African historical studies
Date
1979
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
London: Frank Cass and Company Limited,
Abstract
African Exploration and Human Understanding; Dr Heinrich Barth as a Diplomatist and Philanthropist; Traditional Rulers and Missionaries in Pre-Colonial West Africa; The Coming of Western Education to Africa; A Visionary of the African Church: Mpjpla Agbebi (1860-1917); James Johnson: Pioneer Educationist in West Africa; James Africanus Beale Horton, 1835-83: Prophet of Modernization in West Africa; Edward Wilmot Blyden, 1832-1912: The Myth and the Man; An African Church: A Legitimate Branch of the Church Universal; Writing African Church History (with J. F. Ade Ajayi); Mission in the Context of Religions and Secularization: An African Viewpoint; African Studies and Nation-Building
Description
The twelve essays here brought together in one book are being accorded accessibility and permanence of a kind they have lacked as monographs or articles in journals. Written mostly in the last eight years in different circumstances, they are unified more in intent, in argument, and in perspective than in theme. Moreover, illustrations are heavily weighed in favour of English-speaking West Africa, in particular the areas that came under British colonial rule.
One of the aims behind most of these writings was to reveal some of the too many aspects of the African past yet to be explored or sufficiently developed. Another was to attempt new perspectives and interpretations of the more familiar aspects. Naturally, the themes are related to my particular areas of research interest in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The themes—exploration, Western-style education, the reaction of Africans to the activities of Christian missions, and the thought pattern and modernity aspirations of the educated elite—have the common denominator of Euro-African relations. Collectively, the themes are related historiographic concerns and methods and, as products of a single mind, bear the stamp of one style of thought.
Keywords
Africa - History