British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

BROKERS OF CHANGE
Atlantic Commerce and Cultures in Precolonial 'Guinea of Cape Verde'

11-13 June 2009

Convenors: Tobias Green and Jose Lingna Nafafe, University of Birmingham

Venue details: Danford Museum, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT

Booking information: Please email T.O.Green@bham.ac.uk for registration packs

PROGRAMME

This conference brings together the leading global authorities on the 'Rivers of Guinea' in order to produce the first full conference programme on the pre-colonial history of this region. Such a project is sorely needed. Over the past decade or so various scholars (Walter Hawthorne, Peter Mark, José Nafafé, Philip Havik) have published well-researched books breaking new ground in this subject area, but as yet no overall synthesis of the pre-colonial history of this region exists. It is the aim of this conference to redress this lack and to produce from it a series of papers which can be published to provide such a synthesis.

The need for such a programme may be emphasised by a brief excursus into the region’s history. This was one of the first locales in which strategies of brokerage and exchange were employed by both Africans and Europeans in the construction of Atlantic trading systems. Here, Europeans settled for the first time in Africa, adopting African customs and sharing their own customs with African peoples. This region was, moreover, the centre of the trans-Atlantic slave trade for the first century of that trade’s operation; given the recent bicentenary of the abolition of the trade, this makes the conference also especially timely and noteworthy.

The conference will be staged at the renowned Centre of West African Studies (CWAS) at the University of Birmingham – the only university department in Europe to concentrate on West Africa. The conference is organised by two scholars specializing in the field, Dr Tobias Green (CWAS) and Dr José Nafafé from the department of sociology It will be attended by leading scholars based in Cape Verde, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Senegal, the UK, and the US. Panels will be structured around the following themes:

1. Creolization or Africanization? Here we examine how far the European settlers in the region helped form a Creole culture and how far they themselves “Africanised”. We also want to ask whether studying these communities can help in the wider study of interactions in the early modern Atlantic world, and help to construct theoretical paradigms of brokerage.
2. Slavery in the Rivers of Guinea. What was the effect of the slave trade in the region? Did it merely tap an existing market or create its own impetus for supply? What are the lasting legacies of the trade?
3. The Rivers of Guinea and the Atlantic World. Historians have traditionally downplayed the role of the rivers of Guinea in the Atlantic world. We want to interrogate this and ask if a new vision of the region in an Atlantic context is required, related both to the coast and to the islands of Cabo Verde.
4. Gender and Power. Women in the region have traditionally played important leadership roles. We seek to interrogate the reasons for this within the cultural paradigms of the Rivers region. Are there theoretical implications for wider feminist theory which can be derived from this analysis?
5. Hegemony and Brokerage. Study of the rivers’ region confirms African agency in the African world. How should we use this picture to reshape the wider discourse on hegemonies in the Atlantic world? How did the hegemonic picture change in the precolonial era, paving the way for colonial subjugation?
6. Culture and Religion. The region is notable for its pluralism. What was the impact of the fusion of cultures and religions on the subsequent history of the Rivers region? Are there any legacies of this hybridity today in the "Guinea of Cape Verde"?

There will also be some comparative papers touching on other areas of the Guinea coast including the Gold coast.

The conference will be held at the University of Birmingham on June 11th-13th 2009. The Call for Papers has now closed for the conference, but interested parties are welcome to register for the conference and attend as observers. As space is limited, they are advised to apply in the first instance to Dr Tobias Green of the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, T.O.Green@bham.ac.uk