Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Algerian Interpreters and the French Colonial Adventure in Sub-Saharan Africa |
Author: | Christelow, Allan |
Year: | 1985 |
Periodical: | Maghreb Review |
Volume: | 10 |
Issue: | 4-6 |
Period: | July-December |
Pages: | 101-106 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Algeria Northern Nigeria France |
Subjects: | colonial conquest interpreters colonialism History and Exploration |
Abstract: | At the end of the nineteenth century, Algeria and Nigeria had a fleeting, littleknown encounter in the form of the activities of a young Algerian colonial interpreter, Ahmad Ben Meshkan, in the Benue Valley towns of Muri and Yola, just prior to the British conquest of the region. The occasion of this encounter was the Mizon Expedition of 1892, which was aimed at laying the military and diplomatic foundations for French domination in the region of the Chad Basin, including Bornu. The author sketches the local political background in the region known as Adamawa, and explains the role of Ben Meshkan in Muri and Yola, as well as the role of another interpreter, Redjem, in the Bagirmi region of what is now the Republic of Chad. He also deals with an intellectual spin-off of the encounter, the introduction into Algeria of the writings of Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio. Notes, ref. |