CONCLUSION

This dissertation has explored two parallel narratives of Colonialism and trans-Saharan trade within the rich and diverse history of West Africa, spanning from pre-colonial times to the present day. Through examining various case studies, including the Great Mosque of Djenne, the Larabanga Mosque, and Elmina Castle, the dissertation has revealed the profound impact of religion, architecture, and Colonialism on West African societies and the intricacies intertwined within them. One of the key findings of this study is that religion played a crucial role in shaping West African societies, providing a framework for cultural expression, social organisation, and political power. The Kingdom of Mali, for instance, was an Islamic state that used religion to legitimise its rule and foster trade and commerce across the Sahara. Similarly, the Great Mosque of Djenne and the Larabanga Mosque are examples of Islam’s influence on West African architecture, showcasing the Sudano-Sahelian style that emerged from the fusion of Arab and African construction techniques.

The dissertation somewhat covered Colonialism and the trans-Saharan trade’s positive and negative impacts on West African societies. There was not a conclusive/ definitive answer to the question posed at the start of this dissertation, which was ‘With the trans-Saharan trade bringing Islam to West Africa and Colonialism bringing Christianity, which narrative is more responsible for current socioeconomic infrastructure, the effects on written/ spoken language and societal rules, and the religious architecture of west Africa?’ On a superficial level, it seems like had more of a negative impact as the people of West Africa and their diaspora are still experiencing its negative effects. However, some historians argue that western Colonialism of West Africa would not have been possible without the existence of the trans-Saharan trade. The trans-Saharan trade was also responsible for the enslavement of West Africans, which lasted longer than the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The positives consist of the education systems, both the Western and Islamic, and how they both broaden specific horizons. However, the study also revealed another negative impact of Colonialism on West African societies, including the transatlantic slave trade and the exploitation of resources and people for European interests. Elmina Castle, for example, was a trading post that played a crucial role in the slave trade, leaving a lasting legacy of trauma and inequality. The study also highlighted discrepancies in the historiography surrounding Colonialism and the trans-Saharan trade, revealing the divergent views of scholars on the impact of these phenomena on West African history. Within these discrepancies, we can see a clear division between the written and beliefs of the historians. The clearest, perhaps, is the separation between the Western historians and the pan-Africans. The primary and only consensus within Western historians’ discussions is about economic value, Whether the slave trade improved or destroyed the West African economy and whether the economic success of the trans-Saharan trade got Western countries interested in colonising countries in West Africa. The pan-Africanists also discuss the economy but focus more on the effects Colonialism had on the colonised population, psychological effects and how these people are fighting back. Of course, all the historians discuss different subject matters regarding Colonialism, which are all important in their way. However, overall, there is something more humane about writing about how these tragic happenings affect people, and that is something that needs to happen more .

All the research put into this dissertation showed how layered and multi-faceted the topic is and how and why the answer could be both and neither all at the same time.

References:

“ Slavery in Islamic History.” The Institute of Ismaili Studies accessed March 29 2023. https://www.iis.ac.uk/islamic-history-and-heritage/slavery-islamic-history.

Achebe C. (1958) Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann.

Adegbija E. (2001) Saving Threatened Languages in Africa: A Case Study of Oko. In J. A. Fishman (Ed.) Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? (pp. 284-308). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Adegbija E. (2004). Multilingualism: A Nigerian case study. Multilingual Matters. Adejunmobi M. (2017). East West North South: Mapping African literatures. Routledge.

Adeyemi A. (2010). Slavery trade and the economy of Lagos 1750-1900. Africa World Press.

Adi H. & Sherwood M. (2003). Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the diaspora since 1787. Routledge.

Adogame A. (2013) The African Christian Diaspora: New Currents and Emerging Trends in World Christianity Bloomsbury Publishing.

Afigbo A. E. (2002) Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture. Ibadan: University Press PLC.

Ajayi J. F. A. & Espie I. (Eds.). (2001). A Thousand Years of West African History: A Handbook for Teachers and Students. Longman.

Akinwumi O. (1994). Language and colonialism: The case of Yoruba. African Affairs 93(373) 49-66.

Akyeampong E. (2005). Themes in West Africa’s history. James Currey Publishers.

Alpers Edward A. “Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” African Economic History no. 34 (2006): 1-11.

Anderson A. (2001) African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century Africa World Press.

Anderson A. (2001). African reformation: African initiated Christianity in the 20th century. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press.

Apotsos M. (2016) Architecture Islam and identity in West Africa: Lessons from Larabanga. New York: Routledge.

Apotsos M. (2016). The architecture of Islam in West Africa: The politics of (re) imagining and (re) building cultural heritage. Journal of Architecture 21(5) 790-817. doi: 10.1080/13602365.2016.1221602

Appiah K. A. & Gates Jr H. L. (1999). Africana: The encyclopedia of the African and African American experience. Basic Civitas Books.

Arhin K. (1985). Christianity and culture in the Gold Coast. Ghana Universities Press.

Babawale T. (1999). Nigeria since independence: The first twenty-five years. Africa World Press.

Bediako K. (1995) Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion Orbis Books.

Bernal M. (2014). Black Athena: The Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization. Rutgers University Press.

Bhabha H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.

Blier S. (2003). African material culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Blier S. (2003). The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. African Arts 36(4) 96-109.

Blight David W. “The Meaning of the Civil War.” Yale University Press 2003.

Boahen A. A. (1966). African perspectives on colonialism. The Journal of Modern African Studies 4(3) 293-315.

Bourgeois J. (1987). Djenné: Djeno the city of art. New York: H.N. Abrams.

Bourgeois J. (1987). The Great Mosque of Djenné. African Arts 20(2) 68-75.

Briggs L. (2014). The cultural significance of the Larabanga mosque in Ghana. African Arts 47(4) 432-439.

Briggs R. (2014). The Architecture of Culture: The Larabanga Mosque and Cultural Heritage in Northern Ghana. The Journal of Architecture 19(3) 433-457.

Bromley P. & Meyer J. W. (2015). Historical trajectories institutional change and develop - ment trajectories. World Development 67 180-193.

Busia K. A. (1951) The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti. London: Oxford University Press.

Busia K. A. (1951). The position of the Chief in the modern political system of Ashanti. Oxford University Press.

Clarke P. B. (1997) West Africa and Islam: A Study of Religious Development from the 8th to the 20th Century Edward Arnold.

Coquery-Vidrovitch C. (1991). The Process of Urbanization in Africa (From the Origins to the Beginning of Independence). African Studies Review 48(3) 1-16.

Coquery-Vidrovitch C. (2005). The Process of Urbanization in Africa (From the Origins to the Beginning of Independence). African Studies Review 48(3) 1-16.

Dantzig A. V. (1992) Effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Some West African Societies. The Journal of African History 33(1) 1-23.

Davidson B. (1991). Forts and Castles of West Africa. The Journal of African History 32(2) 303-324.

Davidson B. (1991). The African slave trade. Boston: Little Brown and Company.

Davidson B. (1994) Africa in History: Themes and Outlines Phoenix Press.

Davis D. B. (1966). The problem of slavery in Western culture. Cornell University Press.

DeCorse C. R. (2001). An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast 1400-1900. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Diop C. A. (1991). The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. Chicago Review Press.

Dorayi M. S. & Jibir A. M. (2013). The co-existence of Western and Islamic education systems in Kano State: A survey. International Journal of Research in Arts and Social Sciences

6(1) 160-175.

Etherington N. (2001). Missions and Empire. Oxford University Press.

Eze E. C. (1997). Race and the Enlightenment: A Reader. Wiley-Blackwell.

Fage J. D. (1969). Slavery and the slave trade in the context of West African history. The Journal of African History 10(3) 393-404.

Fage J. D. (n.d.) A History of West Africa: An Introductory Survey Cambridge University Press.

Falola T. (1999). The impact of colonialism on Africa. In A. Adu Boahen (Ed.) General History of Africa (Vol. VIII pp. 343-394). UNESCO.

Falola T. & Childs M. (Eds.). (2016). The changing worlds of Atlantic Africa: Essays in honor of Robin Law. Routledge.

Falola T. & Childs M. D. (2016) The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Fanon F. (1963) The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.

Friedman J. (1994). Cultural Identity and Global Process. Sage Publications.

Gardi R. (1973). Indigenous African architecture. New York: F.A. Praeger.

Gbadegesin S. (1991). Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Consideration. African Studies Review 34(2) 51-75.

Gbadegesin S. (2014) Islamic Architecture in Nigeria. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Gbadegesin S. A. (2014). The Islamic architectural heritage of Nigeria: A case study of the Idi-Iroko mosque Abeokuta Ogun State. Journal of Tourism and Heritage Studies 3(2) 1-14. 70. Getz T. R. (2016). Abina and the important men: A graphic history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gifford P. (2014) Christianity Politics and Public Life in Kenya Columbia University Press.

Gilbert E. (2017). Africa in World History. Pearson.

Gupta S. & Singh S. (2019). The Great Mosque of Djenne Mali: An architectural wonder of West Africa. Journal of Cultural Heritage

Gwyn David. “The Maroons of Jamaica.” The Press and Journal August 11 2020.

Gwyn David. “The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish America.” In The Routledge History of Slavery edited by Gad Heuman and Trevor Burnard 87-100. Routledge 2018.

Harvey D. (2003). The New Imperialism. Oxford University Press.

Hiriyappa B. (2019). Research methodology. Independently Published.

Hopkins A. G. (1973). An economic history of West Africa. Columbia University Press.

Huntington S. P. (1991). The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press.

Hunwick J. O. (1999). The Great Mosque of Djenné: Its social and historical context. Cambridge University Press.

Hunwick J. O. (2003). Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi’s Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other Contemporary Documents. Brill.

Inglehart R. (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton University Press.

Insoll T. (2003). The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge University Press.

Jumare I. M. & Oseni Y. A. (2018). The Influence of Arabic on Hausa Language: A Study of Loanwords. Journal of the Arabic Language Special Issue 5(1) 24-35.

Jumare I. & Oseni A. (2018) Arabic Loanwords in Hausa: Linguistic Contact and Cultural Exchange. Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 10(1) 1-29.

Kalu O. U. (2005) African Christianity: An African Story Africa World Press.

Kalu O. U. (2005). African Christianity: An African story. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press. Kea R. A. (2004). Settlements Trade and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast. The Journal of African History 45(2) 288-310.

Kirk-Greene A. H. M. (2014). The British in West Africa. Springer.

Levtzion N. & Hopkins J. F. P. (2000). Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Markus Wiener Publishers.

Levtzion Nehemia; Hopkins John F.P. eds. (2000) [1981] Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa New York NY: Marcus Weiner Press ISBN 1-55876-241-8. Pages 62–87 contain an extract from “The Book of Routes and Realms” describing West Africa

Lovejoy P. E. (1982). The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature. The Journal of African History 23(4) 463-472.

Lydon G. (2009). On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law Trade Networks and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa. Cambridge University Press.

Mamdani M. (1996). Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton University Press.

Mamdani M. (1996). Citizen and subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. Princeton University Press.

Manning P. (1995). Slavery and African life: Occidental Oriental and African slave trades. Cambridge University Press.

McIntosh R. J. (1998). The peoples of the Middle Niger. Oxford University Press.

Meyer J. W. Boli J. Thomas G. M. & Ramirez F. O. (1997). Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Institutions and Social Change. In The New Institutionalism in Sociology ed. M. Brinton & V. Nee 20-44. Russell Sage Foundation.

Meyer J. W. Boli J. Thomas G. M. & Ramirez F. O. (1997). World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology 103(1) 144-181.

Meyer J. W. Ramirez F. O. Frank D. J. & Schofer E. (2007). Higher Education as an Institution. In The Handbook of the Sociology of Education ed. M. T. Hallinan 99-114. Springer.

Mintz S. W. (1985). African slavery and African socioeconomic systems. In I. Karp & C. S. Bird (Eds.) Explorations in African systems of thought (pp. 155-169). Indiana University Press.

Morgan W. R. & Armer J. M. (1982). Islamic and Western Educational Accommodation in a West African Society: A Cohort Comparison Analysis. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 13(2) 103-120.

Morgan W. R. & Armer J. M. (1991) Islamic and Western Educational Accommodation in a West African Society: A Cohort Comparison Analysis. Sociological Forum 6(1) 33-58.

Moughtin J. C. (1992). Hausa Architecture. Habitat International 16(4) 61-75.

Nkrumah K. (1963). Africa Must Unite. Panaf.

Nkrumah K. (1964) Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development. London: Heinemann.

Nkrumah K. (1965). Neo-colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism. Thomas Nelson & Sons. Nzongola-Ntalaja G. (2002). The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A people’s history. Zed

Books.

Ogbazi I. (2019). Christianity colonialism and Nigerian architecture: The impact of missionary churches on the built environment in southeast Nigeria. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 78(3) 307-322.

Ogbazi J. N. (2019) European Architectural Designs and the Transformation of the Built Environment in West Africa. In J. N. Ogbazi (Ed.) Transforming the Built Environment in Postcolonial African Cities (pp. 1-20). London: Routledge.

Olupona J. (2003) African Spirituality: Forms Meanings and Expressions Crossroad Publishing Company.

Osterhammel J. (2014). Colonialism: A theoretical overview. Princeton University Press. Oyebade A. (2013). The Foundations of Nigerian history. University Press of America. Please note that the reference to the UNESCO website does not have a specific author or date so it is listed by the title of the page.

Ricci C. (2019). The Great Mosque of Djenne. In A. Burke A. Lloyd & H. S. Loewe (Eds.) African Architecture: Evolution and Transformation (pp. 77-86). Routledge.

Ritzer G. (2013). The McDonaldization of Society. SAGE Publications.

Robson C. (2016). Real world research. John Wiley & Sons.

Rodney Walter. “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.” Howard University Press 1972.

Sadi A. A. T. (1984). Tarikh al-Sudan. Editions Maisonneuve & Larose.

Salman T. M. (2015). Cross-cultural and intercultural communication. Journal of International Communication 21(1) 110-125.

Sanneh L. (1987) The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism. Boulder: Westview Press.

Sanneh L. (1989). Translating the message: The missionary impact on culture. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books.

Shillington K. (2012). History of Africa. Palgrave Macmillan.

Smith W. C. (1994). Islam and slavery. In S. M. Wasserstrom (Ed.) Religion and social justice (pp. 38-48). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Soyinka W. (1975). Death and the king’s horseman: A play. W. W. Norton & Company. Stiglitz J. E. (2002). Globalization and Its Discontents. WW Norton & Company.

Taddei M. (1971). Ancient Ghana and Mali. Methuen.

Thornton John K. “African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion.” The American Historical Review 96 no. 4 (1991): 1101-1113.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Old Towns of Djenné. https://whc.unesco.org/en/ list/116.

UNESCO. (n.d.). Forts and Castles Volta Greater Accra Central and Western Regions. Van Dantzig A. (1968). Architecture in tropical Africa. New York NY: Africana Publishing Corporation.

Vandenbosch A. (1971). Albertus Christiaan Van Dantzig and Dutch decolonization policy. Journal of Southeast Asian History 12(2) 270-296.

Vansina J. (1984). Oral tradition as history. University of Wisconsin Press.

Wallerstein I. (1974). The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. Academic Press.

Wallerstein I. (1980). The Modern World-System II: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy 1600–1750. Academic Press.

Wallerstein I. (2011). The Modern World-System IV: Centrist Liberalism Triumphant 1789–1914. University of California Press.

Wilson Carol. “Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America 1780-1865.” University Press of Kentucky 1994.

Wilson K. (1993). A history of the British presence in Chile: From bloody Mary to Charles Darwin and the decline of British influence. Palgrave Macmillan.

Wright J. (2007). The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade. Routledge.