World and a Very Small Place in Africa

<p><em>The World and a Very Small Place in Africa</em> is a fascinating look at how contacts with the wider world have affected how people have lived in Niumi, a small and little-known region at the mouth of West Africa’s Gambia River, for over a thousand years. </p><p>Drawing on archives, oral traditions and published works, Donald R. Wright connects world history with real people on a local level through an exploration of how global events have affected life in Niumi. Thoroughly revised and updated throughout, this new edition rests on recent thinking in globalization theory, reflects the latest historiography and has been extended to the present day through discussion of the final years of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s regime, the role of global forces in the events of the 2016 presidential elections and the changes that resulted from these elections. The book is supported throughout by photographs, maps and Perspectives boxes that present detailed information on such topics as Alex Haley’s <em>Roots</em> (part set in Niumi), why Gambians take the risky "back way" to reach Europe, or "Wiri-Wiri," the Senegalese soap that has Gambians’ attention. </p><p>Written in a clear and personal style and taking a critical yet sensitive approach, it remains an essential resource for students and scholars of African history, particularly those interested in the impact of globalization on the lives of real people.</p> <p>List of illustrations</p><p>List of maps</p><p>List of perspectives</p><p>Preface to the fourth edition </p><p>Introduction</p><p>A very small place in Africa</p><p>Globalization</p><p>PART I</p><p>Archaic globalization: before 1600 CE</p><p>1 The global setting for Niumi’s history: early archaic globalization</p><p>Western Europe’s strengthening connections</p><p>Fourteenth-century setback</p><p>The lure to expand</p><p>Portuguese expansion into the Atlantic</p><p>West Africa’s strengthening connections</p><p>Islam’s movement into West Africa</p><p>State-building in West Africa</p><p>The Mali Empire</p><p>Mali’s decline</p><p>2 Niumi during early archaic globalization: before 1450 CE</p><p>The physical setting</p><p>The cultural setting</p><p>Niumi’s early residents, their commercial milieu, and the Niumi state</p><p>3 Niumi during late-archaic globalization, 1450–1600: waxing Atlantic trade, enduring Sudanic trade</p><p>Western Europe and the rise of the Atlantic plantation complex</p><p>Early Atlantic trade and political change in Niumi</p><p>Trade diasporas and new identities</p><p>Muslim traders</p><p>Christian (and "New Christian") Portuguese and Luso-Africans</p><p>New ways of life</p><p>PART II</p><p>Proto-globalization: 1600–1800</p><p>4 Niumi during proto-globalization: the height of the Atlantic complex</p><p>Niumi’s expanding world</p><p>The ecological base</p><p>The growth of mercantile capitalism and expanding Atlantic complex</p><p>The long march of Islam</p><p>The Niumi polity</p><p>State structures</p><p>Court officials</p><p>State administration</p><p>Dependent territories</p><p>State revenues</p><p>A wider world at home</p><p>Niumi’s changing material world</p><p>Niumi’s changing social and intellectual world</p><p>Luso-Africans</p><p>Muslims</p><p>Soninke</p><p><em>The changing nature of dependence</em></p><p>PART III</p><p>Modern globalization: 1800–1950s</p><p>5 Niumi in a time of transition: 1816–1897</p><p>Revolutionary change in the West</p><p>Islam’s militant strain</p><p>Weakening of the Niumi state</p><p>New systems of production and exchange: the peanut revolution</p><p>The Soninke-Marabout Wars</p><p>Formal British takeover</p><p>A deepening dependence</p><p>6 Niumi as part of the Gambia Colony and Protectorate: 1897–1965</p><p>The unsettled twentieth-century world</p><p>Establishment of colonial rule</p><p>The world of peanuts</p><p>Development</p><p>A quiet broadening and deepening of Islam</p><p>Niumi in a world at war</p><p>World War I</p><p>World War II</p><p>Postwar malaise</p><p>Toward independence</p><p>PART IV</p><p>Post-colonial globalization, 1950s</p><p>7 Independent Niumi in the First Republic of The Gambia: 1965–1994</p><p>Mid-twentieth century global realities</p><p>New rulers, old rules</p><p>A chance encounter with world history and a boost for tourism: Roots</p><p>Modernization?</p><p>8 Niumi in the recent wave of globalization: the Second Republic, 1994–2017</p><p><em>Globalization’s newest wave</em></p><p><em>Soldier to statesman to tyrant</em></p><p>Is globalization good for the world’s poor? Niumi as case study</p><p>The economy</p><p>Non-sustainable development</p><p>Culture and society</p><p>Women’s roles</p><p>Freedom, dignity, and human rights</p><p>Niumi in diaspora</p><p>The presidential election of 2016</p><p>Epilogue, 2017: #Gambia HAS Decided</p><p>Bibliography</p><p>Index</p>