These maps show the paths of central eclipse for 164 total solar eclipses visible in Africa in the period A.D. 1000 to 2000. It is hoped that they may suggest periods and areas where records of eclipses might be found in oral tradition or other sources, and also that they, or their originals, will assist in at least the preliminary stages of identifying such a record with a particular eclipse. The originals have been drawn on a scale of 1: 10,000,000, and photographic copies of these and the master grid are available, on indestructible plastic, price £7. 10s. the set, from the Editors of the Journal of African History.

The importance of the Christian states of Nubia in medieval times has hitherto been under-estimated by historians of Africa. There is now sufficient information to show that they played a significant part in the history of the Nile valley for some 800 years. Not only did the existence of Christian states impose a barrier to the expansion of Islam, but the Dongola kingdom at least was at times an important force in the politics of the area.

The recent campaign of excavations made necessary by the building of the Aswan dam has provided much new information about the material culture of the period, and shows a much higher artistic and social development than earlier emphasis on ecclesiastical monuments had suggested. Nubia is now seen to have had a highly developed civilization with considerable urban development. Detailed study of the pottery has made possible more precise dating of buildings and objects, as well as showing periods of increased and decreased trade with Egypt.

The discovery of important frescoes in the cathedral at Faras makes it possible to study the artistic development, and also adds new material for a study of the eastern, particularly Persian, influences already suspected in Nubian art. Information about domestic life is made available by the excavations at Debeira West, the first predominantly domestic site to have been excavated, whose material remains provide new evidence on diet, crafts and agriculture.

The paper puts forward a new interpretation of aspects of the early history of the East African coast, and in particular maintains that the immigration of the ‘Shirazi’ took place some zoo years later than the date in the latter part of the tenth century which has hitherto been accepted.

After a brief summary of the Arabic sources bearing on the history of the coast, and of the received history of Kilwa before the beginning of the fourteenth century, the two versions of the Kilwa Chronicle are examined. The Arabic version is concluded to be more reliable than the Portuguese, though very little reliance should be placed on the regnal years of the sultans as given in either.

The archaeological evidence, based chiefly on recent excavations at Kilwa, is examined, with particular reference to the coins minted on the coast. Certain types of these coins are found to have been hitherto wrongly attributed, notably those of 'Ali bin al-Hasan, which are shown to be the earliest.

An outline of the history of the coast is presented, based on the combined historical and archaeological evidence. No satisfactorily attested relics of the period of trade with the Graeco-Roman world have yet been found. The earliest settlements discovered date from the eighth to ninth century A.O., most or all of which were probably pagan, but already trading with the Muslim world. By about i ioo there were several Muslim towns on the coast. This period is related to the Debuli of the traditions.

The arrival of the ‘Shirazi’ is related to the appearance of coins of 'Au bin al-Hasan, who is identified with the first ruler of the ‘Shirazi’ dynasty at Kilwa (about A.0. I 200); Mafia was of equal importance at this time. A marked cultural break in the latter part of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century is thought to be related to a change in dynasty at Kilwa, a fresh settlement of immigrants, and the gaining of control of Sofala and the gold trade.

It is suggested that the Shirazi settlement consisted not of a migration of people from the Persian Gulf direct to Kilwa and other places, but rather a movement of settlers from the Banadir coast.

Dans une étude publiée en 1939 et traitant d'une oasis appelée S. b.rū par le géogrphe arabe al-Bakrī (1067–8) et D.b.r par l'auteur anonyme du Kitāb al-Istibsār fī 'agā’ib al-amsār (1191), oasis dont le centre porte le nom de Ŝ.b.rū dans le traité géographique d'al-Idrīsī (1154), nous avons essayé d'identifier ce lieu avec le groupe d'oasis de Koufra de nos cartes. Selon toute vraisemblance, Koufra était, dans le haut Moyen Age, une étape sur la grande voie saharienne, dont parlent certains géographes arabes médiévaux, à partir d'Ibn al-Fakīh al-Hamadānī (902–3), et qui reliait le pays de Gāna, dans le Soudan occidental, fameux par ses mines d'or, à l'Egypte. Cette voie, qui nous montre que les Egyptiens s'intéressaient depuis longtemps au commerce de l'Afrique occidentale, partait probablement de Koumbi Saleh actuel, ruines situées en Mauritanie du Sud et identifiées par la plupart des savants avec la capitale du royaume de Gāna. Elle passait, ensuite, conformément à un passage de l'ouvrage d'al-Fakīh al-Hamadānī, par les territoires de trois peuples noirs: Kūkū (aussi: Kawkaw), M.r.nda et M.rāwa, et aboutissait au Wabat Mir (« Les Oasis de l'Egypte »), c'est-à-dire a 1'Oasis de Dakhla et de Kharga. De ces trois « peuples » noirs, le premier, à savoir: Kūkū (Kawkaw), n'est pas inconnu aux autres géographes arabes médiévaux qui mentionnent un royaume et une yule de ce nom. Il s'agit du royaume négre, jadis puissant, de Songhaï et de sa capitale Gao située sur la boucle du Niger. A en croire al-Ya'kūbī, géographe et historien arabe, écrivant dans la deuxième moitié du IXe siècle (ii mourut en 897 de notre ère), c'était un important état soudanais dont la puissance égalait, a cette époque, celle du royaume de Gāna.

Between 1580 and 1640 the union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns strengthened the commercial partnership which previously existed with respect to the supply of Guinea slaves to the Spanish Indies. The conduct of the slave trade on the Upper Guinea Coast involved the active participation of the African chiefs, as well as the services of a considerable number of resident Portuguese traders, known as lançados. Before 1640, while Iberian unity prevailed, the main source of discord in the area lay in the fact that the Spanish slave ships, with the help of the lançados and the chiefs, were able to disregard the regulation that all ships loading slaves on the Upper Guinea Coast should pay duties at Santiago (Cape Verde islands), which the Portuguese used as the hub of their administration. After 1640 the restored Portuguese monarch attempted to exclude Spain from the commerce of the Upper Guinea Coast, and in the process, alienated the lançados and the African chiefs.

As late as 1960, in the hinterland of Gisaka (Rwanda), community life was strangely reminiscent of what we know of life in the early continental European manor. The Rwandese manor was largely self-sufficient. The relationships of the peasant to lord of the manor were of a privi legis nature. Competition for chiefly (or lordly) favours was keen. The necessity to court the chief had caused courtship to be institutionalized. The successful courtesans, usually of the nobility, attended the chief directly and were often part of the administrative staff of the manor.

The practice of commendation was usual; homage was paid with the identical gesture as in Europe, and the functional equivalent of the don annuel appeared in the form of an institution called kubaka inkike (‘to repair the enclosure’).

This article re-evaluates the jihād of Usuman dan Fodio. It first traces the history of the age-old Sudanic pattern of royal tolerance, and sometimes encouragement, of learned Muslims without the implementation of their demands for reform. Then it shows that Usuman and the sarki of Gobir at first interacted according to this pattern. But, finding this relationship unsatisfactory and unlikely to produce the reforms he desired, Usuman sought to remain on cordial terms with the court but intensified his appeal to the people of Hausaland and possibly his criticisms of the existing political and social orders. He attracted followers, not so much because they sympathized with his religious goals, as because in his person and in his criticisms their own discontent with Hausa government and society could find expression. Usuman's eventual conflict with the sarkuna did not arise because he actively sought or plotted it; it arose because the sarkuna felt compelled to abandon their hitherto concessive relations with Usuman in order to attempt to contain his appeal, to undermine his authority, and finally to threaten the existence of his community. An analysis of the conduct of the jihzād bears out an emphasis on Usuman's preference for peaceful pressure, on his lack of planning for a war, and on his many-sided relationship with his followers. The necessity of justifying a war he had not sought, together with the largely secular interests of his followers, gave a tone to the jihād not totally in keeping with its avowed aims. However, because Usuman's leadership was essential, he managed to overcome the many factors which militated against its unity.

During the first years of British rule at the Cape, a complacency, reinforced by a disregard for colonial conditions and by a disdain for day-to-day supervision, relegated land administration to a marginal function of the Cape Town and London governments. The first major change in the land code was made in 1812 by Governor Cradock, who wanted to obtain the loyalty of the Boer in order to ensure continued British overlordship of the colony, but from 1813 to 1828 and beyond, Government failed to develop an effective administrative system for processing the applications for land grants under the Cradock code. No check was made on the incompetent officials in Cape Town who were entrusted with transforming the decrees of government into a workable land alienation system. On occasion, London, which had but a fleeting interest in land policy in the period under review, imposed new restrictions on the administrative process in order to obtain some other goal. The persistent lack of constructive activity by the British suggests that they did much to prevent the Boer from identifying himself with the Cape Town government.

This article examines the various ways by which Edward Wilmot Blyden, the most outstanding Negro intellectual of the nineteenth century, worked for the creation of a West African community, and thereby demonstrates that the idea of a united West Africa is not of twentieth-century origin, as has generally been supposed.

The article discusses the contacts between the proto-nationalist Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society and left-wing and Communist organizations in Europe and in Britain during the 1930s. The Society represented the interests of chiefs, merchants and barristers who found their political and economic positions threatened by the depression and by the tightening up of colonial rule. The Society reacted by petitioning the British Government for greater political representation and for redress of specific grievances. Left-wing groups in Europe at first regarded the Society as a popular nationalist body and offered it support. The Profintern attempted to influence it, while organizations such as the League Against Imperialism helped the Society in its petitions to the Colonial Office and to the House of Commons. But the narrow social base of the Society made it deaf to a radical socialist programme, and incapable of organizing a mass movement which could effectively pressure the British Government.