Au vu des progrès de la cartographie numérique, il est simple, abordable et précis de tracer une carte et de la mettre à l'échelle. En l'absence de cartes modernes fiables de l'Afrique de l'Ouest subsaharienne précoloniale, des spécialistes ont compilé des illustrations sur papier du continent pour différentes régions, périodes et finalités. Il existe par conséquent une vaste collection de cartes fragmentées sur les plans thématique, spatial et temporel dans l'ensemble de l'historiographie de l'Afrique et de la diaspora africaine. Afin de remédier à ce problème crucial, cet article examine des centaines de cartes de sources primaires et secondaires de l'intérieur des terres du Golfe du Bénin afin d'examiner les incohérences de ces cartes historiques de l'Afrique précoloniale. Cette discussion théorique et méthodologique de la cartographie historique constitue la première étape de la défragmentation des cartes clés de source secondaireōet de l'amélioration de notre compréhension historique de la géographie interne de l'Afrique. La solution consiste en partie à retracer la carte politique de l'intérieur des terres du Golfe du Bénin ca. 1780.
AbstractGiven advances in digital cartography, mapmaking is straightforward, affordable, accurate and easy to scale. In the absence of reliable contemporary maps of precolonial sub-Saharan West Africa, scholars have been compiling paper-based illustrations of the continent for different regions, periods and purposes. In consequence, there is a large collection of maps thematically, spatially and temporally fragmented throughout the historiography of Africa and the African Diaspora. As a means of addressing this crucial problem, this article surveys hundreds of primary and secondary source maps related to the Bight of Benin hinterland in order to examine the inconsistencies of historical maps of pre-colonial Africa. This theoretical and methodological discussion about historical mapmaking is the first step to defragmenting key secondary source maps and improving upon our historical understanding about Africa's internal geography. Part of the solution is a remake of the political map of the Bight of Benin hinterland in c. 1780.
A portrait of Washington ("Wash") Edwards, ca. 1889. On the reverse side is the following: "Was born in Africa & belong[?] to the state. Was one of the captives sold or traded to old Mr. Monroe Edwards & was brought to Texas before the Mexican War several years & was at the battle of San Jacinto & at that time bels to Col. Hill. He left a wife & children in Africa. Still speaks his native language when he meets one who can talk with him of whom one or two remain out of the many that were landed here at Time Uncle Wash came-Wash says they his companions that still live were little boys when they were brought to Texas-A native African brought to this co. by Monroe Edward in the early Thirties-and landed on the Bernard River a few miles West of Columbia." Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Abstract:In recent years, an increasing number of online archival databases of primary sources related to the history of the African diaspora and slavery have become freely and readily accessible for scholarly and public consumption. This proliferation of digital projects and databases presents a number of challenges related to aggregating data geographically according to the movement of people in and out of Africa across time and space. As a requirement to linking data of open-source digital projects, it has become necessary to delimit the entire continent of precolonial Africa during the era of the slave trade into broad regions and sub-regions that can allow the grouping of data effectively and meaningfully.
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