African Kingdom Research Articles

Participatory study of policy process for wildlife conservation and ecotourism in Eswatini: A multiple streams analysis

By the 1950 s, overhunting in the African Kingdom of Eswatini drove most of its wildlife to extinction. In 2022, Eswatini has one of the most robust conservation success stories in all of Southern Africa and yet has received minimal scholarly attention. Using the Multiple Streams Framework, to understand a complex system, we analyze 40 interviews and 34 policy documents to study variation in problems, policy, and politics across four different types of conservation areas: Community Based Wildlife Protected Areas, a Royal National Park, a Parastatal National Park, and a Privately Managed Protected Area. Our research is participatory, meaning Eswatini conservation professionals played a role in shaping research design and questions and collecting data. We found that policy solutions common to all institutions include 1) the absolute decision-making power of the king, 2) the stringent wildlife protection law in the 1953 Game Act, and 3) a surprisingly conducive space for communities to enact community-based conservation amidst an authoritarian monarchy. The most important problems include economic challenges (e.g. poverty) and climate change. Politics play a role, with unprecedented, violent pro-democracy protests in the summer of 2021 with activists calling for increased human rights considerations, a problem that spills into the wildlife conservation sector. Findings can be used by policy-makers seeking to replicate conservation successes elsewhere, or to enact reforms in the Eswatini system to enable its proven system of wildlife conservation to adapt and endure.

The Ḥafṣid domination of Northwest Africa in the 15th Century: The reign of Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān (1435–1488)

In 1427, the Mamlūk Sultanate, ruled by Al-Ashraf Barsbāy (1422–1438), seized Cyprus. In 1453, the Ottoman Sultanate, ruled by Meḥmed II (1444–1446/1451–1481), captured the city of Byzantium, Constantinople. Hence, Western and Eastern historians and scholars have focused their writings on these two states. This research highlights the efforts of the Ḥafṣid ruler, Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān (1435–1488), and clarifies the results of those efforts. This paper also outlines the political statuses of the kingdoms in Northwest Africa. It illustrates how ʿUthmān exploited the circumstances of the Northwest African kingdoms to extend his influence. Consequently, it affirms that ʿUthmān was a Majestic sultan in Northwest Africa. This study uses the historical method and examines primary sources on the subject of the reign of Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān.

Moon Witch, Spider King

Moon Witch, Spider King

Risk and Uncertainty in France's Atlantic Slave Trade

In the eighteenth century, about 12% of Atlantic slave-trading voyages organized under the French flag ended in shipwreck, condemnation of the vessel by Admiralty authorities, capture by privateers or pirates, or with the enslaved men and women on board taking control of the ship. During this period, a commercial solution was available to insulate slave traders from the financial losses that shipwreck, capture, and revolts represented to them: marine insurance policies, written to cover the estimated value of enslaved people and slaving vessels. According to early modern merchant manuals and legal commentaries, insurance underwriters compensated losses during slave-trading ventures according to stable principles that were consistent throughout the Atlantic world. In this article, however, I explore new evidence beyond these published sources by comparing the terms of 13 marine insurance policies underwritten in France to cover investments in slave-trading ships and in enslaved people. In these contracts, we find that purchasers of insurance coverage and underwriters added conditions not foreseen in merchants’ and lawyers’ manuals, as well as lines that contradicted the terms such guidebooks and commentaries claimed were standard. Marine insurance policies that covered slave-trading ships were used to hand off the possible financial fallout from profoundly unpredictable situations—not only conflicts between European powers, but also violent encounters between enslavers and captives, between European and African slave traders, and wars between African kingdoms. Insurance policies underwritten on the hulls and cargoes of slave ships thus show that marine insurance in the early modern world was a tool for redistributing both Knightian risk and Knightian uncertainty.

Pastoralism, hunting, and coexistence: Domesticated and wild bovids in Neolithic Sudan

AbstractThe interactions between mobile pastoralists and semi‐sedentary Nilotic foraging groups in the Middle Nile Valley had long‐term implications for the development of social complexity as seen in the ancient African kingdom of Kerma. This study presents the results of the zooarcheological analysis of animal remains from two sites in the 4th cataract of the Nile valley, El Ginefab and Shemkhiya, and compares findings to other published sites in the region during a period of significant climatic change. Results indicate that the communities living at Shemkhiya and El Ginefab differed in terms of their meat preferences and their primary modes of bovid acquisition, and that pastoralist practices changed at El Ginefab through time. Hunting remained an important feature of subsistence practices, and regional comparisons indicate that the acquisition of wild bovids did not disappear with incorporation of domesticated livestock; however, pastoralists limited their hunting practices to smaller wild bovids in contrast to neighboring forager populations. A clear chronological overlap is documented between communities reliant on pastoralism and those reliant on hunting as a subsistence practice for several millennia. This highlights the need to more explicitly characterize and understand the dynamics of coexistence for the spread and establishment of pastoralism regionally, as well as how social ties, subsistence practices, and land use practices overlapped during periods of critical environmental changes and their implications for emerging social complexity.

The Cynque Syndrome: Tracing the Germs of a Hereditary Disease in Armah’s Osiris Rising

The following article discusses the attitude of one of Armah’s major characters in Osiris Rising: Ras Jomo Cynque. It seeks to uncover how an appeal to a glorious African past can divert present generations in Africa from understanding their history, facing their present and building their future. Using the concepts of romantic Gloriana and romantic primitivism from Ali Mazrui and Fanon’s analysis of mental alienation, it investigates the rationale behind Cynque’s conduct and his determination to lead a life reminiscent of African kingdoms into a modern Africa after he decides to leave America, where his life was strained by racism and disappointment, and to establish himself in Africa, in the fictitious state of Hapa. Cynque’s attitude, as that of Seth Spencer, another character working for the repressive machine of the Hapa regime, is at odds from the dedication and commitment of characters such as Ast, an American from African descent, who returns to the continent in order to help into its rebuilding under the efforts of the Manda group led by the revolutionary Asar.

Knowledge is Power: Politics and Formal Education in the Sixteenth-Century Kongo Kingdom

Abstract This paper takes us to the beginning of the sixteenth century in the West Central African kingdom of Kongo, some years after Portuguese navigators first established contact with the Kongo royal elite. A formal school system was introduced with the support of the Kongo king Afonso I – who ruled from 1509 to 1542 – as he used the Christian school system to integrate the districts of the kingdom more fully into political unity. Apart from this centralising tendency, there was at the same time a process to establish contacts abroad. Quite a few young Kongo men of noble birth were sent to schools at convents in Portugal to be trained as church staff, interpreters or ambassadors of the Kongo kingdom. These two tendencies – internally oriented centralisation and externally oriented internationalisation – will be discussed in the light of the developments of the school system in the Kongo kingdom in the sixteenth century and beyond. This will lead to an interpretation of the Kongo school system in terms of global integration and local appropriation.

A first survey of the history of Angolan lexicography

This paper is a first attempt to provide an overview of the main lexicographic works of the most spoken Angolan languages of African origin, which were written by missionaries of Portuguese Patronage and laymen who were living in the current territory of Angola (western Africa), from the beginning of Portuguese colonization until its independence in 1975. The current Republic of Angola encompasses old African kingdoms, specifically those of Kongo, Lunda, Matamba, Ngola-Ndongo, and Benguela, and has almost 50 African languages, but Portuguese is the only official language. The Angolan languages of African origin most studied and described by the Portuguese were initially Kimbundu, and, more recently, Umbundu and Nyaneka. The first dictionary of a Bantu language was written in mid-1648 by Italian and Spanish Capuchins led by the Portuguese–Congolese mestizo secular priest Manuel de Roboredo (later, Francisco de São Salvador, O. F. M. Cap., d. 1665). However, the regular linguistic description of the Angolan languages was initiated at the beginning of the 19th century by the Italian Bernardo Maria [Cassaro] da Canicattì, O. F. M. Cap. (1749–1834). In addition, after the “re-establishment” (which was never officially assumed) of the religious orders in Portugal (ca. 1870), the Portuguese Province of the Congregatio Sancti Spiritus (C.S.Sp.) [Congregation of the Holy Spirit] was formed in 1867 mainly because of the evangelization of Angola. In point of fact, the most relevant dictionaries of the Angolan languages in the 20th century were written by the Holy Ghost Fathers [João] Albino Alves [Manso] (1908–1956) (Kimbundu, 1951), António Joaquim da Silva (1909–1995) (Nyaneka, 1966), and José Francisco Valente (1912–1993) (Umbundu, 1972). There are also relevant lexicographic works by laymen, such as the Brazilian Doctor Saturnino de Souza e Oliveira (1820–1871), the Angolan poet, writer, and journalist Joaquim Dias Cordeiro da Matta (1857–1894) for Kimbundu, and the Portuguese medical officer José Pereira do Nascimento (1861–1913) for Umbundu.

Camelia Kokkinidis: journey from JIA to motherhood.

“Since giving birth I haven't had one flare up. If anything, I feel more alive than ever and I never imagined this would happen”, says Camelia Kokkinidis, who was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis at age 9 years. Born to a Black mother and White father in South Africa, Camelia's early years were spent in the small southern African kingdom formally known as Swaziland, where her family moved to escape the stigma surrounding their inter-racial relationship in the early post-apartheid years.

“Domesticating the Unfamiliar”

AbstractThis article examines the sartorial culture of an African elite as a form of Afropolitanism in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century West African kingdom of Dahomey. Dahomean elites embraced cultural borrowing to layer styles and materials from European and African sources. Combining textiles and accessories associated with mobility and outsiders, elites asserted authority, power, and privilege within a local framework. Their dress practices also served as an expression of elite inclusion in a larger Atlantic world, in which Dahomey was a major participant in the transatlantic trade in African captives and, later, cash crops produced domestically by enslaved labor. By exploring the political, economic, and social contexts of elite Dahomean dress, this article reveals the deep historical roots of Afropolitanism on the continent and how the domestication of global and African commodities has long distinguished African elites from the masses. In doing so, it also shows how violence, systems of enslavement, and the accumulation of wealth fueled a Dahomean Afropolitan aesthetic of worlds-in-movement, which served to distinguish elites as citizens of Dahomey and as humans of the Atlantic world more broadly.

Succession to Kingship in the Bapedi Ethnic Group – Cultural Intricacies of Post-conquest South Africa and the Impact of the Constitution

African kingdoms have existed for centuries predating colonialism and continue to be significant despite assertions that they are autocracies. These claims stem from the fact that kings do not ascend to power through Western democratic means such as elections. Democracy, however, exists in African kingdoms, because communities are afforded opportunities to participate in decision-making. Furthermore, African kingships are often accused of patriarchy since women are not always allowed to ascend to royal thrones. This critique of African kingships is rather hypocritical, because Europe is the bedrock of patriarchy, but this is ignored when accusations are levelled at African kingdoms. The biggest problem that kingdoms in South Africa experience today is that they do not enjoy the separate and independent identity that they enjoyed in the past since they are now subject to the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. This state of affairs is problematic as it denies South Africa a decolonial option and does not achieve restorative justice. The move to a constitutional democracy has led to considerable changes in South Africa, such as the dissipation of important roles that African-style courts used to fulfil, and the powers enjoyed by kings may also wane because of a lack of title to sovereignty over their kingdoms. This article discusses the right of succession to kingship in the light of the Bapedi Kingdom succession dispute, where the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims and courts recognised the descendants of Kgosi Sekhukhune as the rightful successors to the Bapedi throne. This ruling was important because the usurpation of the throne through bloodshed, although not common, was recognised as a legitimate way to usurp kingship.

Dualism’s dilemmas: citizenship and migration in contemporary eSwatini

ABSTRACT One of the main characteristics of ‘Swatiness’ has been embracing lived dualisms in all aspects of life, including the much-debated cultural dualism of traditionalism and modernity which, although not unique to eSwatini, is more emphasised in this small southern African kingdom. This article discusses examples from research on eSwatini citizens living in South Africa and foreign-born residents of eSwatini, to show how exclusionary singular forms of bureaucratic identification via national identity cards are endangering the flexibility and creativity which are distinctive of Swati socio-cultural life. These bureaucratic forms run counter the inclusive, relational and negotiated dimensions of older conceptions and practices of citizenship and belonging.

O lugar do rei no comércio de escravos: Portugal, Daomé e Porto Novo em 1810

The article addresses the connection between two West African kingdoms (Ardra/Hogbonu and Dahomey) and Portugal, from 1810 to 1812. In 1810 Portugal and Great Britain signed the Strangford Treaty (in Brazil known as Treaty of Alliance and Friendship) that committed Portugal with the progressive extinction with the trade of human beings from Africa to the Americas. The research was based in a wide range of documents involving Dahomian and Brazilian History in order to highlight the role of African rulers in the debate about the end of the Atlantic slave trade.

An Ethiop's Aethiopica: Heliodorus and Juan Latino's Austriad

This essay addresses the question of how Juan Latino, an Afro-Hispanic author, self-fashioned or depicted himself as a figure worthy of admiration for his Spanish readers; and how he foregrounded his imitation of other Western classical texts so as to further authorize his writings. It proposes that Juan Latino alludes and utilizes Heliodorus's Aethiopica, a recently discovered and popular Greek/Byzantine novel, in order to cast himself as a wise, virtuous and eloquent Ethiop and as someone who is well suited to write an epic of the historic battle of Lepanto. He does so through contrastive oppositions. He also affirms Western values and Western art, evincing its presence in Ethiopia. He rejects the universality of the supremacy of one color of skin by underlining the opposing opinion: In the Aethiopica the people in this African kingdom despise white skin. Thus, Juan Latino's epic affirms the relativity of a scale in color by again pointing to the ways kings of Spain and Ethiopia judge whiteness and blackness.

A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA UNTIL 11TH CENTURY CE

Islam spread in the African continent in phases and in different ages. The process occurred through either expansion of Muslim power as in North Africa, or trading as happened in West Africa. Falola argued that the process of spreading Islam in West Africa generally occurred peacefully through trading and preaching. In that regard, the purpose of this article is to examine the process of spreading Islam in West Africa until the 11th century CE. On the whole, this article is a qualitative research using historical study and content analysis to gather and analyse information from relevant primary and secondary sources. Research findings argue that initial contact of Muslims with the West African region began since the century 1H/7CE. From this contact, Islam began to be introduced to the inhabitants of West Africa through trade from the 2H/8CE century. This research finds that at the end of 4H/10CE and early 5H/11CE centuries, Islam was accepted by the ruling class of West African kingdoms, such as the conversion of rulers of Kanem, Songhay, Takrur and Malal. However, there were also West African rulers who did not embrace Islam such as the ruler of Ghana. Nevertheless, Muslims who resided in their territories were well-treated. Later on, this helped to spread Islam in these territories.

Racial alienation in Africa: A post‐colonial reading of Doris Lessing'sNo Witchcraft for Sale

The colonial administration in Africa aimed to institutionalise racial peripheries in the continent in an effort to perpetuate separation. This meant eternising racial boundaries in African societies to underpin segregation. In the pre‐colonial times, African kingdoms were enshrined in equality, peace and unity, which the advent of colonialists moulded. The colonial assignment of division demonised African natives and still does in the post‐colonial age. Despite the colonial monarch being defenestrated by African movements of independence, its brainchild, racial discrimination continues to wreak havoc in the post‐colonial period. Therefore, this qualitative article sought to explore the height of racial tension in African societies from a literary perspective. It employs post‐colonial theory to underpin the exploration of Doris Lessing'sNo Witchcraft for Sale. Lessing's post‐colonial narration reflects on the painful experiences engendered by the deteriorating racial division in the post‐colonial African societies. It points out the impacts of racial spells upon the social development of the continent. For instance, the story does not only unearth hatred amongst diversified races in African societies but also the stereotypes against Afrocentric identities and talents. Thus, the researcher has sampled the above narration as a neat fit for the post‐colonial reflection of racial disparities in Africa.

Eswatini is burning; Britain lit the fuse

Political protest in the Southern African kingdom of Eswatini is revealing Britain’s toxic colonial legacy in Africa.I grew up in Eswatini and lived there for about 20 years, part of the country’s ...

Assessment of early COVID-19 compliance to and challenges with public health and social prevention measures in the Kingdom of Eswatini, using an online survey.

Public health and social measures have been implemented around the world in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Public compliance with these measures is key in successfully controlling the pandemic. This online survey assessed the compliance and attitude of adults residing in the southern African Kingdom of Eswatini to government protection, activity and travel measures aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19. A rapid online survey, comprising of 28 questions, was administered in May 2020. More than 90% of respondents knew the virus could kill anyone and most respondents (70%) reported to be compliant to public health and social measures. Females, those who did not use public transport and those aged 30 years and above were significantly (p<0.01) more compliant, particularly to protective and travel measures. Social media, television and official government websites were the primary source of ongoing COVID-19 information for respondents of this online survey, and these methods should continue to be employed to reach the public who regularly use the internet. More than half of essential workers who responded to the online survey reported to have their own personal protective equipment; however, 32% either did not have any protective equipment or shared their equipment with other staff members. Due to the survey being online, these results should not be generalised to populations of low socioeconomic status.

Red Sea Entanglement: Initial Latin European Intellectual Development Regarding Nubia and Ethiopia during the Twelfth Century

&#x0D; What happens to the ability to retrace networks when individual agents cannot be named and current archaeology is limited? In these circumstances, such networks cannot be traced, but, as this case study will show, they can be reconstructed and their effects can still be witnessed. This article will highlight how Latin European intellectual development regarding the Christian African kingdoms of Nubia and Ethiopia is due to multiple and far-reaching networks between Latin Europeans, Africans, and other Eastern groups, especially in the wider Red Sea region, despite scant direct evidence for the existence of such extensive intellectual networks. Instead, the absence of direct evidence for Latin European engagement with the Red Sea needs to be situated within the wider development of Latin European understandings of Nubia and Ethiopia throughout the twelfth century as a result of interaction with varied peoples, not least with Africans themselves. The developing Latin European understanding of Nubia is a result of multiple and varied exchanges.&#x0D;

Building Bridges Through Literature

The main purpose of this project was to study African history and how it can be traced in literature. It focused on early African kingdoms and both the colonial and post-colonial periods in West Africa and South Africa. The project was carried out in a group of thirty 17-year-old students, four of whom were from Africa and many others from the Middle East. The four main goals of the project were to (1) allow the students to experience other countries and cultures through literature, (2) build understanding between students with different backgrounds, (3) train the students in information literacy, and (4) develop cooperation between teachers and librarians.