Journal of West African History https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH <p>The <em>Journal of West African History</em> (<em>JWAH</em>) is an important initiative in the field of African Studies published by Michigan State University Press in collaboration with Michigan State University’s African Studies Center and History Department. An interdisciplinary peer-reviewed research journal, <em>JWAH</em> is located at the cutting edge of new scholarship on the social, cultural, economic, and political history of West Africa and publishes the highest quality articles on West African history. It fills a representational gap by providing a forum for serious scholarship and debate on women and gender, sexuality, slavery, oral history, popular and public culture, and religion. The editorial board encourages authors to explore a wide range of topical, theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives in new and exciting ways. The journal is committed to rigorous thinking and analysis; is international in scope; and offers a critical intervention about knowledge production. Scholarly reviews of current books in the field appear in every issue. An articulated goal of <em>JWAH</em> is to bridge the gap between Anglophone and Francophone scholarship on West Africa. Thus, the journal is published in both English and French (an abstract in both languages is provided).</p><p>In addition to scholarly articles, <em>JWAH</em> features recurring segments dedicated to unraveling and engaging with important intellectual questions. In a forum called “Retrospectives,” the most established scholars in the field contribute historiographical essays and reflection pieces to bring together current thinking with new directions on scholarship about West Africa’s history. “Thinking Digitally” engages new digital media and technologies as tools for historical research and documentation of West African realities, probing especially how historical practice, presentation, and analysis can be translated in digital terms. In the section “Conversations,” leading scholars engage in debate—conversations, really—with the past and present of West African history on topics as significant and varied as LGBTI rights and discrimination; health, healing, and disease; and wealth and security issues; to name but a few. Finally, “The Teaching Scholar” features articles that throw teaching pedagogies into conversation with scholarship.</p><p>Editor: Nwando Achebe, <em>Michigan State University</em></p><p> </p><p> </p> en-US <p>If accepted for publication, a signed author publishing agreement must be on file. Please refer to author publishing agreement for author copyright information.</p><p><strong><a href="https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/michigan-state-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/28220411/JWAH-Article-Publishing-Agreement.pdf" target="_blank">Article Publishing Agreement</a></strong></p><p><strong><a href="https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/michigan-state-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/28220409/JWAH-Book-Review-Publishing-Agreement.pdf" target="_blank">Book Review Publishing Agreement</a></strong></p> jwah@msu.edu (JWAH Editorial Office) eidenie1@msu.edu (Online System Support) Fri, 03 Oct 2025 10:33:12 -0400 OJS 3.3.0.5 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 The Senegal Liberations Project https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7969 <p>The Senegal Liberations Project is designed to stimulate international collaborative research and scholarship through making widely available a dataset of 28,421 enslaved people who actively sought their own freedom in colonial Senegal from 1857-1903.&nbsp; In doing so, the SLP will generate new perspectives on the pathways out of slavery and contribute to global histories of freedom and unfreedom in the modern age.&nbsp; This forum showcases the potentialities of linking cutting-edge digital humanities research to public school curriculum as a way to enrich both the pedagogy of world history and academic scholarship through collaboration between university specialists and front line teachers.&nbsp;</p> Richard Roberts, Fatoumata Seck, Rebecca Wall (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Richard Roberts, Fatoumata Seck, Rebecca Wall (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7969 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 The Precariousness of Freedom https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7951 <p>This essay reflects on how the Senegalese Liberation Project and situates it within the context of the Atlantic world freedom struggle during the Age of Emancipation. It offers a comparative lens to similar processes happening in the Caribbean, Latin America, and, to a lesser degree, the United States. The author notes how scholars have shown how the formal end of the institution of slavery did not translate into freedom enjoyed fully by formerly enslaved peoples. Finally, the essay draws attention to additional digital resources, which complement the instructional project.</p> Sharika Crawford (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Sharika Crawford (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7951 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 La problématique des mineurs affranchis au Sénégal au XIXe siècle et l’enseignement de l’esclavage https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7982 <p>&nbsp;Les mineurs affranchis représentaient, après le décret d’abolition de l’esclavage de 1848, une part non négligeable des hommes libérés. C’est pourquoi, les dispositions juridiques et politiques coloniales associées à ces mineurs&nbsp;montrent que leur situation tenait à cœur les autorités. Malgré tout, ils n’ont pas été très étudiés par les historiens de Dakar. Le silence relatif de ces derniers sur cette question a fait qu’elle a été négligée dans les programmes d’Histoire des classes de quatrième et de seconde. Or, une réflexion sur les mineurs affranchis pourrait permettre aux élèves d’avoir une autre lecture de l’esclavage. Cet article montre ainsi comment pourrait-on intégrer, cette question, à travers le cas Awa Diop dans les enseignements sur l’esclavage au Sénégal. Comment l’utiliser dans l’enseignement&nbsp;? Quels seraient les avantages d’une telle innovation&nbsp;?</p> Mamadou Baldé (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Mamadou Baldé (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7982 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 Senegal Liberation Database Lesson https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7968 <p>This social studies unit plan, aimed at high school history students, grows out of research into the registers of slave liberation created by French officials in Senegal from 1848 to 1903 and into the guardianship system that the French imposed to provide supervision for liberated minor children. It includes a series of classroom activities and assessments, a background essay, a set of primary sources, and other materials.</p> Kelly Duke Bryant, Sharon Cohen, Richard Roberts (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Kelly Duke Bryant, Sharon Cohen, Richard Roberts (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7968 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 REVIEW: A Country of Defiance (by Deets) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8481 Nathan Carpenter (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Nathan Carpenter (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8481 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 REVIEW: Slavery, Resistance, and Identity in Early Modern West Africa https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8582 <p><em>Slavery, Resistance, and Identity in Early Modern West Africa: The Ethnic-State of Gajaaga</em> is a contribution to the enrichment of the global history of the Atlantic connection. The author, Makhroufi Ousmane <strong>Traoré</strong>, Associate Professor of African history at Pomona College, Southern California, his research interests include the history of imperialism and colonialism in Africa, with a focus on the role of trans-Saharan Africa in world history. The central thesis of the six chapters, divided into three main parts and comprising a total of 458 pages, is the defence of the idea of the Gajaga as an ethnic state with defined territorial boundaries and a hierarchical socio-political organization.<br><br></p> Pape Chérif Bertrand Bassène (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Pape Chérif Bertrand Bassène (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8582 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 REVIEW: Conflicts of Colonialism: The Rule of Law, French Soudan, and Faama Mademba Sèye (by Roberts) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8433 <p>REVIEW: Conflicts of Colonialism: The Rule of Law, French Soudan, and Faama Mademba Sèye (by Roberts)</p> Jan Jansen (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Jan Jansen (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8433 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 REVIEW: Liberia's First Civil War: A Narrative History (by Hogan) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8404 Jacien Carr (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Jacien Carr (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8404 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 REVIEW: From Rebels to Rulers: Writing Legitimacy in the Early Sokoto State (by Naylor) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8415 <p>REVIEW: From Rebels to Rulers: Writing Legitimacy in the Early Sokoto State (by Naylor)</p> Mesrob Vartavarian (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Mesrob Vartavarian (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8415 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 Cooking the War https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8008 <p>Recent Asante scholarship forefronts the intersectionality of spirituality, politics, and militarism—including the humans whose choices and personhoods either brought about victory or defeat. With fresh appeal to indigenous spirituality, using oral and archeological source analyses, this article seeks to re-direct attention to the role of African spiritual forces in the 1826 Akantamanso War between Asante and Gã-led Gold Coast allies where Asante was defeated by the latter. This approach allows us to deeply appreciate Atlantic African warfare as a project of spiritual diplomacy, for nothing about these wars was restricted to mortals. Such conception of statecraft captures the interactions among African spirits and their human supplicants, with implications for polity and the layered politics of making and unmaking war. The article refines earlier scholarship which, like European actors, in seeking to engage in global comparative significance, have failed to fully account for the spiritual foundations of Atlantic African warfare.</p> Ishmael Annang (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Ishmael Annang (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8008 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 Yoko of Senehun, 1879-1884: From Mediator to “Ruler” of Sierra Leone’s Kpa Mende Confederacy https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7454 <p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Yoko of Senehun, a high-ranking woman of the Mende region, oversaw the largest precolonial state in what is now Sierra Leone for a period of nearly 25 years. Her authority grew out of pre-existing customary roles for women as mediators, but was re-shaped into colonial chieftaincy by the exigencies of British imperial expansion. Throughout her career, she maintained a balancing act between upholding Kpa Mende autonomy and cooperating with colonial authorities. Though often perjoratively described as a collaborator, she demonstrates some of the many complexities scholars have described for those who intentionally acted as intermediaries in the years of growing European dominance in African spaces. As a self-reflexive and thoughtful woman of her time, she carved out a unique path to personal power at this juncture in Sierra Leone’s history.</p> Lynda Day (Author) Copyright (c) 2025 Lynda Day (Author) https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/7454 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 Editor's Introduction https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8570 <p>N/A</p> Saheed Aderinto Copyright (c) 2025 Saheed Aderinto https://ojs.msupress.org/index.php/JWAH/article/view/8570 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400