By: Emeizmi Mandagi, University of California – Irvine CIHA Blog Intern
The University of California, Irvine’s International Studies Public Forum recently hosted Dr. Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi, Assistant Professor at University of California – Riverside, on May 3, 2018, raising a number of questions and issues that should be of interest to humanitarians working in Africa. Questions of how the past is recounted vis-à-vis the methods, tools, and sources available also relate to many of the issues debated at last year’s African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon. Here, we recap some of Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi’s work and highlight how we might use various new technologies and approaches to fill in some of the gaps in archival materials and narratives about African history.
Trained as a historian and computer engineer, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi’s research draws on her interdisciplinary interests which encompass African and urban history, technology, and the use of cartography and GIS as tools of spatial analysis. In this forum, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi discussed her current book project, “Imagine Lagos: Mapmaking and Representation in Nineteenth-Century West Africa,” in which she explores the spatial history of Lagos between 1845 and 1868.
For her project, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi analyzed how coastal West Africans imagined and represented Lagos, how their identities were shaped by space, religion, and power, and how they built buildings and structures within these spaces as well as how they destroyed these very compounds in competitions for economic and political power. However, as she drew from archival sources, pamphlets, letters, and testimonies of those who returned to Lagos from places such as the United States, England, or Havana, she noticed that Lagosians were largely absent from the maps of the city and region. Despite their cultural expressiveness, since most were still non-literate during this time period, there appears to be little to no trace of them in the 19th century maps; most of the references are to European residents until the 1880s. Consequently, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi argues, there is a real gap in understanding African cities during this time period. Scholars and researchers often think about the social relationships within Lagos rather than the built environment; however, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi explained that if we delve into how people moved around in these spaces or destroyed them, then we can get a better idea of what these cities looked like.
To explore these questions of identity and space, Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi’s research for her current book project also includes a cartographic database entitled “New Maps of Old Lagos,” which offers visual interpretations of intersecting historical vignettes. These maps bring new understanding to the morphology of African cities, and “illustrate the effects that civil wars, colonialism, slavery, emancipation, and religion” had on Lagos. In this way, she hopes these maps can be used as sources for crafting African historical narratives. Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi built these maps into her research to create new ways of approaching the history of West Africa. She seeks to lay groundwork for these maps to be used as tools to study the changes in social life in cities such as Lago.
Dr. Adelusi-Adeluyi observed that imperialism and mapmaking intersect heavily, as maps play an important role in imperialism. Because of this, she argues that maps cannot be taken at face value as they are socially constructed and often omit crucial details — such as the omission of where local Africans lived. Nonetheless, she continues to hold that maps can still be important tool in thinking about space, place, and meaning as a way to insert those who are typically left out of the historical narrative. By analyzing maps in the context of politics and power, we may be able to find ways to tell the stories of those left out of traditional narratives.
More information about the talk: Ademide Adelusi-ISPF
About the Author:
Emeizmi Mandagi is a 4th year at the University of California, Irvine majoring in International Studies with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. She is interested in questions relating to national security and the implications of U.S. foreign policy and intervention in other countries. After completing her studies, she plans to be a research analyst at a think tank.