Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century A TURBULENT HISTORY CathERINE COQUERY-VIDROVItch Translated from the French by Mary Baker M.E.Sharpe Armonk, New York London, England Copyright © 2009 by M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. [Afrique et les Africains au XIXe siècle. English] Africa and the Africans in the nineteenth century : a turbulent history / by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch; translated from the French by Mary Baker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 978-0-7656-1696-8 (cloth : alk. paper) —ISBN: 978-0-7656-1697-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Africa—History—19th century. I. Title. DT28.C6713 2009 960’.23—dc22 2008033387 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1984. ~ MV (c) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 MV (p) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents List of Tables, Figures, and Maps vii Preface to the American Edition ix Introduction xi Note on the Transcription of Proper Nouns xix 1. People and Their Environment: Africa’s Climate and Demography 3 The Perils of Rainfall Variations 3 Population Growth and Decline 8 The Ecology of Health 11 Greater Demographic Disparities 11 Greater Mobility 13 The Inflow of Foreigners 14 A Harsh Environment 15 2. Political and Warlike Islam: The Maghreb and West Africa Before the Colonial Conquest 18 The Maghreb Before the Conquest 19 The Western Sudan at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century 26 A Major Focus: Trans-Saharan Trade 36 Jihad and the Religious Islam of Conquest 47 Adrift Under Western Pressure: Samori 67 3. Political and Merchant Islam: East Africa 70 Modernity as an Option: Egypt 70 At the Crossroads of Worlds: Ethiopia 75 Old-Style Colonization: Zanzibar 85 In the Margins Between Worlds: Rab­ī h 97 v vi CONTENTS 4. Animism’s Resistance—Openness and Introversion: Central-Western Africa 109 The Reformism of the Coastal Empires 109 The Peoples of the Interior 118 5. The Meeting of Cultures: Southern Africa 135 Upheaval at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 136 Shaka and the Zulu Revolution: Revision of an Analysis 141 Lesotho: Colonized Bastion 143 The English, the Africans, and the Boers: The Genesis of Segregation 147 6. Colonial Intervention 156 The Beginnings of Colonial Imperialism in Sub-Saharan Africa 158 The Genesis of Colonial Government 166 The End of Colonial Conquests 168 Resistance 172 Algeria, from Revolt to Colonization 175 7. The Century’s Innovations 185 Slavery: A Mode of Production That Had Become Dominant 185 Christianity: The Missionary Factor in Changing Mentalities 207 Economic and Social Changes: Systems of Production and Lifestyles 232 New Social Players: Gender Relations, Urbanization 247 Culture and the Arts 258 Conclusion 268 Notes 271 Bibliography 281 Chronology: Europeans in Africa 293 Index 299 About the Author 313 List of Tables, Figures, and Maps Figures 1.1 Rainfall Fluctuations in the Sahel 5 1.2 Demographic Changes in Algeria 10 6.1 Algeria: Convictions Under the Indigenous Code, 1882–1919 183 6.2 Muslim Harvests of Wheat and Barley, 1872–92 184 Tables 1.1 Comparative Data on Famine and Epidemic Years in Sahel Locations 6 2.1 Trading Terms (1776–1849): Value of a Ton of Gum Expressed in Guinées (Pieces of Cotton Cloth) 43 7.1 Slave Exports in the Nineteenth Century 191 Maps 1.1 Major Zones of Natural Vegetation 16 2.1 Principal African Peoples and States at the Dawn of the Nineteenth Century (just before the Great Jihads) 28 2.2 The Maghreb and West Africa in the Nineteenth Century: Trans-Saharan Routes 38 2.3 West Africa: Primary Political Formations in the Nineteenth Century 50 3.1 Ethiopia in the Nineteenth Century 77 3.2 Central-Equatorial Africa in the Nineteenth Century 88 3.3 Central-Eastern Africa in the Nineteenth Century 98 5.1 South Africa in the Last Third of the Nineteenth Century 136 6.1 European Penetration on the Eve of the Berlin Conference (1884) 157 vii viii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND MAPS 6.2 European Penetration in 1891 169 6.3 Colonized Africa on the Eve of World War I 177 6.4 Algeria in the Nineteenth Century 178 7.1 Internal and International Slave Trading in the Nineteenth Century 187 7.2 Islam and Christianity around 1885 209 Preface to the American Edition The goal of this book is to show how important the nineteenth century was in the history of the African continent as a whole. My priority has been to try to render this history as it was experienced by Africans, rather than as it has been described by Western observers. Naturally, Western historians tend to focus on European colonial control, but how was that occupation experienced by Africans at the time? When we look at it more closely, we find that, for most Africans, the colonial intrusion, which was to have huge consequences, was not seen as the major issue in most of the continent during this period. Of course, in North Africa, Napoléon Bonaparte landed in Egypt in 1799 and the French in Algiers in 1830, and, in southern Africa, the British were in the Cape in 1795. However, elsewhere, across the vast majority of the continent, the new European presence became crucial only in the last third of the century. Before then, many Africans were not even aware of it. This is the reason why the European conquest enters the picture only toward the end of this book. At the time, what was felt to be most important were the political and re- ligious processes that were internal to African societies. Most of them were still independent. It is only in hindsight that it becomes apparent that some of these changes were at least partly in reaction to outside economic influences: for example, the gradual end of the slave trades, both across the Atlantic and, half a century later, across the Indian Ocean, was more or less related to the early impact of the British Industrial Revolution. Nevertheless, the most important issues in the nineteenth century were the ideological and cultural changes that resulted, in many areas, in mass conversions to Islam. Christianity, by contrast, did not become popular until the end of the century. Other crucial factors were the social and political transformations caused by changes in the motivations behind and organiza- tion of African slavery and the internal slave trade. The increase in internal slavery was inseparable from world history, but, except in Portuguese areas, it had little to do with colonization, even though its growth was used as a justification for European colonialism at the end of the century. ix x preface These factors were common to all areas of the continent, which is why I have presented the analysis thematically. The broad outlines are clear in the table of contents. Naturally, I had to make choices, and the study is not exhaus- tive. It focuses on the internal aspects of the era’s major historical changes, and is intended for readers (especially but not only university students) who seek to understand the history of Africa as seen from the inside. This book contains no earth-shattering “revelations” flowing from new research. It contains no new discoveries. Most of it is based on the work of innumerable researchers who have devoted themselves to describing the history of Africa. It is primarily a work that adopts a different point of view and tries to be as “Afrocentered” as possible, though the author is of course conscious of not being an African. In short, it is a concrete attempt at African history situated from a postcolonial perspective. The goal may not be to write history “from below,” but it is at least to write history from Africa, with an African viewpoint. Whatever our nationality, as historians it is our duty and desire to try to see things from multiple points of view. Here, I can only express my warm gratitude to the earlier authors who made it possible for me to write this book. Many of them have written in English. There is an incomplete list of their works in the bibliography, which includes mainly the works that I used directly. But my research has been informed by many, many others, and I am only too aware that they have not all been acknowledged here by name. I would also like to give special thanks to the readers of the French edition, whose comments allowed me to amend and complete some of my arguments. I am especially grateful to Roland Oliver and Jean-Louis Triaud, but of course there were many others. I was also greatly aided by the questions my students asked at Diderot-Paris 7 University, and at Binghamton University, SUNY, where I had the opportunity to teach part-time from 1981 to 2005. In fact, this book results from years of teaching the topic, and I hope that this record will be useful for the next generation. Finally I thank my translator, Mary Baker, for her efficiency and kindness, and also my production editor, Angela Piliouras, for skillfully and attentively guiding the English-language edition to publication. I take complete respon- sibility for any remaining errors and omissions.