World History: Journeys from Past to Present

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Women acted as priestesses and even diplomats who made significant contributions to statecraft and foreign policy. World History and the Individual African. My own research on the family history of a remarkable enslaved woman called Nienna in colonial Asante has illustrated something of the complexity of identity and status within the family then and ever since. The adoption of female slaves by an abusua could be undertaken in a variety of ways. Nienna's story illustrates the manner in which marriage by an inherited slave following the death of her husband helped legitimize the subsequent descendants' belonging to an abusua in this case, Atoase.

Nienna was born into the royal family of Bona in territory claimed by French authorities in the final decade s of slavery.

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She was captured as a slave sometime around the s. The family's story relates that the young Nienna was walking in the town in front of her guardian when she was kidnapped and taken to Sunyani, a town across the border in the Gold Coast. As a member of the Bona royal household, she would not often have been seen outside the royal compound.

The veil she was wearing that day was inherited by her great grandson Kwaku Mensah b. Brought back to the town of Sunyani in Asante territory, Nienna was married to Osei Yaw with whom she had four children. When Osei Yaw died, Nienna was inherited by a nephew, Kwadwo Mpra, who elected to marry her and with whom she bore four more children including Kwaku Mensah's mother Akua Broneh c. The Chief of Bona had earlier sent delegations to Sunyani on two occasions in asking to meet the Cote d'Ivoire family of Akua Broneh, Nienna's daughter and Kwaku's mother.

While there is no record of travel or direct contact between the Sunyani in Asante, situated in British territory descendants of Nienna and their Ivory Coast relatives, some communication must have taken place for the threads of relation to remain unbroken.

World History: Journeys from Past to Present by Candice Goucher, Linda Walton (Hardback, 2012)

Unlike the enslaved Africans transported across the vast Atlantic, the captives of the Asante state played a larger role in maintaining transcolonial and now transnational connections. Yet the problem of their invisibility in the state traditions continues to plague the recasting of local history into more global narratives of colonialism. Since family traditions are most carefully handed down as part of the intangible inheritance of the matrilineality, it is not surprising that Kwaku Mensah learned about his maternal grandmother's slave status later in his adult life.

It is likely that Nienna's marriage to her husband's nephew protected not only her own story but also the inheritance of the family. Importantly, there were no daughters in the family and so it was perceived to be crucial to incorporate the slave Nienna as an abusua member. Later colonial court records indicate that by the s, a number of widows and their children made successful claims to inherit a share of property including cocoa farms.

The native courts, established in , became potential advocates of women's rights while serving the interests of the colony.

Incidental to the state's concerns were the gains in the security of their wealth and status made by Asante women " even former slaves. Thus the struggle to maintain economic independence characterized even the life of a slave as well as the women who followed in her abusua. Neither colonial rule nor capitalism was a certain outcome of the British presence at the turn of the century. Resources for Teaching about the African Family. Wright's book presents a regionally focused study of the Mandinka kingdom of Niumi and considers the gradual incorporation of the kingdom into the larger global economic system as viewed through the lens of oral traditions and written sources.

As powerful as this volume can be for incorporating Africa into the world history classroom, its focus on political and economic history lacks a gendered perspective. For the intersection of gender, African history, and world history; several other resources including Allman's and Tashjian's book mentioned earlier are extremely useful. Patricia Romero's edited collection Life Histories of African Women contains the life histories of seven African women in a slim and highly readable volume.

The women's lives reflect a great variety of personal struggles and domestic negotiations in the context of global forces.

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Especially interesting for classroom use is the spectrum of ways in which the reader "hears" the historical voices of African women " from their own transcribed words to the interpretations and analysis of scholars. Most of the women lived in the twentieth century; but one, Akyaawa Yikwan, an Asante queen mother, lived in the nineteenth century and is known through both written documents and oral traditions. An excellent view of the dynamics of the mid-twentieth century colonial family in Ghana is gained from the immensely popular film throughout English-speaking Africa, Love Brewed in the African Pot The film was Kwaw P.

Ansah's first feature-length film, an entertaining combination of satire, comedy, and melodrama that turned an African love story into an exploration of the tensions within the African colonial family as it was undergoing dramatic change. The clash between local traditions and British influence in colonial Ghana is presented in the choice of a family's educated daughter to marry an uneducated automobile mechanic.

Not only did "love collide with social class," but the inner family decisions reflected the changing context of colonialism and a modern economy that promoted the individual's interests over the collective interests of the abusua.

The plot of Love Brewed was also inspired by the rise of a middle-class culture of educated elites whom the director felt had betrayed their heritage. The film views the intersection of gender and class issues against the backdrop of a rapidly changing landscape of oppression.

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The film's title image of a pot was a sly reference to a Hollywood film Sanders of the River 3 about colonial West Africa, in which stereotypical and racist images of Africans appeared in the form of cannibals around a cauldron. In the storyline of Love Brewed , the main character Aba Appiah, born to the "high life," falls in love with Joe Quansah, son of a fisherman. Her father is retired colonial civil servant Kofi Appiah, himself a fisherman's son.

He has other hopes for his daughter and accepts the approach by a prominent family's lawyer son whose advances Aba rejects with calamitous results. The predictable conflict does yield unexpected consequences for the young couple, but above all it illustrates what historians are only now beginning to realize " that the family itself was the site of the most significant decisions about recasting the Asante in the modern world and holds the key for understanding the deepest meanings of the colonial experience. Ironically, the film that won awards on three continents Burkina Faso, France, and India was financed privately using Mr.

Ansah's father-in-law's house as collateral. The film will soon be available on DVD from Mr. Ansah through TV Africa in Accra.

A Ghanaian proverb reminds us that "ancient things remain in the ears. In the world of colonial Asante, the role of the state cannot be understood without also understanding its attempts to subvert local practices through colonial laws and policy and through the native courts. Like other states, these structures tried to extend their control to the intimate domain of sexuality, social reproduction, and economic production at the core of family life.

In turn, individual men and women negotiated their positions through myriad complex decisions at the most local and intimate of locations: Aiming the thematic focus of world history on the level of family and household is a reminder of the continuing roles of human agency in determining family and household, even amidst the global realities of the post-colonial world. Individual negotiations combined with the dramatically changing material conditions of the modern world to contribute to transforming both Africa's landscape and the shape of world history.

LeGuin, and Linda A. Chapter opening timelines supply context for the material ahead, while end of chapter questions and annotated additional resources provide students with the tools for independent study. Each chapter and part boasts introductory and summary essays that explain and guide the reader in comprehending the relevant theme. In addition, the companion website offers a range of resources including an interactive historical timeline, an indispensable study skills section for students, tips for teaching and learning thematically, and PowerPoint slides, lecture material and discussion questions in a password protected area for instructors.

This textbook provides a basic introduction for all students of World History, while at the same time incorporating the thematic perspectives that encourage critical thinking, link to globally relevant contemporary issues, and stimulate further study. Additional Details Number of Volumes.

7 editions of this work

Building a World System 14 Traditions and their Transformations Material Worlds and Social Lives The Nation-State, Nationalism and Revolution Forging a Global Community The New Imperialism and New Nationalisms, Global Order and Disorder: War and Peace Resistance and Revolution in the Long Twentieth Century

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