عنوان

Social and political relations on the Niger bend in the seventeenth century

Number

TLets504274

Title Proper

Social and political relations on the Niger bend in the seventeenth century

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Hodgkin, Elizabeth

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

The University of Birmingham

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1987

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

The University of Birmingham

Text preceding or following the note

1987

Text of Note

This thesis is a study of social and political relationson the Niger Bend in the century after the Moroccan conquestof the Songhay Empire in 1591. The first sectiondiscusses the primary and some of the secondary sourcesused in the study. Part 1, deals with the ecology of theNiger Bend and the background to the conquest. ChapterOne examines the boundaries of desert, river, sahel andsavanna and the physical limitations climate and geographyplaced on transport of goods, men and information.Chapter Two considers the ecology of the region: first ingeneral, as it affected the life of the various ethnic andoccupational groups, where the question of identity orfluidity of the ethnic group becomes a theme; then ingreater detail as each of the main regions of the area isexamined as a historical and geographical entity. TheThird Chapter looks at the Songhay and Moroccan backgroundto the conquest with an emphasis on the military organizationof both sides.In Part II, I consider the formal history and structureof the pashalik from the conquest in 1591 to around 1700.Chapter Four is primarily on the events of the firstdecade, the fall of the Songhay state, the limits placedon the development of the pashalik by the early campaignsand the factors which made it possible to remain inexistence. Chapter Five examines the administrativestructure of the state in the context of the boundariesalready drawn for the pashalik by limitations on manpowerand the process by which Moroccans, Moriscos and Renegadesbecame Arms; inasmuch as the purpose of the pashalik wasto tap the wealth of the Sudan, taxation and booty are considered as alternative sources of wealth or mainspringsof political action. Chapter Six carries the history ofthe pashalik in relation to its immediate neighbours up tothe the period of Tuareg incursions at the end of thecentury; the history of the pashalik auggests that, thougha military state, war was not generally fought for economicbenefit. Chapter Seven examines the question of statestructure in specific relation to the tibshýit, i. e. thepowers and methods of choosing a pasha, the problem facedby the pashalik in the Sudanese context of the need tolegitimize its power, the attempts over the period to setup new forms of power structure and the factors behindtheir failure.Part III examines new economic and social trends overthe period. In Chapter Eight which deals with the Trans-Saharan trade the old concepts of what happened to tradein the seventeenth century is reexamined; in particular anew periodization is suggestedy specifically, a crisis andshift of trade routes away from the Niger Bend in themiddle of the century, followed by a revival after around1660. In Chapter Nine, this periodization is related tocycles of drought and climatic change over the period, therise of new nomad confederations, their increasing encroachmentan the sedentary areas of the Niger Bend and,the beginnings of the organization of a 'pillage mode ofproduction', an economy based on systematised plunder, anthe Niger Bend. The last chapter deals with the of theArma as an ethnic group becoming more directly involved inland and trade and examines the phenomenon of banditry. Afinal section considers more generally the interrelationshipbetween Arma and Songhay.

Hodgkin, Elizabeth

The University of Birmingham

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y