Abstract
The literary tradition in African studies altered slowly as the mid-century approached, with nothing in the offing comparable to the Darwinian revolution which hung over biological sciences. If any revolutionary change had taken place, it was the eighteenth-century shift from an emphasis on static analysis of society to the nineteenth-century emphasis on historical or evolutionary analysis.1 This new attitude, however, was firmly in office by the 1830’s, when the great works of Von Ranke, Michelet, and Macaulay began to appear. It gained some further impetus from the romantic movement of the early nineteenth century, but that was all.
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Footnotes
A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (Cambridge, Mass., 1936), pp. 242–87.
G. Klemm, Alle gemerne Cultur-Geschichte der Menscbheit, 10 parts (Leipzig, 1843–1852), esp. I, 20–23.
See also H. Merivale, Lectures on Colonisation and Colonies, 2 vols. (London, 1841–1842), II, 155–57; The Colonial Intelligencer, II, 132–33 (1848).
D. J. East, Western Africa; Its Condition, and Christianity the Means of its Recovery (London, 1844), pp. 107–8.
W. Cooke Taylor, The Natural History of Society in the Barbarous and Civilized State: an Essay Towards Discovering the Origin and Course of Human Improvement, 2 vols. (New York, 1841), I, 17–30. First edition London, 1840.
Rufus Anderson, The Theory of Missions to the Heathen (Boston, 1845), p. 13.
E. Norris, Outline of a Vocabulary of a Few of the Principal Languages of Western and Central Africa: Compiled for the use of the Niger Expedition (London, 1841).
R. G. Latham, “On the Present State and Recent Progress of Ethnographical Philology,” Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, XVII, 154–229 (1847).
As a guide to linguistic material available at this time, see: J. S. Vater, Litteratur der Grammatiken, Lexika und Wörtersammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1847);
revised and enlarged by B. Jiilg. See also R. N. Cust, A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa, 2 vols. (London, 1883), I, 23–38.
J. F. Ade Ajayi, “Christian Missions and the Making of Nigeria 1841–1891,” (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London, 1958), pp. 302ff.;
H. Halleur, A.B.C, darium der Ashanti-Sprache (Basel, 1845);
R. Brookings, Nucleus of a Grammar of the Vanti Language: With a Vocabulary (London, 1843).
S. W. Koelle, Poly gioita Africana, or a Comparative Vocabulary of Nearly 300 Words and Phrases in more than 100 Distinct African Languages (London, 1854).
J. Raban, Vocabulary of Eyo, or Aku, a Dialect of Western Africa, 2 parts (London, 1831);
S. Crowther, Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language (London, 1843), pp. 1–5;
H. N. Riis, Grammatical Outlines of the Oji Language, with Special Reference to the Akwapim Dialect together with a Collection of Proverbs (Basel, 1854).
T. Hodgkin, “On the Importance of Studying and Preserving the Languages Spoken by uncivilized Nations, with the View of Elucidating the Physical History of Man,” London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, VII, 27–36, 94–106 (July-August 1835);
J. H. Guenebault, The Natural History of the Negro Race (Charleston, S.C., 1837);
Arthur, Comte de Gobineau, Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Paris, 1884), I, 187–214. Quotation from p. 213.
Cooke Taylor, Natural History, I, 37; C. C. J. de Bunsen, “On the Results of Recent Egyptian Researches in Reference to Asiatic and African Ethnology, and the Classification of Languages,” Reports of the British Association, XVII, 254–99 (1847), pp. 265–90.
J. F. Schön in Journals of the Rev. James Frederick Schön and Mr. Samuel Crowther, who with the Sanction of Her Majesty’s Government Accompanied the Expedition up the Niger in 1841 (London, 1842), pp. 119–20; J. L. Wilson, “Comparative Vocabularies of Some of the Principal Negro Dialects of Africa,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, I, 317–82 (New York, 1851);
J. L. Wilson, Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and Prospects (New York, 1856), pp. 455 and 457–61.
R. M. Macbriar, Mandingo Grammar (London, 1837), P. vi.
F. E. Forbes, Dahomey and the Dahomans, 2 vols. (London, 1851), I, 196;
S. W. Koelle, Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei Language (London, 1854), pp. 1–8;
S. W. Koelle, Narrative of an Expedition into the Vy Country of West Africa (London, 1849). In fact, the Mum language of the Cameroons also had a system of notation, and it was common to write several African languages in Arabic script. The independent invention of a system of notation was therefore as unnecessary in much of Africa as it was for Europe itself.
See J. Howison, European Colonies in Various Parts of the World, Viewed in their Social, Moral, and Physical Conditions, 2 vols. (London, 1834), I, 91–97 for the usual negative opinion. See also: Riis, Grammatical Outlines, pp. 110–36;
S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature (London, 1854);
O. E. Vidal, “Introductory Remarks,” in S. Crowther, Vocabulary of the Yòruba Language, 2nd ed. (London, 1852), pp. 17–38;
Baron Roger, Pables sénégalaises, recueilliés de l’ouolof et mises en vers français (Paris, 1828);
A. Cherbonneau, “Essai sur la litterature arabe du Soudan,” Annuaire de la Société Archaeologique de Constantine, II, 1–48 (1854–1855).
R. G. Latham, “On the Ethnography of Africa as Determined by its Languages,” Reports of the British Association, XIV, 79–80 (1844); “Contributions to the study of the Languages of Africa,” Proceedings of the Philological Society, II, 218–22 (2 February 1846); “Recent Progress of Ethnographical Philology,” pp. 222–29; Natural History of the Varieties of Man (London, 1850), pp. 471–86; “On Certain Classes in African Philology; Especially the Mandingo, Kouri, Nun, and Fula Groups,” Transactions of the Philological Society for 1885, pp. 107–22.
Cf. J. H. Greenberg, Studies in African Linguistic Classification (New Haven, 1955).
W. H. I. Bleek, De Nominum Generibus Linguarum Africae Australis, Copticae, Semiticarum Aliarumque Sexualium (Bonn, 1851), esp. p. 59.
R. M. Macbriar, Sketches of a Missionary’s Travels in Egypt, Syria, Western Africa, &c, &c. (London, 1839), PP. 242–43.
W. H. Bleek, “On the Languages of Western and Southern Africa,” Transactions of the Philological Society of London (1855), pp. 40–50.
W. Armistead, A Tribute to the Negro (Manchester, 1848), p. 31.
See also: T. Fowell Buxton, The African Slave Trade, 2nd ed. (Lodon, 1839), p. xiv; “On the Practicality of Civilizing Aboriginal Populations,” Ethnological Abstracts (London, Spottiswoode, [ 1840 ?] ).
W. Allen and T. R. H. Thomson, A Narrative of the Expedition to the River Niger in 1841, 2 vols. (London, 1848), II, 378–401;
W. F. Daniell, Sketches of the Medical Topography and Native Diseases of the Gulf of Guinea (London, 1849), pp. 26–36, 90–91, and 99.
B. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, Including an Account of the Native Tribes, and Their Intercourse with Europeans, 2 vols. (London, 1853), II, 2.
Variants of this reasoning were very common. As an example, see: William Howitt, Colonization and Christianity (London, 1838), pp. 501–2.
J. Crawfurd, Reports of the British Association, XXVIII, 149 (1858).
Edward Phillips, Simmond’s Colonial Magazine, X, 3 (January, 1847).
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J. Richardson, Travels in the Great Desert of the Sahara,2 vols. (London, 1848), pp. xxvi–xxviii.
“Expedition to the Niger,” Edinburgh Review, LXXII, 460 (January, 1841). See also Saxe Bannister, Humane Policy; or Justice to the Aborigines of New Settlements … (London, 1830), pp. 2–3.
See, as a particular example: W. Fox, A Brief History of the Wesleyan Missions on the Western Coast of Africa (London, 1851), p. 250.
See, in particular: William Allen to Lord Stanley, 5 February 1843, PP, 1843, xlviii [C 472], p. 136; Journal of Civilization, 3 July 1841, p. 133. Cf. Geoffrey Parrinder, West African Religion, 2nd ed. (London, 1961).
For example: J. Beecham, Ashantee and the Gold Coast (London, 1841), pp. 170–256.
J. C. Prichard, Researches into the Physical History of Man, 4th ed., 5 vols. (London, 1851), II, 338.
See C. C. Ifemesia, “British Enterprise on the Niger, 1830–1869,” (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London, 1959).
[Jane Marcet], History of Africa (London, 1830), pp. 168–74;
W. B. K., “On the Varieties of the Human Race,” Colonial Magazine, V, 37–40 (January-May, 1841);
R. G. Latham, The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies (London, 1851), pp. 34 and 62.
W. F. Daniell, “On the Natives of Old Callebar, West Coast of Africa,” Journal of the Ethnological Society, I, 210–27 (1848), pp. 212–13.
F. H. Rankin, The White Man’s Grave: A Visit to Sierra Leone in 1834, 2 vols. (London, 1836), II, 10–11.
G. d’Eichthal, “Histoire de origine des Foulahs ou Fellans,” Mémoires de la Société Ethnologique, I (2), 1–296 (1841), esp. p. 118. For other speculations on Fulbe origins see: Marcet, History of Africa, pp. 167–68;
T. J. Hutchinson, Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda,&Binuë Exploration (London, 1855), pp. 66–67 and 75–76; Journal of Civilization, 3 July 1841, p. 133; Macbriar, Missionary Travels, pp. 239– 41;
A. Raffenel, Voyage dans l’Afrique occidentale exécuté en 1843 et 1844 (Paris, 1846), esp. pp. 106 and 262–66;
P. D. Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises (Paris, 1853), pp. 384–413;
L. H. Hecquard, Voyage sur la côte et dans l’Intérieur de l’Afrique occidentale (Paris, 1853).
H. Barth, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 5 vols. (London, 1857–1858), IV, 146–56;
a Barth, “A General Historical Description of the State of Human Society in Northern Central Africa,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, XXX, 112–28 (1860), pp. 115–19.
S. G. Morton, Crania Americana (Philadelphia, 1839), PP. 6–7.
J. C. Nott and R. G. Gliddon, Types of Mankind (London, 1854), pp. 182–90 and 209.
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Curtin, P.D. (1964). Language, Culture, and History. In: The Image of Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00539-0_16
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