A Ritual Geology: Gold and Subterranean Knowledge in Savanna West Africa

by Robyn d'Avignon

Set against the ongoing corporate enclosure of West Africa’s goldfields, A Ritual Geology tells the untold history of one of the world’s oldest indigenous gold mining Francophone West Africa’s orpaillage . Establishing African miners as producers of subterranean knowledge, Robyn d’Avignon uncovers a dynamic “ritual geology” of techniques and cosmological engagements with the earth developed by agrarian residents of gold-bearing rocks in savanna West Africa. Colonial and corporate exploration geology in the region was built upon the ritual knowledge, gold discoveries, and skilled labor of African miners even as states racialized African mining as archaic, criminal, and pagan. Spanning the medieval and imperial past to the postcolonial present, d’Avignon weaves together long-term ethnographic and oral historical work in southeastern Senegal with archival and archeological evidence from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali. A Ritual Geology introduces transnational geological formations as a new regional framework for African studies, environmental history, and anthropology.

Genres: History

328 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 2022

Reviews

[Ernest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb reinterpretation of a practice usually disparaged as 'artisanal' mining in Africa, making the case for an intellectual history of ritual geology ("practices, prohibitions, and cosmological engagements with the earth"). A short enough, gripping book studying miners not merely as victims but as practitioners of both scientific and sacred tradition, rooted in very close observation of the region, some fascinating use of both oral histories, archival sources and simply observing how mining is practiced.

[Anam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so excellent, made me change how I thought about knowledge, dividing gold in cement bags at midnight. Mansa Musa through French Colonial period through corporate control, there are no absolutes in life.

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic