The world and a very small place in Africa : a history of globalization in Niumi, the Gambia / Donald R. Wright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Donald R.

Series:

Sources and studies in world history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Niumi (Kingdom)--Relations.

Niumi (Kingdom).

Physical Description:

xv, 351 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 2004.

Summary:

Focusing on Niumi, a small settlement at the mouth of the Gambia River in West Africa, Donald Wright provides a fascinating insight into the effects of globalization on a small African country, and places these events into deep historical context. Combining his own personal experiences with on-site historical research, Wright shows how rapidly changes are taking place even on a distant edge of the world economy. This new revised edition places greater emphasis on Niumi's relations with world systems and the steady change its residents have experienced as part of this process. Written in clear, accessible prose, and drawing on archival and oral traditions, "The World and a Very Small Place in Africa connects world history with real people on a local level.

Contents:

Part I. Background, Before A.D. 1446 11

1. The Global Setting for Niumi's History, Before A.D. 1446 14

Globalization and World Systems 15

The World System of the Old World Before A.D. 1446 23

Western Europe in a Restructuring World System 26

West Africa in a Restructuring World System 32

2. Niumi in a Restructuring World System, Before A.D. 1446 40

The Physical Setting 40

The Cultural Setting 46

Niumi's Early Residents, Their Commercial Milieu, and the Niumi State 55

Part II. The Precolonial Period, 1446-1816 63

3. Niumi Between Two Systems: Waxing Atlantic Trade, Continuing Sudanic Trade, 1446-1600 64

Western Europe and the Rise of the Plantation Complex 65

Early Atlantic Trade and Political Change in Niumi 70

Trade Diasporas and New Identities 77

New Ways of Life 84

4. Niumi at the Height of the Atlantic Complex, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 88

Niumi's Expanding World 90

The Niumi Polity 99

A Wider Material and Intellectual World 110

The Changing Nature of Dependence 120

Part III. The Colonial Period, 1816-1965 123

5. A Time of Transition in Niumi, 1816-1897 125

Revolutionary Change in the West 127

Islam's Militant Strain 131

Weakening of the Niumi State 133

New Systems of Production and Exchange: The Peanut Revolution 139

The Soninke-Marabout Wars 143

Formal British Takeover 148

A Deepening Dependence 150

6. Niumi as Part of the Gambia Colony and Protectorate, 1897-1965 157

The Unsettled Twentieth-Century World 161

Establishment of Colonial Rule 165

The World of Peanuts 173

Development 181

A Quiet Broadening and Deepening of Islam 185

Niumi in a World at War 190

Postwar Malaise 200

Toward Independence 202

Part IV. The Postcolonial Period: Independence or In Dependence? 1965-2003 207

7. Independent Niumi in the First Republic of The Gambia, 1965-1994 210

Global Realities of the Mid-Twentieth Century 212

New Rulers, Old Rules 216

A Chance Encounter with World History and a Boost for Tourism: Alex Haley and Roots 224

Modernization? 229

8. Niumi in the Recent Wave of Globalization: The Second Republic, 1994-2003 234

Globalization's Newest Wave 237

From Soldiers to Statesmen 240

Is Globalization Good for the Poor? Niumi as Case Study 244

Life in Niumi, 2003: Fatou Faye 268.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-333) and index.

ISBN:

0765610078

OCLC:

52839008