World and a Very Small Place in Africa

Donald R. Wright is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, Emeritus, at the State University of New York—Cortland. His other books include two on early African American history, and a two-volume collection of oral traditions from The Gambia, and (as co-author) The Atlantic World: A History (2007).

• List of illustrationsList of mapsList of perspectivesPreface to the fourth edition IntroductionA very small place in AfricaGlobalizationPART IArchaic globalization: before 1600 CE1 The global setting for Niumi’s history: early archaic globalizationWestern Europe’s strengthening connectionsFourteenth-century setbackThe lure to expandPortuguese expansion into the AtlanticWest Africa’s strengthening connectionsIslam’s movement into West AfricaState-building in West AfricaThe Mali EmpireMali’s decline2 Niumi during early archaic globalization: before 1450 CEThe physical settingThe cultural settingNiumi’s early residents, their commercial milieu, and the Niumi state3 Niumi during late-archaic globalization, 1450–1600: waxing Atlantic trade, enduring Sudanic tradeWestern Europe and the rise of the Atlantic plantation complexEarly Atlantic trade and political change in NiumiTrade diasporas and new identitiesMuslim tradersChristian (and "New Christian") Portuguese and Luso-AfricansNew ways of lifePART IIProto-globalization: 1600–18004 Niumi during proto-globalization: the height of the Atlantic complexNiumi’s expanding worldThe ecological baseThe growth of mercantile capitalism and expanding Atlantic complexThe long march of IslamThe Niumi polityState structuresCourt officialsState administrationDependent territoriesState revenuesA wider world at homeNiumi’s changing material worldNiumi’s changing social and intellectual worldLuso-AfricansMuslimsSoninkeThe changing nature of dependencePART IIIModern globalization: 1800–1950s5 Niumi in a time of transition: 1816–1897Revolutionary change in the WestIslam’s militant strainWeakening of the Niumi stateNew systems of production and exchange: the peanut revolutionThe Soninke-Marabout WarsFormal British takeoverA deepening dependence6 Niumi as part of the Gambia Colony and Protectorate: 1897–1965The unsettled twentieth-century worldEstablishment of colonial ruleThe world of peanutsDevelopmentA quiet broadening and deepening of IslamNiumi in a world at warWorld War IWorld War IIPostwar malaiseToward independencePART IVPost-colonial globalization, 1950s7 Independent Niumi in the First Republic of The Gambia: 1965–1994Mid-twentieth century global realitiesNew rulers, old rulesA chance encounter with world history and a boost for tourism: RootsModernization?8 Niumi in the recent wave of globalization: the Second Republic, 1994–2017Globalization’s newest waveSoldier to statesman to tyrantIs globalization good for the world’s poor? Niumi as case studyThe economyNon-sustainable developmentCulture and societyWomen’s rolesFreedom, dignity, and human rightsNiumi in diasporaThe presidential election of 2016Epilogue, 2017: #Gambia HAS DecidedBibliographyIndex