The Horse in West African History
Title | The Horse in West African History PDF eBook |
Author | Robin Law |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 227 |
Release | 2018-08-16 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0429954557 |
Originally published in 1980 and here re-issued with an updated preface, this book deals with the role of the horse in the societies of West Africa during the pre-colonial period. It traces the history of its introduction and its diffusion within West Africa, and examines the problems of maintaining horses in such a harsh environment. The use of horses in warfare in analysed but the non-military aspects of the West African horse culture are also discussed, principally the use of horses as tokens of status and wealth. The book includes a review of the decline of the West African horse culture in the 20th century, reflecting the passing of a political system based on warfare and slavery.
Empires of Medieval West Africa
Title | Empires of Medieval West Africa PDF eBook |
Author | David C. Conrad |
Publisher | Infobase Publishing |
Pages | 153 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | Africa |
ISBN | 1604131640 |
Explores empires of medieval west Africa.
The Military-State-Society Symbiosis
Title | The Military-State-Society Symbiosis PDF eBook |
Author | Peter Karsten |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 365 |
Release | 2013-12-16 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1135678022 |
These five volumes concern one of the most important institutions in human history, the military, and the interactions of that institution with the greater society. Military systems serve nations; they may also reflect them. Soldiers are enlisted; they may also be said to self-select. Military units have missions; they also have interests. In an older, more traditional military history, while the second reflects a newer approach. Although each statement in the pairs may be said to be true, the former speak from the framework of the military sciences; the latter, from the framework of the social and behavioral sciences. The military systems of our past differ from one another over time, in political origins, size, missions, and technological and tactical fashions, but to a great extent their historical experiences have been more noticeably similar than they were different. When we ask questions about the recruiting, training, or motivating of military systems, or of those systems' interactions with civilian governments and with the greater society, as do the essays in these five volumes of reading on The Military and Society we are struck by the almost timeless patterns of continuity and similarity of experience. In each of these volumes approximately half of the essays selected deal with the experience in the United States; the other half, with the experiences of other states and times, enabling the reader to engage in comparative analysis.
African Military History
Title | African Military History PDF eBook |
Author | John Lamphear |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 600 |
Release | 2017-05-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1351960377 |
This collection of essays on pre-colonial sub-Saharan African military history is drawn from a number of academic journals and includes some which are considered milestones in African historiographical discourse, as well as others which, while lesser known, provide remarkable insight into the unique nature of African military history. Selections were made so as to produce an introduction to the understudied field of pre-colonial African military history that will be useful to specialists and non-specialists alike. The volume also contains an introduction which presents one of the first significant reviews of pre-colonial African military historiography ever attempted.
The Horse Rider in African Art
Title | The Horse Rider in African Art PDF eBook |
Author | George Chemeche |
Publisher | Acc Art Books |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2011 |
Genre | Art, African |
ISBN | 9781851496341 |
This visually stunning book presents a wealth of African art depicting the horse and its rider in a variety of guises, from Epa masks and Yoruba divination cups to Dogon sculptures and Senufo carvings.
Riding High
Title | Riding High PDF eBook |
Author | Sandra Scott Swart |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781868146673 |
Horses were key to the colonial economies of southern Africa, buttressing the socio-political order and inspiring contemporary imaginations. Just as they had done in Europe, Asia, the Americas and North Africa, these equine colonisers not only provided power and transportation but also helped transform their new biophysical and social environments. In some ways "Riding High" is an attempt to chronicle the effects of an inter-species relationship whose significance was vast and lead to major changes in the history of leisure, transportation, trade, warfare, and agriculture. On another level, these stories are simply the adventures of a big, gentle herbivore and a small, rogue primate. The horses introduced to the southern tip of Africa were both agents and subjects of enduring changes. This book explores their introduction under VOC rule in the mid-seventeenth century, their dissemination into the interior, their acquisition by indigenous groups and their ever-shifting roles. In its relocation to the Cape, the horse of the Dutch empire in southeast Asia experienced a physical transformation over time. Establishing an early breeding stock was fraught with difficulty and horses remained vulnerable in the new and dangerous environment. They had to be nurtured into defending their owners' ambitions: first those of the white settlement and then African and other hybrid social groupings. The book traces the way horses were adapted by shifting human needs in the nineteenth century. It focuses on their experiences in the South African War, on the cusp of the twentieth century, and highlights how horses remained integral to civic functioning on various levels, replaced with mechanization only after lively debate. They remained useful in certain sectors and linked to totems of social power even in contemporary South Africa. "Riding High" reinserts the horse into the broader historical narrative and speculates about what a new kind of history that takes animals seriously might offer us.
A History of African Societies to 1870
Title | A History of African Societies to 1870 PDF eBook |
Author | Elizabeth Isichei |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 596 |
Release | 1997-04-13 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780521455992 |
This comprehensive and detailed exploration of the African past, from prehistory to approximately 1870, is intended to provide a fully up-to-date complement to the Cambridge History of Africa. Reflecting several emphases in recent scholarship, it focusses on the changing modes of production, on gender relations and on ecology, laying particular stress on viewing 'history from below'. A distinctive theme is to be found in its analyses of cognitive history. The work falls into three sections. The first comprises a historiographic analysis, and covers the period from the dawn of prehistory to the end of the Early Iron Age. The second and third sections are, for the most part, organised on regional lines; the second section ends in the sixteenth century; the third carries the story on to 1870. A second volume, now in preparation, will cover the period from 1870 to 1995. This book attempts a more rounded view of African history than most of the other textbooks on the subject addressed to a (largely) undergraduate level student. Earlier histories have tended to ignore some of the current foci in the scholarly literature on Africa, generally not reflected in the textbooks: these include discussions of topical issues like ecology and gender. Isichei's book is also more radical.