An appraisal of frontier relations between the peoples of North Africa and the Sudanese zone of pre-colonial West Africa: A historical discourse

Abstract

The present paper examines the nature and patterns of interactions between the people of North Africa and the Sudanese zone of West Africa during the pre-colonial period. It reveals the symbiotic relations that shaped their interaction during the period and the factors that facilitated their contact despite the barrier of the Saharan desert. Similarly the paper refutes the claims of some European writers in the colonial period, and shortly, after that, the peoples of the Sudanese zone were incapable of any historical consciousness, nor able to evolve genuine institutions, without the support of the peoples of North Africa and Europeans. The work establishes that despite the impenetrable space of the Saharan desert, the peoples of North Africa and the Sudanese zone were able to mingle, exchange goods, ideas, beliefs and foster mutual relationships that impacted positively on both regions of the continent. The paper reveals that a major factor that has influenced if not, contributed to the belief held by some of these Europeans concerning the history of the Sudanese zone in particular, and Africa South of the Sahara in general is the narrow nature of their sources, which focuses more on secondary sources. The paper concludes that the biased account concerning the Sudanese zone during the period under review has been refuted successfully through broader approaches to the historical study of African history that involves an interdisciplinary approach as well as expansion of the sources to include oral sources among others. It utilises the theory of transnationalism to theorise and shed light on the frontier dimension of human movement across borders. The paper also employs secondary sources.