Lefebvre Lab

Research focus

ERC Starting Grant · 2017

Hausa and Kanuri languages as archive for the history of Sahara and Sahel in 18th and 19th century

The eighteenth and nineteenth century history of the central Sahara and Sahel has primarily been written using European or jihadist Arabic sources. This has led to an overwhelming emphasis on religion, politics, and geography as core themes that shaped social and cultural dynamics in this region. By focusing on sources in African languages—until now largely forgotten by historians—the project LANGARCHIV aims to enrich and expand this narrative. Hausa and Kanuri material collected by Germanophone, British, and French scholars for linguistic study between 1772 and 1913 in West and North Africa, England, and Brazil cries out for collaboration between historians, linguists, and anthropologists.…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.