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The paper compares and contrasts modern Western historical approach as presented by Shillington in African History and African historical approach to Ancient Mali as shown by griot's. The aim of the paper is to distinguish differences in the two viewpoints. The paper analyses the history of Mali and Africa from both perspectives. African History The book African History by Shillington covers the history of African states and tribes from old ages to the modern period. The author covers in great detail the relationship between Africa and Islam. Shillington presents different viewpoints on African history.
By reading the book it is possible to distinguish European view on the development of Africa and original African view presented by griot's. However, the different topics in the book are presented from an African point of view. Western historical approach questions whether does Africa have a history? Not so long ago this question received a negative answer. Some historians, comparing European with African history, concluded that the latter did not really exist. The African past has little more to offer than the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant quarters of the globe.
Common Western historical approach suggests that prior to the encounter with Europeans the majority of African people still lived a primitive, barbaric life, many of them even on the lowest level of barbarism. Therefore it is unrealistic to speak of their history -- in the scientific sense of the word -- before the appearance of the European invaders. But such a viewpoint is different from the African historical approach, as shown by griot's. These are unusually strong views, which, however, were shared to a greater or lesser extent by most historians at the time. It is in any case a fact that African historiography then barely existed. Almost no one took an interest in the subject.
Today the picture has completely changed. The rise of African history is one of the most impressive chapters in modern historical studies. Begun by British historians and quickly taken up and developed by Shillington, African historiography has developed apace and is nowadays pursued for the most part by Africans. Dozens of journals, monographs and compilations bear impressive witness to their achievements.
Africans have mounted the stage of history. From the European perspective, Africa appears mainly as an object, an object of European interest, love of conquest and diplomacy, and ultimately as an object of political partition. This does not mean that the role of Africans was purely passive. Far from it, such Africans as the khedive of Egypt, the sultan of Morocco, the Zulu king Cetshwayo, King Lobengula of the Matabele, the Almami Safari, Mansa Musa and the Makoko of the Battle exerted a marked influence on the course of events.
As presented in Shillington's book, sites associated with ancient Mali have also been investigated. Mali was one of the states that rose to prominence following the decline of ancient Ghana. Mali reached its apogee in the thirteenth and fourteen centuries, when it extended over parts of Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania and Guinea. This area includes the fertile lands of the inland Niger Delta, as well as the goldfields of the upper Niger River.
Modern-day great, or professional praise singers, still sing stories about ancient Mali and its rulers. Mali is also known through limited Arabic sources. Mansa Musa, ruler of Mali between 1312 and 1337, spent and gave away so much gold during his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 that currencies were devalued. Mansa Musa became widely known and Rex Melly, or the King of Mali, appears on Angelina Dulcerts 1339 map of Africa. The exact extent and location of Mali remains uncertain. Some sites, including June-jan and Gao-Sane, have produced exotic trade items such as Chinese porcelain, imported beads and glass from Mameluke Egypt that attest to Mali's contacts with North Africa.
Tombs at Gao-Sane have produced royal epigraphs that complement the scant travel accounts. Work has also been undertaken at Niani, a possible capital of ancient Mali. Located in modern Guinea, Niani corresponds to some aspects of the capital mentioned in documentary sources. Yet excavations at the site suggest the settlement was occupied between AD 600 and 1000, abandoned and reoccupied during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, suggesting the settlement was not occupied during Mali's apogee. The uncertainty in locating the capitals of ancient Ghana and Mali underscore the limited information provided by Arabic sources. Even during the latter half of the second millennium AD, documentary sources often provide only brief and, at times, contradictory information.
The value of the sources that are available is enhanced by increasing information on archaeological sites and the settlement patterns of the surrounding regions, the large majority of which are unmentioned in written sources. Excavations and regional surveys of the Senegal River Basin, the inland Niger Delta and parts of Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon have started to uncover regional changes in social, political and economic organization that have occurred. The Europeans arrived on the West African coast in the fifteenth century. The Portuguese reached the mouth of Pra River in modern Ghana in 1471 and the coast of Nigeria by the end of the century. In the following centuries, the Dutch, British, Swedes, Danes, French, Germans and Americans competed for trade. European sources provide comparatively detailed information for some areas, such as coastal Senegal and Ghana.
Yet African-European interactions were primarily limited to the coast and its immediate hinterland until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries when colonial governments extended control over the interior. Prior to that time period, European contact with the majority of the peoples of West Africa was limited and European accounts of African populations non-existent. The bond between Mali griot's and nobles is a central element within the more historical Sahelian epic traditions (such bonds do not seem to exist in the Central African sphere). It should be stressed that not every great was involved in such privileged retainer ship. Describing the fourteenth-century court of Mali, the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta identified one great named Dough, who was the kings spokesman, and many other musicians performing as an orchestra; their role was simply to enhance the rulers pomp. Praise songs are one of the keys to the relations between griot's and nobles.
They remember and recall the praises, the genealogy, and the history of the clan of their noble patrons and thanks to griot's nowadays historians have more information about African past. Mali oral traditions are likely to be more familiar to a contemporary American public than many other African histories. The specific epics considered in this section are a reflection of this localized history and the distinct Mali fusion of cultures and traditions. Elders known as griot's, storytellers who are able to memorize the entire histories of the family lines of entire villages, are still very widely respected, and the oral exchange of life histories and of information and experience remains a vital institution in some African countries even nowadays. Contacts with outsiders shaped some aspects of the history of the continent. Before the seventh century A.
D. , notable contacts, mainly with North Africa, were established by the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. These contacts enabled the spread of ideas and technology and the promotion of trade. From the point of view of contemporary history, the two most enduring contacts were those made by the Arab Muslims and the Europeans. After the seventh century, the Arabs introduced Islam to North Africa, and through various agencies and jihads, the religion spread to other parts of Africa. This brought many changes, such as the spread of the Islamic religion, Islamic education, the Arabic language and literacy, ideas about political centralization, and various aspects of culture.
According to fourteenth-century Arabic documents, ancient Mali stretched from Gao west to the Atlantic, north to cover most of the Sahara, and south into the tropical forestland -- an area as large as the western division of the Roman Empire, which encompassed most of what is today western Europe. Similarly to Romes, Mali's long-term influence was reflected in the extent to which the predominant language within the empire, Marine, came to be spoken as the first language of an enormous diversity of peoples. Thanks to griot's who were historians, advisors, praise singers and storytellers, today we know about the past of Mali. Bibliography: Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, St.
Martins Press, New York, 1995. Basil Davidson, The African Past, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1966.
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