Redrawing historical maps of the Bight of Benin Hinterland, c. 1780

Abstract

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.

Mapping the uncertainty of 19th century West African slave origins using a Markov decision process model

“…This map has been informed by both available historical records from the time (CITATION MISSING) and geographic ease of transit between cities. This representation adds a layer of detail and geopolitical information on top of those published in prior works, such as (Lovejoy, 2013).…”

“…The app can also display the yearly conflict data as discrete points, a heatmap of the estimated intensity surface, or a contour plot. Furthermore, the annual approximate state borders Lovejoy (2013) and trade network informing the MDP can be overlayed.…”

“…In addition to ship logs, a handful anecdotal accounts of individual slave movements from the collapse of the Oyo empire have been reconstructed from written and oral records (Kelley and Lovejoy, 2016;Kelley, 2016) (maybe cite slavebiographies.org). Recent work has emphasized integrating the collapse of the Oyo empire into the digital humanities, including the creation of detailed maps on the shifting borders of the collapsing empire (Lovejoy, 2013).…”

Historical Geographic Information Systems and Social Science History

“…The monumental Transatlantic Slave Trade Database began as, and continues to be, largely a locational effort to map the basic geography of the trade (Eltis andRichardson 1997, 2010). Locating slaves' origins in Africa remains a daunting scholarly task three decades after the project began (Lovejoy 2013). 8. See, e.g., Dear et al 2011.…”