Upper Guinea Research Articles

History and Identity in Senegambia and on the Upper Guinea Coast

Among the most important works about how West African cultural groupings defined themselves and were defined by others is JeanLoup Amselle's Logiques metisses (1990). Building on a rich and deep historiography examining the changing nature of African ethnic identities, Amselle argued that corporate groups' identities have never been fixed but have been constructed and reconstructed over time. Looking to West Africa, he theorised that group identities were characterised by fluidity until nineteenth-century colonial administrators and ethnographers invented more rigid ethnic identities for administrative convenience.1 It is clear that Amselle's work has influenced the authors of the books reviewed here. Among other things, each explores the

Two New Species of Rattan (Palmae: Calamoideae) from the Forests of West and Central Africa

Recent field work in West and Central Africa has led to the discovery of a number of undescribed species of climbing palm (rattans). Two new taxa, Eremospatha barendii and Oncocalamus tuleyi, were recently described by Sunderland (2002). This account describes two further new species; Eremospatha dransfieldii from the forests of Upper Guinea and Laccosperma korupensis from Cameroon. These taxa will be more comprehensively described and illustrated in a forthcoming identification manual on the rattans of Africa (Sunderland in prep.).

First evidence of early Birimian (2.21 Ga) volcanic activity in Upper Guinea: the volcanics and associated rocks of the Niani suite

During the 1:200,000-scale mapping of northeastern Guinea, a suite of volcanic rocks comprising porphyritic lavas, pyroclastics and pyroclastic breccias, was identified in the Niani area in the northeast of the Siguiri Basin. The texture of the rocks, the abundance of pyroclastic deposits and the diversity of lapilli they contain all point to explosive eruptive mechanisms. A Pb–Pb zircon evaporation age of 2212±6 Ma obtained from a sample of rhyodacite has yielded the first evidence of early Birimian volcanic activity in Guinea. Most of the volcanic rocks of the Niani volcanic suite may be defined as intermediate to acidic medium-K calc-alkaline igneous rocks. Some of them show HREE fractionation comparable to the one of high-Al/low-Yb TTGs and recent adakites. It seems probable that these lavas were emplaced in relation with the subduction of a young and hot oceanic plate.

Measuring lay people's perceptions of the quality of primary health care services in developing countries. Validation of a 20-item scale.

Methodologies that have been developed and validated in accordance with accepted scientific standards are needed to monitor and assess the quality of primary health care in developing countries. To present the results of reliability and validity testing of a new instrument of measurement intended to document the user's opinion on the quality of primary health care services. The 20-item scale includes three subscales related to health care delivery personnel and facilities. There were 241 people in one city and two villages in Upper Guinea who responded to the questionnaire. An item analysis preceded the test of psychometric properties of the three subscales and of the total score. Reliability was estimated by analyses of internal consistency and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. A variety of statistical procedures were used to test factorial validity, trait validity (convergent and discriminant) and nomological validity. The reliability of the subscales ranged from 0.71 to 0.88. The validity analyses supported the initial dimensionality and suggested good construct validity. Results confirm the value of the use of the scale developed and highlight the need to take into account the diversity of how quality is perceived by lay people in developing countries. It is suggested that the process of formalization of this type of measurement scale be pursued.

LIMBA ‘DEEP RURAL’ STRATEGIES

The established historical view of the Upper Guinea Coast is that this naturally forested region was at first peripheral to the Manding civilization of the savanna zone. The arrival of Europeans on the coast in the fifteenth century then engendered a southward shift in the centre of gravity of historical processes. The Atlantic trade, in which the savanna states were also deeply involved, gave coastal populations vastly expanded opportunities for wealth accumulation and social mobility. In spite of numerous attempts at political centralization, ‘frontier’ conditions persisted in the region up to – and perhaps after – the establishment of colonial states. These conditions have been held to account for the region-wide importance of cultural institutions which either facilitate social accommodation between heterogenous groups (e.g. Islam, Manding and European linguistic creoles, Manding clan names, and secret societies), or reflect such processes (e.g. bilateral kinship, patron–client relations, and pre-colonial urbanization).

Identification of Illadopses Illadopsis spp in the Upper Guinea Forest

Identification of Illadopses Illadopsis spp in the Upper Guinea Forest

Notes on the field identification of the bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) of Upper Guinea (part 1)

Notes on the field identification of the bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) of Upper Guinea (part 1)

Africa in the nineteenth century until the 1880s

Africa at the beginning of the 19th century, J.F. Ajayi Africa and the world economy, I. Wallerstein new trends and processes in Africa, A.A. Boahen the abolition of the slave trade, S. Daget the Mfecane and the rise of the new African states, I.D. Ngcongco the impact of the Mfecane on the Cape Colony, E.K. Mashingaidze the British, Boers and Africans in South Africa, 1850-1880, N. Bhebe the countries of the Zambesi basin, A.F. Isaacman the East African coast and hinterland, 1845-1880, I.N. Kimambo peoples and states of the Great Lakes region, D.W. Cohen the Congo Basin and Angola, J.L. Vellut the renaissance of Egypt, 1805-81, A. Abdel-Malek the Sudan in the 19th century, H.A. Ibrahim and B.A. Ogot Ethiopia and Somalia, R. Pankhurst and L.V. Cassanelli Madagascar, 1800-80, P.M. Mutibwa and F.V. Esoavelo-Mandrosa new trends in the Maghrib - Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, M.H. Cherif Morocco, A. Laroui new patterns of European intervention in the Maghrib, N. Ivanov the Sahara, S. Baier the 19th-century Islamic revolutions in West Africa, A. Batran the Sokoto caliphate and Borno, M. Last Massina and the Torodbe (Tukuloor) empire until 1878, M. Ly-Tall states and peoples of Senegambia and Upper Guinea, Y. Person states and peoples of the Niger Bend and the Volta, K. Arhin and J. Ki-Zerbo Dahomey, Yorubaland, Borgu and Benin in the 19th century, A.I. Asiwaju the Niger delta and the Cameroon region, E.J. Alagao, L.Z. Elango and M. Metegue N'Nah the African diaspora, F.W. Knight, Y. Talib and P.D. Curtin conclusion - Africa on the eve of European conquest.

Serotonin--a possible transmitter for the gastric adaptive relaxation. Interaction with histamine and prostaglandin F2 alpha on pressure responses in the isolated stomach.

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), relaxes upper guinea pig stomach, and its possible role as a transmitter in the vagally induced upper gastric adaptive relaxation has been discussed. Such a transmitter is expected to act via other mechanisms than crude muscle depression. To test whether the relaxation response to serotonin is compatible with a putative role as transmitter in gastric adaptive relaxation, we wanted to evaluate whether serotonin acts by crude muscle depression and whether it selectively inhibits histamine or prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha). The study shows that 5-HT, in addition to its relaxatory effect on fundic spontaneous activity, selectively inhibits histamine, whereas PGF2 alpha is not inhibited. It is then concluded that the relaxatory effect of 5-HT is provided through other mechanisms than crude muscle depression and that selective inhibition of intramural agonists, like histamine, is a possible effect mechanism.

Ethnic Movements and Acculturation in Upper Guinea since the Fifteenth Century

Ethnic Movements and Acculturation in Upper Guinea since the Fifteenth Century

Upper Guinea and the Significance of the Origins of Africans Enslaved in the New World

Upper Guinea and the Significance of the Origins of Africans Enslaved in the New World

Portuguese attempts at Monopoly on the Upper Guinea Coast, 1580–1650

Between 1580 and 1640 the union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns strengthened the commercial partnership which previously existed with respect to the supply of Guinea slaves to the Spanish Indies. The conduct of the slave trade on the Upper Guinea Coast involved the active participation of the African chiefs, as well as the services of a considerable number of resident Portuguese traders, known as lançados. Before 1640, while Iberian unity prevailed, the main source of discord in the area lay in the fact that the Spanish slave ships, with the help of the lançados and the chiefs, were able to disregard the regulation that all ships loading slaves on the Upper Guinea Coast should pay duties at Santiago (Cape Verde islands), which the Portuguese used as the hub of their administration. After 1640 the restored Portuguese monarch attempted to exclude Spain from the commerce of the Upper Guinea Coast, and in the process, alienated the lançados and the African chiefs.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SOUTHERN NIGERIAN AVIFAUNA TO THOSE OF UPPER AND LOWER GUINEA

Summary.The composition of the forest avifauna of Southern Nigeria is analysed in the light of the most recent work in the region. It is found that east of the Niger the affinities are with Lower Guinea: at Lagos with Upper Guinea; in the Ondo‐Benin area not definitely with either. A discussion of the barriers between the two sub‐regions follows, and it is claimed that, whereas the Lagos‐Accra savanna gap and the Cameroon montane area can each account for about one quarter of the total change, factors within Nigeria were almost twice as important in causing differentiation. It is suggested that these factors were a combination of climatic conditions and northward position of the coastline in late or post‐Pliocene times, giving rise to a condition similar to that we find today between Lagos and Accra.

On Potamon (Potamonautes) latidactylum, a new Freshwater Crab from Upper Guinea

On Potamon (Potamonautes) latidactylum, a new Freshwater Crab from Upper Guinea

An account of the Desquamation and change of Colour in a Negro of Upper Guinea, West Africa

An account of the Desquamation and change of Colour in a Negro of Upper Guinea, West Africa