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Honour in African History
In Africa today, inherited conceptions of "honor" can obstruct democracy, inspire resistance to tyranny, and motivate the defense of dignity in the face of AIDS. This account of the role of "honor" in African history from the fourteenth century to the present argues that it is essential to understanding past and present African behavior.
430 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
John Iliffe
30 books3 followersJohn Iliffe is Professor of African History at St. John's College, University of Cambridge.
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December 10, 2017
"Honour is always a contested notion."
Honour in African History is a self described groundbreaker; it explores a subject not previously given the attention it deserved; the role different versions of honour have and continue to play in African history. This was a welcome and indeed necessary addition to the field of study on Africa as the concept of honour and research into it has been vigorously pursued in certain societies and not all in a lot of others. Most people associate honour with the study of Japan and more precisely the samurai who have become the most associated figure when one mentions honour. Another massive study on the concept of honour has been the Mediterranean and the various (sub)cultures who have sprouted from it's shore including but not limited to the Italian mafia, Albanian hill clans, the Romans and the Berbers all of whom had a strong affection for honour and in particular attached to female sexuality. The great thing about this book, is that John Iliffe has taken the lessons learned from those extensive fields of study and used them to explore a wide range of African history roughly 1400-2000 that has been presented in a well structured book.
John Iliffe makes a distinction between various forms of honour that often competed with each other for importance in a given society; we get heroic honour that he compares to samourai culture and householder honour that, in particular to the role of women, is compared to various peseant cultures in the Mediterranean. This distinction between egotistic violent heroic honour and the community oriented endurance householder honour is not the only competing systems that are analysed in the book, yet they are the most prevalent, we also get the difference between horizontal (among peers of equal standing) and vertical (between persons and groups of unequal social ranking) honour systems. These four concepts can be constructed as two axes (one horizontal-vertical axe and one heroic-householder axe) to appreciate just what kind of honour system with what kind of preferences was in place that in turn shaped the societies and vice versa within the context of time and external factors steering both. Political organisation, sexuality, justice, religion all of it was firmly in the grasp of honour on all levels both nobles and slaves with their own interpretation of what honorably behavior was and this had a profound effect when in the 19th century Europe came nocking on the door.
The author puts a lot of focus on how honour systems reacted to the shock of colonial conquest as a way to explain how and why African societies reacted the way they did. He spends a particular lot of time on the contraproductive effects of the Sahel horselord heroic honour systems when confronted with rifles and more modern cannons. Iliffe gives a wide range of examples of horsemen bravely charging into the breech and to be slaughtered over and over again as a precondition of honourable surrender to the colonial powers. Yet Iliffe does not make the point that heroic honour systems prevented a more suited defense against colonial aggression as other societies could and did; The difference being that the horselord honour cultures in the Sahel had had a strong impact on the style of governance in the region whit themselves as a highly individualistic noble class that literally looked down upon archers and musket men whom they despised and had ground into the dust for centuries. It took a mountain of their own corpses the drive the lesson home, their reign had ended yet with honour it had come to an end!
In comparison the coast kingdoms of Dahomey, Samori and Asante had been able to realign heroic culture to service to the state and a royal corps of elite musketeers that answered directly to the kings in a style of restrained individualistic heroism that reminded me of the romans that had likewise transformed individual heroics into regimental heroism. Yet even these more effective top down states could not adopt a guerrilla style war that might have been more suited to defend their lands; in this it were the stateless societies who lived near enough to predatory sates that did adopt the strike and flee tactics that tested European determination more then any mass cavalry charge did regardless how spectacular. But why was it these stateless societies that could adapt more easily to a style war to confront European invasion? Here we come back to the axe of vertical and horizontal honour as the demands of rank distinction was incompatible with the more equal conditions of leading in the field and front that were demanded for an effective guerrilla. A lesson learned by the last Ethiopian emperor Selassie who returned to power with aid by the British and was confronted by a massive bottom up grown guerrilla army that had stayed and fought the Italians under Mussulini when their emperor had been begging for aid abroad, a perception of honour and lack thereof would continue to undermine the Ethiopian monarchy from that point on.
It would be a bit pointless to go into detail on every chapter for I would do all of them a great injustice if I were to summarize them here in stead I will go into the structure of the book and subjects. The book has two parts a pre colonial era that includes the colonial conquest of Africa with mostly African perspectives and a second part that focuses on the colonial and post colonial era. John Iliffe tries to cover the whole of subsaharan Africa and strictly speaking manages to achieve this but as always with these kind of huge areas and time periods this does end up with a focus on the more well known cultures and states in Africa such as the Igbo, Zulu, great lake states, Ethiopia, sotoko caliphate, Songhai, Dahomey, Asante and Yoruba kingdoms. If possible other less known African states and stateless societies are included in the analysis and in the Sahel region the focus is well centered on a class of mounted warriors who were present throughout the region across ethnic and political boundaries. If I am extremely picky in my criticism I would say I missed the Tuareg (the only "famous" African culture missing) who combined a horse/ camel culture who looked down on peasants yet did adopt a hit and run style of war against the French.
the theme industrious pacifistic householder vs militaristic egocentric heroic honour as said is a focus running in the entire book yet in effect the second part of the book is dedicated more tho the household honour then the heroic honour and vice versa; this is due to according Iliffe that the foundation of heroic honour dominance had been shattered on the fields of battle in the 19th century forcing societies to emphasize other ways of honour and to preserve it. Furthermore a lot less attention and time had been spent on the household honour in precolonial times with ballads and songs of heroes dominating the oral history. Yet Heroic honour has clinged to life in Africa in the colonial armies, south African miners , nationalistic movements/ politicians and youth dominated gangs/rebels. While householder honour has evolved as well yet at it's core has remained focused on sustaining the household; that has a strong feminine influx as women's path to honour has with noted exceptions been rarely about egotistic violent honour but more to do with ensuring survival of family by any means; the honour of the survivor as compared to the often self destructive masculine hero culture. the harming aspect of heroic culture is a recurring theme in this book but comes to near final condemnation in the post colonial period; military coups, hero-cultus politicians and a sexual aggressive masculinity that fueled the spread of AIDS compared to civil government, modest politicians (Nyerere president of Tanzania get's a particularly positive image in this book) and African women caring for the sick.
Even though Illiffe never makes the claim that honour is everything, as it would determine everything that has transpired in Africa these last 200 years and earlier, but still he does give a lot of weight to it and at times I felt he gave it a bit too much weight. Either way his main message is that most African societies have been honour driven in one way or another and omitting this factor from an analysis of African society is a mistake, this I do accept. I did think he idealized the householder a bit too much while at the same time demonized the heroic cults too much, particularly in the post colonial African society where one is clearly presented as a contribution to the ills of Africa with other keeping Africa afloat despite the other. But regardless it is groundbreaking book and what a worthless book would it be if it did not create some controversy! A must read for anyone interested in African history and honour as a concept. Perhaps the book and analyses of different honour systems and implications for societies and individual behavior will tell something about yourself and your own interpretation of honour; for I found those horselords to be insufferably arrogant while I could admire the attitude of stateless people both in war and peace. Perhaps I would be placed firmly on the horizontal side of first axe with a slight preference for heroic on the second.
Honour in African History is a self described groundbreaker; it explores a subject not previously given the attention it deserved; the role different versions of honour have and continue to play in African history. This was a welcome and indeed necessary addition to the field of study on Africa as the concept of honour and research into it has been vigorously pursued in certain societies and not all in a lot of others. Most people associate honour with the study of Japan and more precisely the samurai who have become the most associated figure when one mentions honour. Another massive study on the concept of honour has been the Mediterranean and the various (sub)cultures who have sprouted from it's shore including but not limited to the Italian mafia, Albanian hill clans, the Romans and the Berbers all of whom had a strong affection for honour and in particular attached to female sexuality. The great thing about this book, is that John Iliffe has taken the lessons learned from those extensive fields of study and used them to explore a wide range of African history roughly 1400-2000 that has been presented in a well structured book.
John Iliffe makes a distinction between various forms of honour that often competed with each other for importance in a given society; we get heroic honour that he compares to samourai culture and householder honour that, in particular to the role of women, is compared to various peseant cultures in the Mediterranean. This distinction between egotistic violent heroic honour and the community oriented endurance householder honour is not the only competing systems that are analysed in the book, yet they are the most prevalent, we also get the difference between horizontal (among peers of equal standing) and vertical (between persons and groups of unequal social ranking) honour systems. These four concepts can be constructed as two axes (one horizontal-vertical axe and one heroic-householder axe) to appreciate just what kind of honour system with what kind of preferences was in place that in turn shaped the societies and vice versa within the context of time and external factors steering both. Political organisation, sexuality, justice, religion all of it was firmly in the grasp of honour on all levels both nobles and slaves with their own interpretation of what honorably behavior was and this had a profound effect when in the 19th century Europe came nocking on the door.
The author puts a lot of focus on how honour systems reacted to the shock of colonial conquest as a way to explain how and why African societies reacted the way they did. He spends a particular lot of time on the contraproductive effects of the Sahel horselord heroic honour systems when confronted with rifles and more modern cannons. Iliffe gives a wide range of examples of horsemen bravely charging into the breech and to be slaughtered over and over again as a precondition of honourable surrender to the colonial powers. Yet Iliffe does not make the point that heroic honour systems prevented a more suited defense against colonial aggression as other societies could and did; The difference being that the horselord honour cultures in the Sahel had had a strong impact on the style of governance in the region whit themselves as a highly individualistic noble class that literally looked down upon archers and musket men whom they despised and had ground into the dust for centuries. It took a mountain of their own corpses the drive the lesson home, their reign had ended yet with honour it had come to an end!
In comparison the coast kingdoms of Dahomey, Samori and Asante had been able to realign heroic culture to service to the state and a royal corps of elite musketeers that answered directly to the kings in a style of restrained individualistic heroism that reminded me of the romans that had likewise transformed individual heroics into regimental heroism. Yet even these more effective top down states could not adopt a guerrilla style war that might have been more suited to defend their lands; in this it were the stateless societies who lived near enough to predatory sates that did adopt the strike and flee tactics that tested European determination more then any mass cavalry charge did regardless how spectacular. But why was it these stateless societies that could adapt more easily to a style war to confront European invasion? Here we come back to the axe of vertical and horizontal honour as the demands of rank distinction was incompatible with the more equal conditions of leading in the field and front that were demanded for an effective guerrilla. A lesson learned by the last Ethiopian emperor Selassie who returned to power with aid by the British and was confronted by a massive bottom up grown guerrilla army that had stayed and fought the Italians under Mussulini when their emperor had been begging for aid abroad, a perception of honour and lack thereof would continue to undermine the Ethiopian monarchy from that point on.
It would be a bit pointless to go into detail on every chapter for I would do all of them a great injustice if I were to summarize them here in stead I will go into the structure of the book and subjects. The book has two parts a pre colonial era that includes the colonial conquest of Africa with mostly African perspectives and a second part that focuses on the colonial and post colonial era. John Iliffe tries to cover the whole of subsaharan Africa and strictly speaking manages to achieve this but as always with these kind of huge areas and time periods this does end up with a focus on the more well known cultures and states in Africa such as the Igbo, Zulu, great lake states, Ethiopia, sotoko caliphate, Songhai, Dahomey, Asante and Yoruba kingdoms. If possible other less known African states and stateless societies are included in the analysis and in the Sahel region the focus is well centered on a class of mounted warriors who were present throughout the region across ethnic and political boundaries. If I am extremely picky in my criticism I would say I missed the Tuareg (the only "famous" African culture missing) who combined a horse/ camel culture who looked down on peasants yet did adopt a hit and run style of war against the French.
the theme industrious pacifistic householder vs militaristic egocentric heroic honour as said is a focus running in the entire book yet in effect the second part of the book is dedicated more tho the household honour then the heroic honour and vice versa; this is due to according Iliffe that the foundation of heroic honour dominance had been shattered on the fields of battle in the 19th century forcing societies to emphasize other ways of honour and to preserve it. Furthermore a lot less attention and time had been spent on the household honour in precolonial times with ballads and songs of heroes dominating the oral history. Yet Heroic honour has clinged to life in Africa in the colonial armies, south African miners , nationalistic movements/ politicians and youth dominated gangs/rebels. While householder honour has evolved as well yet at it's core has remained focused on sustaining the household; that has a strong feminine influx as women's path to honour has with noted exceptions been rarely about egotistic violent honour but more to do with ensuring survival of family by any means; the honour of the survivor as compared to the often self destructive masculine hero culture. the harming aspect of heroic culture is a recurring theme in this book but comes to near final condemnation in the post colonial period; military coups, hero-cultus politicians and a sexual aggressive masculinity that fueled the spread of AIDS compared to civil government, modest politicians (Nyerere president of Tanzania get's a particularly positive image in this book) and African women caring for the sick.
Even though Illiffe never makes the claim that honour is everything, as it would determine everything that has transpired in Africa these last 200 years and earlier, but still he does give a lot of weight to it and at times I felt he gave it a bit too much weight. Either way his main message is that most African societies have been honour driven in one way or another and omitting this factor from an analysis of African society is a mistake, this I do accept. I did think he idealized the householder a bit too much while at the same time demonized the heroic cults too much, particularly in the post colonial African society where one is clearly presented as a contribution to the ills of Africa with other keeping Africa afloat despite the other. But regardless it is groundbreaking book and what a worthless book would it be if it did not create some controversy! A must read for anyone interested in African history and honour as a concept. Perhaps the book and analyses of different honour systems and implications for societies and individual behavior will tell something about yourself and your own interpretation of honour; for I found those horselords to be insufferably arrogant while I could admire the attitude of stateless people both in war and peace. Perhaps I would be placed firmly on the horizontal side of first axe with a slight preference for heroic on the second.
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