as the 'Slave Coast'. This book deals with Ouidah's role in the operation of the slave trade and the problems presented by the transition from the slave trade to that of palm produce in the nineteenth century." "This study differs from earlier work on Dahomey in focusing on Ouidah as the coastal 'port' and centre of local provincial administration, rather than the inland capital of Abomey. It is based on meticulous analysis of a wide range of source material, including both contemporary European documents and local traditions."--BOOK JACKET