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The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia (Sources and Studies in... |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Africa History > Item 118
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The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia (Sources and Studies in...
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by Donald R. Wright
Sales Rank: 638757
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List Price: $29.95
$26.96
At Amazon
on 8-2-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 351 pages
Published by: M.E. SharpeEdition: 2nd Edition February 2004
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0765610086
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0765610089
Book Dimensions:
8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Reader Reviews
This is the most important book I have ever read about Africa and the global economy. I read Mr. Wright's first edition and was in contact with him as he wrote his second. He used a unique archive of audiotapes of oral history, which is maintained in the Gambia. He also conducted personal research on his several trips to The Gambia. When I was posted there, I visited the oral history project which has transferred thousands of oral histories from magnetic tape to CDs and which has transcribed and translated these oral histories. Donald Wright makes a very convincing case to counteract our bias for written records. He points out that the written records of the colonial powers were biased to make the colonial powers look good at the expense of the local populations. Using oral histories, especially in Africa, is a very valid and useful tool in historical research. What Donald Wright also shows was that African society and culture was well developed and self-sustaining. Africa was not the backward and helpless place we like to think it was. What distressed me most is that most African-Americans share the common preception that Africa was a backward coninent, when that is far from the truth. It is my wish that every American, especially every African-American read this book. The nation of Numi (which is now part of The Gambia and Senegal) was proud and completely self sufficient, mostly through its own agriculture. Its trading relations served only to provide luxuries that people desired, but not what they required. With European expansion, Numi became dependent on European traders for staple food supplies while supplying peanuts to European buyers, with prices set in Europe -- i.e., the global model of trade we have now. The new European trading model differed greatly from the previously used Islamic/African/Asian trading model, with its ban on interest which left trading partners on a far more equal footing. Numi moved from being at the center of its own universe to becoming a forgotten place on the distant margins of a universe that has been constructed to serve the interests and wealth of Europe, North America, Japan and other big players. Donald Wright lays out the facts without emotion, but the reader cannot help but get emotional. Wright's description of the slave trade is a case in point. Wright does not go down the path to describe, in detail, the horrors of the slave trade. He outlines, rather, the need for regional African powers to have horses to dominate their neighbors. He went on to describe how horses could not be bred in tropical Africa, so they were traded for slaves at 15 slaves per horse. Wright's account of this terrible enterprise, which held human life so cheaply, struck me with greater force than other more detailed descriptions of the personal sufferings in this horrible trade in people. This is a must-read book. Donald Wright is a gifted writer who keeps your interest and pulls you from page to page. By the end of the book your ideas and view of the world will have changed. Mine did.
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The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia (Sources and Studies in...
Available from Amazon
Price: $26.96
Updated on 8-2-2008.
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