Description
Book SynopsisExplores the culturally complex and cosmopolitan histories of islands off the African coast Islands and island chains like Cabo Verde, Madagascar, and Bioko are often sidelined in contemporary understandings of Africa in which mainland nation-states take center stage in the crafting of historical narratives. Yet in the modern period, these small offshore spaces have often played important if inconsistent roles in facilitating intra- and intercontinental exchanges that have had lasting effects on the cultural, economic, and political landscape of Africa. In African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalism, contributors argue for the importance of Africa's islands in integrating the continent into wider networks of trade and migration that links it with Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Essays consider the cosmopolitan and culturally complex identities of Africa's islands, analyzing the process and extent to which trade, slavery, and migration bonded African elements with Asian, Arabic, and European characteristics over the years. While the continental and island nations have experienced similar cycles of invasion, boom, and bust, essayists note both similarities and striking differences in how these events precipitated economic changes in the different geographic areas. This book, a much-needed broadly comparative study of the African islands, will be an important resource for students and scholars of the region and of topics such as colonialism, economic history, and cultural hybridity.
Trade ReviewAfrican Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization will become a cornerstone reference in African studies, African diaspora studies, and broader fields that engage the diverse array of issues tightly and coherently represented in the essays. The text is comprehensive and rich; the writing fluid, eloquent, and fast paced; the analysis deeply insightful and satisfying; the expertise of the authors unimpeachable and solid; and the contribution to scholarship undeniably profound and seminal. -- Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Babcock University, Nigeria * . *
[T]he volume will inspire critical conversations about African islands and their unique roles in later African and global histories. African Islands deserves a place in the libraries of historians, geographers, anthropologists, and those interested in African area studies. * African Studies Quarterly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Toyin Falola and R. Joseph Parrott and Danielle Porter Sanchez PART 1. ATLANTIC OCEAN ISLANDS The Canaries to Africa: The Atlantic Strategy of "To Be or Not To Be" - Germán Santana Pérez Sugar, Cocoa, and Oil: Economic Success and Failure in São Tomé and Príncipe from the 16th to the 21st Century - Gerhard Seibert The Bijagos of Canhabac Island (Guinea-Bissau) - Joshua Bernard Forrest An Island in the Middle of Everywhere: Bioko under Colonial Domination - Enrique N. Okenve Cursing in Bioko and Annobón: Repeating Islands that Don't Repeat - Michael Ugarte African Ports and Islands during the Second World War - Ashley Jackson "Nos lingua, nos kultura, nos identidadi": Postcolonial Language Planning and Promotion in Cabo Verde and the Cape Verdean Diaspora - Carla D. Martin PART 2. INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS Africa's Indian Ocean Islands, Near and Distant - Edward A. Alpers Monsoon Metropolis: Migration, Mobility, and Mediation in the Western Indian Ocean - William Bissell The Mascarenes, Indian Ocean Africa, and Global Labor Migration during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - Richard B. Allen The Island as Nexus: Zanzibar in the Nineteenth Century - Jeremy Prestholdt Slavery and Post-Slavery in Madagascar: An Overview - Denis Regnier and Dominique Somda The Comoros: Strategies of Islandness in the Indian Ocean - Iain Walker Gendered Pioneers from Mayotte: An Ethnographic Perspective on Travel and Transformation in the Western Indian Ocean - Michael Lambek Notes on Contributors
