WOMEN AND AUTHORITY IN WEST AFRICAN HISTORY
Authority is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. This chapter explores the political authority of West Africa women and the spiritual female principle in the precolonial and colonial eras. A longue durée perspective on gender relations in precolonial West Africa illuminates a history of gender parity and, at times, women’s authority over men. This history has been obscured by Western patriarchal ideologies—which imagined West African women as “beasts of burden,” women who were sold to the highest bidder for the productive and reproductive labor; in short, they imagined a West African woman that never was—and more recent historical processes, particularly the integration of West African societies…
SEROLOGY AS A SOURCE OF AFRICAN HISTORY
Serology is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of blood types. It deals with the blood serum components that protect the blood against diseases. ADVANTAGES OF SEROLOGY Human blood varies in composition from one person to another in the sense that some genes present in some people in some people are absent in others. For that matter people can be categorized according to their blood groups. It is therefore possible that adequate knowledge of a predominant blood type in another area or region should be able to establish some kind of hypothesis that the people of region A must have formed part of region B. Belonging to…
ARTS FORMS/ARTS HISTORY AS A FORM OF AFRICAN HISTORY
Art history is the study of art forms such as engravings, paintings, carvings and sculpture on stone surface, tombs, slabs or walls of caves, palaces and shrines. ADVANTAGES OF ART HISTORY Activities of human beings: Arts forms or history helps to discover the economic activities, religious beliefs, culture and political power a group of people had in the past. For instance, the art works found in the Tassili Caves suggest that the dry areas of North Africa might not have been as dry in the past as they are today. Eating Habits: Paintings of food crops found in the tombs in the Sahara give impressions that the early inhabitants…
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AS A SOURCE OF AFRICAN HISTORY
Ethnomusicology is the scientific study of music (musicology) which focuses on the study of music forms in their cultural perspective. It deals with the role of music in the cultural history of a group of people, and how the formal structures of music evolve in different historical contexts. Confirmation of Events: Ethnomusicology confirms and supports events of history. Most folk songs and ancient musical forms usually make reference to important socio-economic events and political events in the life of the people who composed and sang them. E.g. the Asafo songs of the Fante make references to the exploits of their three warlords which included, Obunumakoma, Odapagyan and Oson. Also, the…
ETHNOBOTANY AND ETHNOZOOLOGY AS A SOURCE OF AFRICAN HISTORY
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of ancient remains of plants which are termed flora. Ethnozoology is the scientific study of animal remains from the past which are called fauna. These studies help to trace the origins of plants and the animals our ancestors fed on and exploited in the past. It is through such studies that crops are classified as indigenous and non-indigenous. ADVANTAGES OF ETHNOBOTANY AND ETHNOZOOLOGY Advance in Agriculture: Through the study of ethnobotany, it has been established that, Africans were advanced in agriculture. For example ethnobotany has revealed that, the (Dahomey Gap) in modern Benin in West African coastal forest belt is the cradle of yam…
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/GettyImages-837061278-d0f1dd7fb15d4a97bc5463850a03664b.jpg "DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HISTORY AND NARRATION")
