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2021, Trames - Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences
The rise, fall and expansion of most kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa were credited to the activities of warfare. To sustain war efforts, various societies and warlords in pre-colonial Africa evolved unique military complexes, strategies and tactics, which they deployed during war times. The blacksmith was the fulcrum of pre-colonial war armory and strategy. The knowledge of iron metallurgy was the exclusive domain of the blacksmith. The knowledge of metallurgy made the blacksmith indispensable in actual execution of wars, hence he fashioned the weapon, went with the army to the battlefield to ensure adequate supply of weapons and repair of worn-out weapons for the reinforcement of the armies in the battleground. All these functions combined, made the blacksmiths an invaluable party in the preparation and actual execution of wars in pre-colonial Africa.
The Aro Hegemony: Dissecting The Myth And Reality
The Aro Hegemony: Dissecting The Myth And Reality2019 •
There are several authoritative accounts of the history of Arochukwu people-a revered community in Igbo land. Historians wrote some of these accounts of Igbo extraction who share historical link or root with the Aro and those of European writers who were probably influenced by the unverified accounts of insiders and outsiders. These writers seem to agree that Arochukwu people have a high pedigree of social and economic mobility and are imbued with such craftiness that proved them as shrewd merchants and at the same time exhibited high intellectual acumen. They were famous for possessing one of the most powerful, respected and fearsome oracle in Igbo land called Long Juju by the British and Ibina-Ukpabi by the indigenes. It was widely believed that the oracle possessed awesome powers such that it could deliver instant judgement and kill the guilty party. For this widely held belief, it was consulted by people from far and wide. But covertly, the Long Juju was used by the Arochukwu people to facilitate the slave trade and that was one of the reasons why the British ordered a punitive expedition against them in 1902. The strategic location of Arochukwu in the Cross River basin positioned them securely to control the booming slave trade in Igbo land and beyond as middleman to European slave merchants. Strikingly, the slave trade was the major significant economic activity that the Arochukwu people were known to have engaged in which also, gave them fame and made them establish settlements outside their native Aro. Undoubtedly, the Arochukwu is a great people, whose imprints remain indelible in Igbo history but the extent to which their exploits are rendered in current narratives and writings as historical truths are contestable. This paper contends that most written accounts of the Arochukwu people do not represent factual truths but embodies embellishments, myths and conjectures.
This paper is part of a broader investigation into the intersection of disability and technology in African societies. The paper will focus specifically on Nigerian cultures, exploring the social experience of disabled persons with respect to their use of available technologies in navigating a space within their respective cultures. The paper will first deal with the technologies available to disabled people in pre-colonial West Africa as suggested by archaeological and literary evidence, go on to analyse how changes in economic and cultural systems brought about by colonialism and the post-colonial state, shifted the roles and technologies available to disabled people. The paper argues that the African cyborg has been an inspiration for new technologies, and an agent of technological and social change. Simultaneously, increased connectivity has enabled indigenous technologists to more quickly share and develop ideas. It has also empowered new generations of technologists with the potential to radically improve disabled access to areas of public life. The paper concludes that as a focus of metaphysical anxieties, the cyborg has evolved to something approximating the New African, someone who can defy boundaries to achieve an act worthy of herself and the her community – an agent of revolution and social change rather than a passive recipient of imposed technologies.
This paper examines the phenomenon of inter-group relations amongst communities in Old Bende Division, South Eastern Nigeria. Historically, ethnic groups in Nigeria had achieved a high level of integration prior to the colonial conquest. Long distance trade, migratory movements and socioeconomic inter-group relations had helped made ethnic and cultural integration an integral part in the evolution of modern Nigeria. Before the advent of British Colonial administration , there was cross-cultural fertilization of ideas, cultures and traditions through different levels of interactions between the different groups that made up the Division. The study was based on archival sources, literature and oral traditions collected and documented from the area over time. It also identified the level and areas of inter-group relations and peace coexistence between the areas and her neighbours. It equally revealed that the forefathers of the communities in pre-colonial old Bende related with each other extensively in the spheres of war, marriage and trade. Long distance trade was significant as the study identified it as a good instrument in pre-colonial inter-group relationship.
Th e blade weapons trade expanded early in the seventeenth century, by which time it was tied inextricably to the slave trade; weapons fi gured significantly among the goods exchanged for captives. Two centuries later, as the Casamance entered the geopolitical orbits of France and England on the eve of the colonial period, the weapons trade again came to play a prominent role in overseas exchange with Europe. Th is time, however, it was not blade weapons but fi rearms that were imported into Casamance. Our chapter describes and compares the two stages in the weapons trade to the Casamance.
Anigbogu Kingsley & Onyima Blessing Nonye
NEW TECHNOLOGY AND CHALLENGES OF THE BLACKSMITHING INDUSTRY IN AWKA: IMPLICATION FOR ENTREPRENUERSHIP DEVELOPMENT2013 •
Abstract The blacksmithing technology is as old as human civilization itself. Indeed the development of different human civilizations has been linked to the discovery and use of metal to manufacture tools and implements that supported an agrarian lifestyle. In Awka, Anambra State Nigeria, this occupation has come under intense threats associated with modernity. The paper attempts a theoretical analysis of threats associated with modernity as it affects the local blacksmithing industry, using the skill discretion model as analytical tool. Keywords – Blacksmithing, New Technology, Entrepreneurship, Awka
Warfare has been an integral part of the history of the pre-colonial societies in Hausaland. As a socio-military aspect of human endeavor, it was as important as trade and had severally served as catalyst to the rise and fall of quite a number of pre-colonial African kingdoms. The process of state formation in Africa had comprised complexity of factors including warfare that had relevance in the making and consolidation of political power and 1 the territorial expansion of the pre-colonial states. Not only that, warfare determined the political-economy of the pre-colonial states while their political-economy in turn, shaped the nature, character and function of warfare. This paper intends to make a reconnaissance of warfare in Kasar Kabi (Kebbi) since the beginning of the Songhai overrule. Undoubtedly, various forms of intercommunity relations in the kingdom had undergone several transformations and had multiple dimensions over the centuries, hence, entail special re-examination. It is argued that, warfare had played a fundamental role in the rise and fall of Kebbi since the establishment of the influence of Askia Muhammad I (1493-1528) on Kebbi to the turn of the nineteenth century.
The Gun-Slave Hypothesis is the long-standing idea that European gunpowder technology played a key role in growing the transatlantic slave trade. I combine annual data from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database and the Anglo-African Trade Statistics to estimate a Vector Error Correction Model of the 18 th century British slave trade that captures four versions of the Gun-Slave Hypothesis: guns-for-slaves-in-exchange, guns-for-slaves-in-production, slaves-for-guns-derived and the gun-slave cycle. Three econometric results emerge. (1) Gunpowder imports and slave exports were co-integrated in a long-run equilibrium relationship. (2) Positive deviations from equilibrium gunpowder " produced " additional slave exports. This guns-for-slaves-in-production result survives 17 placebo tests that replace gunpowder with non-lethal commodities imports. It is also confirmed by an instrumental variables estimation that uses excess capacity in the British gunpowder industry as an instrument for gunpowder. (3) Additional slave exports attracted additional gunpowder imports for 2-3 more years. Together these dynamics formed a gun-slave cycle. Impulse-response functions generate large increases in slave export in response to increases in gunpowder imports. I use these results to explain the growth of slave exports along the Guinea Coast of Africa in the 18 th century. * For comments on earlier versions I want to thank Ran Abramitzsky, Sandy Darity,
2019 •
The purpose of this study is to identify the age, country and place of origin, function (e.g. fusil, pistol), and intended use (e.g. military, trade gun) of flintlock components recovered from Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), an eighteenth-century French mission-garrison-trading post in southwest Michigan. Flintlock muskets were a vital technology in New France throughout the fur trade era, both in their roles as weapons and as hunting implements. They were also important because their relatively complex nature necessitated localized, frontier supply and repair; their use and maintenance were integrated into many facets of frontier life. Historical documents and archaeological materials show that Fort St. Joseph was one location where flintlock-related activities occurred. Close examination of Fort St. Joseph's flintlock artifacts provides insight into the weapons that were used and maintained on the frontier, as well as the significant roles they played in the North American fur trade more widely.
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