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African perceptions of Europeans in the early period of Portuguese expeditions to West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2015

Michal Tymowski
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Abstract

The aim to this article is to analyse the judgments and opinions of Africans about Europeans during the early Portuguese expeditions to West Africa in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. While opinions of Europeans about Africans are for that period certified by numerous and varied sources, the opinions of Africans are difficult to examine. Cultures of the West African coast in the fifteen and early sixteen century were illiterate. Local oral traditions do not go back – within the scope of this field of interest – to such distant centuries. There are two types of sources: Firstly, African statements written down in European texts, which require a particularly critical approach; secondly, some Africans expressed their opinions about Europeans in works of Art. These include the statues of Europeans from the area of present-day Sierra Leone (the Sapi people), and from the state of Benin (the Edo people). In this article the author examines: 1) the circumstances in which the Africans expressed their opinions (ad hoc meetings, political negotiations, trade, court ceremonies); 2) the authors (individuals or social and ethnic groups), which were attributed the judgments; 3) the content of speeches; and 4) the motives which guided the Africans. Then author compares individual cases, analyses the common characteristics and the distinct features of judgments and opinions known to us, and discusses the possibility of identification of general traits of Africans’ opinions about Europeans.

Keywords

West AfricaAfricansEuropeansfifteenth centurycultural contactopinions
Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 39 , Issue 2: Africa In The Atlantic World , August 2015 , pp. 221 - 246
Copyright
© 2015, Research Institute for History, Leiden University 

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Footnotes

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Michal Tymowski, born in Warsaw in 1941, has studied history at the University of Warsaw and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris and is now a retired professor from the University of Warsaw. He led a field expedition to the Sahara (1974), participated in a study of oral tradition in Bamako (1976) and Niamey (1977), and was a member of the international Early State project (1978–2008). He was professor at the Université Paris IV-Sorbonne (1989–1993). He is a correspondent member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the author, among other titles, of L’Armée et la formation des Etats en Afrique Occidentale au XIXe s., Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warsaw 1987; The Origins and Structures of Political Organizations in Pre-Colonial Black Africa, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston 2009.

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