4th Edition

The World and a Very Small Place in Africa A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia

By Donald R. Wright Copyright 2018
    326 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    326 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The World and a Very Small Place in Africa is a fascinating look at how contacts with the wider world have affected how people have lived in Niumi, a small and little-known region at the mouth of West Africa’s Gambia River, for over a thousand years.

    Drawing on archives, oral traditions and published works, Donald R. Wright connects world history with real people on a local level through an exploration of how global events have affected life in Niumi. Thoroughly revised and updated throughout, this new edition rests on recent thinking in globalization theory, reflects the latest historiography and has been extended to the present day through discussion of the final years of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s regime, the role of global forces in the events of the 2016 presidential elections and the changes that resulted from these elections. The book is supported throughout by photographs, maps and Perspectives boxes that present detailed information on such topics as Alex Haley’s Roots (part set in Niumi), why Gambians take the risky "back way" to reach Europe, or "Wiri-Wiri," the Senegalese soap that has Gambians’ attention.

    Written in a clear and personal style and taking a critical yet sensitive approach, it remains an essential resource for students and scholars of African history, particularly those interested in the impact of globalization on the lives of real people.

    List of illustrations

    List of maps

    List of perspectives

    Preface to the fourth edition

    Introduction

    A very small place in Africa

    Globalization

    PART I

    Archaic globalization: before 1600 CE

    1 The global setting for Niumi’s history: early archaic globalization

    Western Europe’s strengthening connections

    Fourteenth-century setback

    The lure to expand

    Portuguese expansion into the Atlantic

    West Africa’s strengthening connections

    Islam’s movement into West Africa

    State-building in West Africa

    The Mali Empire

    Mali’s decline

    2 Niumi during early archaic globalization: before 1450 CE

    The physical setting

    The cultural setting

    Niumi’s early residents, their commercial milieu, and the Niumi state

    3 Niumi during late-archaic globalization, 1450–1600: waxing Atlantic trade, enduring Sudanic trade

    Western Europe and the rise of the Atlantic plantation complex

    Early Atlantic trade and political change in Niumi

    Trade diasporas and new identities

    Muslim traders

    Christian (and "New Christian") Portuguese and Luso-Africans

    New ways of life

    PART II

    Proto-globalization: 1600–1800

    4 Niumi during proto-globalization: the height of the Atlantic complex

    Niumi’s expanding world

    The ecological base

    The growth of mercantile capitalism and expanding Atlantic complex

    The long march of Islam

    The Niumi polity

    State structures

    Court officials

    State administration

    Dependent territories

    State revenues

    A wider world at home

    Niumi’s changing material world

    Niumi’s changing social and intellectual world

    Luso-Africans

    Muslims

    Soninke

    The changing nature of dependence

    PART III

    Modern globalization: 1800–1950s

    5 Niumi in a time of transition: 1816–1897

    Revolutionary change in the West

    Islam’s militant strain

    Weakening of the Niumi state

    New systems of production and exchange: the peanut revolution

    The Soninke-Marabout Wars

    Formal British takeover

    A deepening dependence

    6 Niumi as part of the Gambia Colony and Protectorate: 1897–1965

    The unsettled twentieth-century world

    Establishment of colonial rule

    The world of peanuts

    Development

    A quiet broadening and deepening of Islam

    Niumi in a world at war

    World War I

    World War II

    Postwar malaise

    Toward independence

    PART IV

    Post-colonial globalization, 1950s

    7 Independent Niumi in the First Republic of The Gambia: 1965–1994

    Mid-twentieth century global realities

    New rulers, old rules

    A chance encounter with world history and a boost for tourism: Roots

    Modernization?

    8 Niumi in the recent wave of globalization: the Second Republic, 1994–2017

    Globalization’s newest wave

    Soldier to statesman to tyrant

    Is globalization good for the world’s poor? Niumi as case study

    The economy

    Non-sustainable development

    Culture and society

    Women’s roles

    Freedom, dignity, and human rights

    Niumi in diaspora

    The presidential election of 2016

    Epilogue, 2017: #Gambia HAS Decided

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Donald R. Wright is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, Emeritus, at the State University of New York—Cortland. His other books include two on early African American history, and a two-volume collection of oral traditions from The Gambia, and (as co-author) The Atlantic World: A History (2007).