Ethnographic Shieldwork: Diplomats of Imperial Collapse in Atlantic West Africa

How did imperial states in Atlantic-era West African communicate diplomatically with one another across languages that were mutually intelligible? This article examines the practice of emissary exchange as a mode of ethnographic fieldwork. Several states including Asante, Dahomey, and Oyo, employed the practice of exchanging pubescent male members of the nobility for several years to serve as shield-bearers and to study politics. The emissaries chosen already understood their mother tongues and customs, and they were young enough to quickly master the customs and tongue of their host nations. Historians of anthropology have already temporally destabilized the long-held claim that Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Branislav Malinowski innovated the practice of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork by pushing us to consider the work of several 19th century ethnologists. This talk rather inverts the subject of ethnographic inquiry, thereby showcasing the relevant similarities between the practices of 19th century ethnologists and those of West African emissaries. In Atlantic-era Gold Coast, several states sent child emissaries to Europe, and the Caribbean, in the hopes that they would return with ethnographically and diplomatically useful skills. But the experiences of these states were a mixed bag, and these emissaries as ethnographers were sometimes at the heart of great “miscommunications” across cultures. Some stories of the origins of maroon communities in Jamaica suggest that Fante princes sent on such an expedition were subsequently kidnapped into slavery. The story of two Asante Princes sent to the Netherlands, fictionalized in the novel The Two Hearts of Kwesi Boachi (The Black with the White Heart in Dutch) reveals the difficulties faced by sending nations as some emissaries returned home while others remained in the land of their hosts. But these crises of the Atlantic-era were not unheard of, as the mistreatment of emissaries in earlier generations could lead to the total destruction of Empires. While some historians commonly interpret the fall of Great Accra to the Akwamu in the 17th century as a result of Akan encroachment on the Ga’s monopoly on coastal commerce with European forts, it is narrated in Ga religious songs as the outcome of a conflict over the Ga king circumcising an Akwamu prince in his custody. While circumcision was considered a sign of maturity and civility among the Ga, it barred Akan speakers from holding royal titles in their kingdoms. Thus, the fall of Great Accra was lamented in Ga religious songs with the refrain, “You let uncircumcised people snatch all Great Accra” (nye ha folↄi eha Nkranpↄn fee).

Join us in person in Cohen 392 or on Zoom here: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/91432411453.

The talk will be followed by a reception in the Hughes Lounge in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science.