Looking for the earliest ethnographies or accounts of tribes in Sub-Saharan Africa

[rousseau]

Our history forum has been pretty dead as of late, but you never know, something might come out of this thread.

I've been reading some ethnographies of Africa as of late, namely from this series. All good. But I'm also trying to find some of the earliest examples of something like a scientific account of life in Africa: descriptions of tribes and tribal life and the like.

So far it seems like detail is spotty up until the early 20th century, but there's got to be something I can sink my teeth into from earlier.

Anyone have any leads?

 

[Tharmas]

I may be wrong, but my belief is you will not be able to find much information prior to the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth century geographers were still relying on explorers to discover the gross facts about sub Saharan “darkest” Africa, such as where the major rivers were, mountains, etc.

You might check out journals from some of the noteworthy explorers such as James Bruce (18th century) or the better known Richard Burton, and Stanley and Livingstone (19th cen.). They will not be scientific, and will no doubt be prejudiced by cultural assumptions such as the innate superiority of whites, but may at least offer a glimpse of what African cultures were like a first contact.

 

[Politesse]

Ethnography as such is a post WWI phenomenon for most of Africa, to the best of my knowledge. Basil Davidson has done a lot of historiography on this subject, and you might find a perusal of one of his grand works an interesting place to start. Or you could look into one of my favorite historical historians, religious cleric-turned-happenstance-explorer Ibn Battuta, who traveled throughout East and West Africa on two long transects.

 

[rousseau]

I may be wrong, but my belief is you will not be able to find much information prior to the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth century geographers were still relying on explorers to discover the gross facts about sub Saharan “darkest” Africa, such as where the major rivers were, mountains, etc.

You might check out journals from some of the noteworthy explorers such as James Bruce (18th century) or the better known Richard Burton, and Stanley and Livingstone (19th cen.). They will not be scientific, and will no doubt be prejudiced by cultural assumptions such as the innate superiority of whites, but may at least offer a glimpse of what African cultures were like a first contact.

Thanks for the recommendations. I was thinking that may be the case, as out of the works Paul Theroux spoke about in his travel book I'm reading only explorers were really mentioned prior to the 20th century. I'll have to see if I can find some of these at the library tomorrow.

I also posed a question on the history stack exchange a few weeks ago about this, but worded it poorly and ended up getting referenced to early middle-eastern traders who travelled across the Sahara. Interesting in itself, but not quite what I was looking for.

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Ethnography as such is a post WWI phenomenon for most of Africa, to the best of my knowledge. Basil Davidson has done a lot of historiography on this subject, and you might find a perusal of one of his grand works an interesting place to start. Or you could look into one of my favorite historical historians, religious cleric-turned-happenstance-explorer Ibn Battuta, who traveled throughout East and West Africa on two long transects.

Thanks for the tips, I was hoping you'd weigh in.

 

[Politesse]

I may be wrong, but my belief is you will not be able to find much information prior to the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth century geographers were still relying on explorers to discover the gross facts about sub Saharan “darkest” Africa, such as where the major rivers were, mountains, etc.

You might check out journals from some of the noteworthy explorers such as James Bruce (18th century) or the better known Richard Burton, and Stanley and Livingstone (19th cen.). They will not be scientific, and will no doubt be prejudiced by cultural assumptions such as the innate superiority of whites, but may at least offer a glimpse of what African cultures were like a first contact.

Thanks for the recommendations. I was thinking that may be the case, as out of the works Paul Theroux spoke about in his travel book I'm reading only explorers were really mentioned prior to the 20th century. I'll have to see if I can find some of these at the library tomorrow.

I also posed a question on the history stack exchange a few weeks ago about this, but worded it poorly and ended up getting referenced to early middle-eastern traders who travelled across the Sahara. Interesting in itself, but not quite what I was looking for.

- - - Updated - - -

Ethnography as such is a post WWI phenomenon for most of Africa, to the best of my knowledge. Basil Davidson has done a lot of historiography on this subject, and you might find a perusal of one of his grand works an interesting place to start. Or you could look into one of my favorite historical historians, religious cleric-turned-happenstance-explorer Ibn Battuta, who traveled throughout East and West Africa on two long transects.

Thanks for the tips, I was hoping you'd weigh in.

As I've said before, Africa is unfortunately not really my area! But ethnography is. Let me know if you're ever after an article or monograph that's logged on anthrosource and get pay-walled, I am always happy to encourage interest in world cultures.

 

[rousseau]

Thanks for the recommendations. I was thinking that may be the case, as out of the works Paul Theroux spoke about in his travel book I'm reading only explorers were really mentioned prior to the 20th century. I'll have to see if I can find some of these at the library tomorrow.

I also posed a question on the history stack exchange a few weeks ago about this, but worded it poorly and ended up getting referenced to early middle-eastern traders who travelled across the Sahara. Interesting in itself, but not quite what I was looking for.

- - - Updated - - -



Thanks for the tips, I was hoping you'd weigh in.

As I've said before, Africa is unfortunately not really my area! But ethnography is. Let me know if you're ever after an article or monograph that's logged on anthrosource and get pay-walled, I am always happy to encourage interest in world cultures.

Which regions are your area of focus?

 

[Politesse]

Thanks for the recommendations. I was thinking that may be the case, as out of the works Paul Theroux spoke about in his travel book I'm reading only explorers were really mentioned prior to the 20th century. I'll have to see if I can find some of these at the library tomorrow.

I also posed a question on the history stack exchange a few weeks ago about this, but worded it poorly and ended up getting referenced to early middle-eastern traders who travelled across the Sahara. Interesting in itself, but not quite what I was looking for.

- - - Updated - - -



Thanks for the tips, I was hoping you'd weigh in.

As I've said before, Africa is unfortunately not really my area! But ethnography is. Let me know if you're ever after an article or monograph that's logged on anthrosource and get pay-walled, I am always happy to encourage interest in world cultures.

Which regions are your area of focus?

My graduate research was on inter-religious communities and religious vocation in contemporary US, particularly in California where I did my thesis research. Since then, I've been burrowing back into US southwest lore, especially the mythology and ecological perspectives of peoples in the Colorado River Basin. I studied the same area in my younger days (when I was doing contract archaeology) and it has been my pleasure to get to know the modern cultures of the region much better of late.

Because of my teaching career, I am also reasonably well acquainted with the literature on Mali (of most interest to you I imagine), Haiti, European neopaganism, medical anthropology generally, and the Polynesian Pacific.

 

[rousseau]

Which regions are your area of focus?

My graduate research was on inter-religious communities and religious vocation in contemporary US, particularly in California where I did my thesis research. Since then, I've been burrowing back into US southwest lore, especially the mythology and ecological perspectives of peoples in the Colorado River Basin. I studied the same area in my younger days (when I was doing contract archaeology) and it has been my pleasure to get to know the modern cultures of the region much better of late.

Because of my teaching career, I am also reasonably well acquainted with the literature on Mali (of most interest to you I imagine), Haiti, European neopaganism, medical anthropology generally, and the Polynesian Pacific.

Yea, I'd say my major focus for about the past year has been Africa, more recently with more of an interest in pre-colonial times. I started with The Postcolonial State in Africa, though, which was fascinating but a whole different thing.

Anyway, headed to the library soon, any recommendations re: Mali or Haiti?

 

[rousseau]

Here we go:

Show

The Livingstone book looks like it has some beautiful illustrations in it.

 

[Politesse]

Which regions are your area of focus?

My graduate research was on inter-religious communities and religious vocation in contemporary US, particularly in California where I did my thesis research. Since then, I've been burrowing back into US southwest lore, especially the mythology and ecological perspectives of peoples in the Colorado River Basin. I studied the same area in my younger days (when I was doing contract archaeology) and it has been my pleasure to get to know the modern cultures of the region much better of late.

Because of my teaching career, I am also reasonably well acquainted with the literature on Mali (of most interest to you I imagine), Haiti, European neopaganism, medical anthropology generally, and the Polynesian Pacific.

Yea, I'd say my major focus for about the past year has been Africa, more recently with more of an interest in pre-colonial times. I started with The Postcolonial State in Africa, though, which was fascinating but a whole different thing.

Anyway, headed to the library soon, any recommendations re: Mali or Haiti?

If you are after early works, Mali is as thin as the rest of West Africa when it comes to proper ethnographies early on; the nation caught little attention from ethnographers before the 1980's. The humanitarian and political struggles since then have had them packed with researchers, up to present.

Some of my favorites:

The oldies are "Conversations With Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas", Marcel Griaule
"Essai sur la religion des Bambara", Germaine Dieterlen
and "Le Renard Pale", by Dieterlen & Griaule

Also try "Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule", Walter Van Beek (a critique of the oldies)
"The Social Anthropology of West Africa" Kevin Hart (review article covering the previous few decades of work as of 1985)
"Mothers, Medicine and Morality in Rural Mali: An Ethnographic Study of Therapy Management of Pregnancy and Children’s Illness Episodes", Holten Lianne
"The oral history of Dogon villages and migrations' to Dogon Plateau", Peter Kutsenkov
"Monique and the Mango Rains", Kris Holloway (by a non-specialist, but a very good book and much more readable than any of the above due to its conversational tone)


With Haiti, there is a significantly older and larger library. Many classics here. I might start with Bob Corbett's web page, which aside from being an interesting read by itself, contains several book reviews and bibliographies. Looking back at the early years, the really well known ones are:
"Life in a Haitian Valley", Melville Herskovitz (a pioneering ethnography well-respected as a foundational example of the genre)
"Voodoo in Haiti" Alfred Metraux
"Tell my Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica", Zora Neale Hurston (one of only two ethnographies she ever wrote, but she was Boas' student and it shows)

More recently:
"Culture and Customs of Haiti", J. Michael Dash
"Political Economy in Haiti: The Drama of Survival", Paul Fass
"Hidden Meanings: Truth and Secret in Haiti's Creole Proverbs", Turnbull, Wally
"AIDS and accusation" Paul Farmer (helped launch the entire subfield of medical anthropology)

And if you'll take an anti-recommendation... I hate "Serpent and the Rainbow", if you ask me it is skippable. And though I hate to say it (the author being a personal friend of mine) "Dancing Skeletons" is a bit of a mess also.

 

[rousseau]

Thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to dig into some of those in the future.

I dug into the Livingstone title last night, specifically this one. It far exceeded my expectations. Nothing resembling ethnography, but plenty of descriptions of happenings amongst the tribes, and if anything Livingstone seems to be sympathetic toward Africans.

 

[rousseau]

I may be wrong, but my belief is you will not be able to find much information prior to the twentieth century, as in the nineteenth century geographers were still relying on explorers to discover the gross facts about sub Saharan “darkest” Africa, such as where the major rivers were, mountains, etc.

You might check out journals from some of the noteworthy explorers such as James Bruce (18th century) or the better known Richard Burton, and Stanley and Livingstone (19th cen.). They will not be scientific, and will no doubt be prejudiced by cultural assumptions such as the innate superiority of whites, but may at least offer a glimpse of what African cultures were like a first contact.

For the record, for anyone reading a long, plenty of these titles are available on Gutenberg.

 

[Tharmas]

Here's another for you: Mungo Park ( Mungo_Park_(explorer)). I've actually read this one in its entirety although quite a few years ago. I found it fascinating.

I had a close friend (now deceased due to the criminal inadequacies of the American health care system), the best read person I have ever known, who had a passion for British travelogues from back when "travel" meant expedition, not "tour" or "vacation." He turned me on the Mungo Park.

 

[rousseau]

Thanks for the tip. I spent some time this morning adding titles to my e-reader from Gutenberg. Seems like some of the explorers you mentioned were actually much more available there than at the library. I even managed to pull some South American titles too.