Paths in the Rainforests : Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa

Vansina’s scope is breathtaking: he reconstructs the history of the forest lands that cover all or part of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Congo, Zaire, the Central African Republic, and Cabinda in Angola, discussing the original settlement of the forest by the western Bantu; the periods of expansion and innovation in agriculture; the development of metallurgy; the rise and fall of political forms and of power; the coming of Atlantic trade and colonialism; and the conquest of the rainforests by colonial powers and the destruction of a way of life. “In 400 elegantly brilliant pages Vansina lays out five millennia of history for nearly 200 distinguishable regions of the forest of equatorial Africa around a new, subtly paradoxical interpretation of ‘tradition.’” —Joseph Miller, University of Virginia “Vansina gives extended coverage . . . to the broad features of culture and the major lines of historical development across the region between 3000 B.C. and A.D. 1000. It is truly an outstanding effort, readable, subtle, and integrative in its interpretations, and comprehensive in scope. . . . It is a seminal study . . . but it is also a substantive history that will long retain its usefulness.”—Christopher Ehret, __American Historical Review__ Voids and Blinders, Words and Things Preamble Words as History Historical Linguistics Words and Things Glottochronology Information and Evidence The Pivotal Role of Writing Tribes and Space Time The Question of Authorship Special Contents Reliability of Bodies of Evidence Research Design Chapter Two The Land and Its Settlement The Landscapes Physical Geography Mythical Jungles and True Rainforests Western Bantu Expansion Early Inhabitants Western Bantu Expansion Dynamics of the Expansion Farmers and Autochthons V vi Contents From Ancestral to Forest Tradition The Adoption of Metals The Arrival of the Banana New Neighbors Equatorial Africa by A.D. 1000 Chapter Three Tradition: Ancient and Common Reality and Reality Communities and Big Men The House The Village The District Making a Living Farming Finding Food Industries Exchange and Trade The Meaning of the World A Historical Watershed Chapter Four The Trail of the Leopard in the Inner Basin Inventing Lineages Dominant Houses Lineage and District Expansion and Counterinnovation Continued Expansion I Dividing the Sacred Emblems Nkumu Spread of the Nkumu Complex Chapter Five Between Ocean and Rivers The Northwest Early Developments The Sanaga-Ntem Expansion Bioko Contents The Southwest: The Growth of States Chiefdoms Emerged Principalities Appeared The Invention of Matrilinearity Kingdoms Arose North of the Kingdoms Original State Formations in the Lower Kasai Region Chapter Six The Eastern Uplands Uele and Ituri A Congress of Traditions Birth of a New Tradition From Big Man to King The Southeast: Associations and Brotherhoods A Rule of Wealth and Wisdom Ministates in the Mountains Brotherhoods in Northern Maniema Dynamics of Tradition Chapter Seven Challenge from the Atlantic The Atlantic Trading System in Equatorial Africa The Formative Phase: c. 1550-c. 1660 The Heyday of the Slave Trade: c. 1660-c. 1830 The Industrial Age: c. 1830-1880 The Economic Impact Trade Routes and Agricultural Innovation Complementary Regional Specialization The Atlantic Trade and Population Losses Equatorial Societies in the Days of the Atlantic Trade The Fate of the Kingdoms Firms and Towns in the Inner Basin The Northern Coasts Conclusion: Tradition Under Stress Chapter Eight Death of a Tradition Conquest and the Four Horsemen The New Rural Colonial Society viii Contents Chapter Nine On History and Tradition The Probable Past History, Habitat, Evolution Properties of Tradition Comparative Anthropology and Tradition Appendix Comparative Lexical Data Notes Works Cited Index Maps and Figures Maps 1.1 Equatorial Africa 1.2 General orientation 1.3 The quality of the evidence 1.4 Western Bantu languages of the rainforests 2.1 Orography 2.2 Rainfall 2.3 Seasons 2.4a The rainforests: a simple view 2.4b The rainforests: a complex reality 2.5 Vegetation 2.6 Older Stone Age sites 2.7 Western Bantu expansion in equatorial Africa 2.8 The major Bantu language groups in equatorial Africa 2.9 Neolithic sites 2.10 The early Iron Age 2.11 Banana plantain (AAB): *-kondo, -bugu 2.12 Major outside influences on the equatorial African tradition 4.1 The inner basin 4.2 Early expansion in the inner basin 4.3 Later expansion north of the equator 4.4 Nkumu expansion 5.1 Communal building, *-banja 5.2 The Sanaga-Ntem expansion: c. A.D. 1400-1600 5.3 Bioko 5.4 The spread of the term nkani meaning "chief 5.5 The southwestern quadrant before c. A.D. 1200 5.6 The three main kingdoms: Kongo, Loango, Tio 5.7 Southern Gabon 5.8 Northern Congo 5.9 Lands of the lower Kasai ix x Maps and Figures 6.1 The eastern uplands 6.2 The northeast and the Mangbetu kingdom 6.3 Associations in Maniema 6.4 Circumcision rituals in Maniema 7.1 The Atlantic trade before 1830 7.2 The Atlantic trade: 1830-1880 7.3 Economic specialization in the Atlantic trading area 7.4 Lemba and Nkobi 7 .5 The inner basin in the age of the slave trade 7.6 Western equatorial Africa: 1830-1880 8.1 Sudanese and Zanzibari trading area: 1869-1894 8.2 Equatorial Africa in 1910 Figures 2.1 The western Bantu family of languages 4.1 Scimitars Voies And Blinders, Words And Things -- The Land And Its Settlement -- Tradition : Ancient And Common -- The Trail Of The Leopard In The Inner Basin -- Between Ocean And Rivers -- The Eastern Uplands -- Challenge From The Atlantic -- Death Of A Tradition -- On History And Tradition -- Appendix. Comparative Lexical Data. Jan Vansina. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 375-409) And Index.