2006
286 pp.
2 maps, 11 b/w photos, 17 illustrations, 2 tables, index
Text languages: French, English
It has been 150 years in the year 2003 since the legendary arrival of German’s famous Africa researcher Heinrich Barth (16 Feb 1821 – 25 Nov 1865) in the mysterious city of Timbuktu. In August 1853 he attained the small place Bambara-Maoundé, coming from Dori (today’s Burkina Faso). Two weeks later he entered a pirogue to Sareyamou and reached Timbuktu in September. Not until nine months later he managed leaving the city towards East – after some unavailing attempts. It was this long sojourn in Timbuktu which we owe 500 written pages about today’s Mali, and the history of the Songhay and Timbuktu in Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Centralafrika in den Jahren 1849 bis 1855.
This jubilee was commemorated by the German Embassy in Mali, the Society of Technical Collaboration (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, today GIZ), the Research Centre Local Knowledge Point Sud, the Malian Minister of Education and the Heinrich-Barth Society (Cologne, Germany). The conference took place from 29 November to 5 December 2004, and served not only for the exchange of the researchers among themselves, but also for meetings with Malian scholars and the Malian public.
Thematic focuses have been Heinrich Barth, his epoch and Africa – Heinrich Barth and the history of the Sahel – Heinrich Barth as an anthropologist, mediator among peoples and cultures – Heinrich Barth, art and literature. The present work contains the most important contributions of this congress. 14 articles dealing with diverse thematic issues give an eclectic survey of most recent research results concerning Barth’s life and work.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Gerd Spittler: Le contexte scientifique et politique
Mamadou Diawara: Le contexte de l’événement
Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias: Les thématiques de l’ouvrage
Heinrich Barth en Europe et en Afrique
Richard Kuba: Heinrich Barth, une vie de chercheur
Gerd Spittler: Heinrich Barth, un voyageur savant en Afrique
Heinrich Barth – Texte et contexte
Alain Ricard / Gerd Spittler: Sur l’édition française de Barth
Véronique Porra: Entre description et inscription – Eléments de poétique des voyages de découvertes en Afrique au XIXe siècle
Achim von Oppen: The painting and the pen – Approaches to Heinrich Barth and his African heritage
Maria Grosz-Ngaté: Du terrain au texte – réflexions anthropologiques sur « Voyages et découvertes dans l’Afrique septentrionale et centrale », 1849–1855
Heinrich Barth et le quotidien en Afrique
Mamadou Diawara: Heinrich Barth et les gens du cru
Georg Klute: « Le continent noir » – Le savoir des Africains sur l’Europe et les Européens dans la récit de voyage de Heinrich Barth
Robert Harms: Heinrich Barth’s Construction of Nature
Bernhard Gardi: Heinrich Barth et l’artisanat africain
Heinrich Barth et l’histoire
Muhammad S. Umar: Reading Islamic Themes in Barth’s “Travels and Discoveries” through the Lens of Edward Said
Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias: Barth, fondateur d’une lecture reductrice des chroniques de Tombouctou
Isabelle Surun: Tombouctou dans le regard des voyageurs européens au XIXe siècle – Du mythe à la description
Adam Jones: Barth and the Study of Africa in Germany
Under these links you will find publications of the contributors and further studies of West African cultures and history:
