Essay
West African Countries and Peoples
James Africanus Beale Horton · 1868
Synopsis
In a first part, an army doctor describes the peoples of the west coast of Africa and the republic of Liberia, then refutes the anthropological theories that held Africans to be inferior and arrested in their development. The second, devoted to “African nationality”, examines how the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, the Fanti country, Accra, Lagos and the Igbo country might govern themselves; the third lists what each colony would need.
Context
The book appeared in London in 1868 from W. J. Johnson, under a long title that announces its programme: the conditions of the self-government recommended by the House of Commons committee of 1865, and a vindication of the African race. Its author had already published in 1865 an essay on the political economy of British West Africa. Edinburgh University Press published a facsimile of it in 1969, with an introduction by George Shepperson, and Cambridge reissued it in 2014.
Who it is for
In English, never translated into French, readable online and reissued. The style is that of the administrative report, with long lists of populations.
Prizes and reception
The best-known work of its author, regarded as the first African plea for self-government in the colonies of the West.
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The pages consulted to check this page.