Overview
In this groundbreaking work, Robert Baum seeks to reconstruct the religious and social history of the Diola communities in southern Senegal during the precolonial era, when the Atlantic slave trade was at its height. Baum shows that Diola community leaders used a complex of religious shrines and priesthoods to regulate and contain the influence of the slave trade. He demonstrates how this close involvement with the traders significantly changed Diola religious life.
Full Product Details
Author: Robert M. Baum (Research Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African-American Research, Research Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African-American Research, Harvard University)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 25.00cm
, Height: 2.60cm
, Length: 14.90cm
Weight: 0.676kg
ISBN: 9780195123920
ISBN 10: 0195123921
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 17 June 1999
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
Baum has done a tremendous job in collecting so much material. The result is an interesting history of an African religion. Shrines of the Slave Trade also provides a good discussion on the usefulness of oral traditions for the production of academic history. * Ferdinand de Jong, University of Amsterdam, African History, Vol 41 - 2000 * This book is an innovative study of Diola religion. ... The book makes short shrift of the so far uncontested assumption that the Diola are not interested in their history, and do not know much about it. ... The first chapters offer a solid introduction into the problems of the historical study of African traditional religions. * Ferdinand de Jong, University of Amsterdam, African History, Vol 41 - 2000 *
"""Robert M. Baum's book on Diola religion and society is an important contribution to the history of Senegambia and to the history of African ""traditional"" religion....This book will be an important resource for scholars of African religion and readers interested in the history of the slave trade.""--American Historical Review ""...[a] groundbreaking study....Robert Baum's mastery of the rich details underlying Diola Esulalu thought has few parallels. It demonstrates what four years of intense participation and sympathetic observation can produce in the way of a fascinating history of an African indigenous philosophy.""--International Journal of African Historical Studies ""...[a] supurb study.""--The Journal of Interdisciplinary History ""[A] judicious mix of ethnographic detail and processual theory....It is odd how rare and valuable a work this is.""--Religious Studies Review"
This book is an innovative study of Diola religion. ... The book makes short shrift of the so far uncontested assumption that the Diola are not interested in their history, and do not know much about it. ... The first chapters offer a solid introduction into the problems of the historical study of African traditional religions. Ferdinand de Jong, University of Amsterdam, African History, Vol 41 - 2000 Baum has done a tremendous job in collecting so much material. The result is an interesting history of an African religion. Shrines of the Slave Trade also provides a good discussion on the usefulness of oral traditions for the production of academic history. Ferdinand de Jong, University of Amsterdam, African History, Vol 41 - 2000
