PREFACE

CONTENTS 

32. Balandier, G. “Toponymie des îles de Kabak et Kakossa.” Etudes guinéenes 8, (1952): 49-54.

Balandier describes the toponymy of two islands located off the coast of Guinea: Kaback and Kakossa. He begins his study with the ethnological description of the two islands and their relationship with larger communities. He then goes on to break down the islands into villages and investigates their names: their meaning and their etymology. He gives us a sense of the villages’ history through a genealogical study of the names of their chiefs. Balandier ends his article with remarks on the differences between the two islands. Whereas the toponymy of Kaback evokes an authentically Mande history and culture, the toponymy of Kakossa evokes a cultural melting pot.

33. Beaudet, M., et al. “Origine des noms des villages.” Etudes dahoméennes 8 (1952): 57-88.

“Origine des noms des villages” is the collective title for four onomastic studies carried out in several villages in Benin (former Dahomey). Each study has focused on a specific region of the country and the researchers have tried to come up with the meaning and etymology of the names of the villages they have studied, as well as the cultural history behind those names. The introduction to the first study by M. Beaudet provides the purpose and the philosophy of the entire project. Indeed, the author states that in the eyes of the stranger the map of a country is meaningless and remains so until one understands the meaning of some place names on that map. And since, as he puts it, the soul of the inhabitants of a country reflects to some extent the image of that country and the names bestowed upon it, the authors of the four studies have tried to provide pieces of the soul of Benin’s village dwellers. These studies are pioneering reports from the field and could not have been based on pre-existing onomastic data, hence the lack of bibliographic sources is understandable. But the authors must have been faced with theoretical or methodological problems, and a suggested list of sources on how to solve such problems would have been useful.

34. Berry, J. The Place Names of Ghana. London: School of Oriental and African Languages, 1958.

This work contains detailed suggestions for solving the problems of standardization of Ghanaian toponymy. The author expresses his deep dissatisfaction with the recording of geographic names in Ghana and reviews the main challenges and obstacles to any real standardization policy. He goes on to provide a definition of place names and lays out the conditions in which they can function as authentic place names. The remainder of the work contains the author’s analysis of two important aspects of Ghanaian topology: writing and spelling.

35. ----------. The Place Names of Accra Region. London: School of Oriental and African Languages, 1958.

Berry’s study of the place names of Accra the region of Ghana reads like a preliminary outline for a research project to an area that has yet to be explored. The study was published in 1958, yet most of the sources in his bibliography pre-date World War II. Early on, Berry lays out the principal methodological challenges in his study: he does not have access to earlier forms of the names. His analysis is based on the writings of European travelers and historians, oral tradition and direct testimony. He deals in this study mostly with habitation names and names of natural features.

36. Boyer, Gaston. “Toponymie du pays Diawara (Cercle de Nioro, Soudan).” Notes africaines: bulletin d'information et de correspondence de l'Institut français d'Afrique noire 44 (1949): 127.

This one-and-a- half page article is abstracted from a larger publication. It analyses the meaning and origin of some toponyms from the Diawara region in Mali (former French Soudan.) The bulk of the article is dedicated to Soninke names which constitute the majority of the Diawara names. The author spends only two short paragraphs on toponyms in other languages, namely Fula, Bambara and Arabic.

37. Buehnen, Stephan. “Place Names as an Historical Source: An Introduction with Examples From Southern Senegambia and Germany.” History in Africa19 (1992): 45-101. [Maps ; tables]

Buehnen goes from the assumption, stated at the outset of his introduction, that ‘so far little systematic use has been made of place names as a source for African history’, and he proceeds to give us a glimpse into the historical treasures such a use would yield. As his field of research he has chosen Senegambia, a West African geo-historical space that corresponds approximately to modern Gambia, the Casamance region of Senegal, and most of Guinea-Bissau. His examples are also taken from the history of the western coast of Germany. The author has chosen this comparative method for two main reasons: there are some similarities between the geographic features of the two regions; and more importantly, there are methodological lessons to be drawn from a comparison of regions where the sources of historical and toponymic information are so different: whereas, western Germany has a long record of written sources, southern Senegambia has only received considerable scrutiny from anthropologists and historians since the end of the 19th century. The core of the author’s method is based on the analysis of the languages of the areas concerned. He shows how shifts in sound and in meaning affect lexical language differentiation. He has also made use of the etymology of place names as well as their chronological stratification. The article is rich in historical information on Senegambia. It also provides a very good introduction to the main concepts of toponymy. Due to its comparative nature, this article can also be thought of as a significant contribution to the field of general toponymy.

38. De Ganay, Solange. “Toponymie et anthroponymie de l’Afrique noire.” Onomastica 2, no. 2 (1948): 143-6.

De Ganey’s article is a report on the results of a series of ethnographic missions in Mali (former French Soudan). The author draws some important methodological conclusions regarding toponymic research in general. De Ganay stresses the importance of not separating toponyms from anthroponyms in African onomastics and the significance of the cultural and religious dimensions of names in addition to their topographic aspects. The author recommends seeking the cooperation of indigenous people as informants, and also suggests the use of aerial photographs in interviews which can elicit information from or strengthen the memory of local informants.

39. Drummond, D. B., and Karifa Kamara. “Some Kuranko Place Names.” Sierra Leone Studies 16 (1930): 173-180.

This article contains a list of two dozens names of places in Sierra Leone. The authors give the meaning of each name and tell the story surrounding it. However, there is neither an introduction nor a conclusion that would give a clue as to what the authors had set out to achieve. There are no notes or bibliographic references either.

40. Gayibor, Lodjou, ed. Toponymie historique et glossonymes actuels de l’ancienne Côte des Esclaves (XVe-XIXe siècles): actes du Colloque International, Université du Bénin, Lomé 2-3 nov. 1989. Lomé: Presses de l’Université du Bénin, 1990. 142 p. [Bibliographies ; notes]

This book teems with a multitude of interesting and important issues, but the following three conceptual and methodological questions seem to determine its structure: first, what is exactly subsumed under the general toponym of “Slave Coast?” Second, how reliable and informative are the toponyms and glossonyms of this region given their foreign origin? Finally, what are the effective ways to restore or reconstruct a reliable toponymy and glossonymy? The first question calls for a redefinition which is provided by contributors such as Iroko who rejects the widely held view that the Slave Coast designates a fixed and homogeneous entity. He states that, like the slave trade itself, the toponym entails a dynamic and fluctuating notion referring to a geopolitical and economic reality whose identity depends on the century, and on specific periods within each century. There is a general agreement on the negative answer to the second question related to the reliability of the toponyms bestowed by Europeans on African places. As Amenewy puts it, this toponymy is self-interested and contradictory. Iroko shows that most toponyms were derived from goods to which the Europeans were attached, and he points out that this toponymy has an uninformative meaning with regard to the volume and intensity of the slave trade activities that occurred in the region. Gaybor chimes in by showing that these toponyms were devised in haste because the explorers and slave traders were anxious to complete their contract with the ship-owners and did not take time to acquire enough language knowledge to come to real contact with indigenous populations. These assessments pave the way for the thoughtful answer to the third question: the authors of this volume agree that it would be a methodological error to disregard the European toponyms altogether, since it contains important clues that can be used in reconstructing a meaningful and informative toponymy. For instance, Pazzi has shown in his contribution how Portuguese toponymy can be used to trace the first encounter between Portuguese “explorers” and Africans. The recommendation of the conference was rather to reinterpret and reconstruct the European toponymy by supplementing, and sometimes replacing it through the use of knowledge based on local languages (Tchitchi, Lebène), archeological investigations (Adande), and cultural studies, whether it be cutural comparison between the people of the Bight of Benin in order to identify their linguistic identity and their ethnic diversity (Egblewogge, Capo), or between these cultures and Diasporan cultures, such as those in Brazil, in order to dispell the nostalgic misrepresentations of African reality.

41. Gouffe, C. “Problèmes de toponymie Haoussa: les noms de villages de la région de Maradi (République du Niger).” Revue internationale d’onomastique 2 (1967): 95-127.

Gouffe offers a subtle and detailed analysis of Hausa toponymy which throws some considerable light on the culture of this large Hausa population of Niger. The author begins his analysis with a critique of some cartographic works that have misrepresented the demographic breakdown of the Maradi region into villages. He substitutes his own cartographic partition into 23 “cases”, which provides a better coverage of the region. His next step consists of a classification of the village names based on linguistic criteria and on the different modes of derivation, that is, the aspects of physical and socio-cultural reality. The author finally undertakes a close analysis of the etymological and semantic meanings of the toponyms, which results in the revelation on the complex structure of Hausa cultural mentality and religious beliefs system in the Maradi region.

42. Hair, P. E. H. “The Spelling and Connotation of the Toponym ‘Sierra Leone’.” Sierra Leone Studies 18 (1966): 43-58. [Notes]

In this well-written and sufficiently documented article, Hair tells the extraordinary story of the toponym Sierra Leone, a name bestowed in the 15th century by Pero de Sintra on a place in West Africa. The first part of the article recounts the five centuries long cartographic war European powers waged among themselves to impose their spelling of the toponym through their map makers. Montagna Leona, Serra Lyoa, Serra Lioa, Sierra Leona, Lion Mountains, Sereleon, Serrilion, Serre-lione, Serre Lyonne, these are some of the different spellings that appeared on European maps before the spelling Sierra Leone was agreed upon at the end of the18th century. The second part examines the etymology and the plethora of referential meanings of the toponym. Indeed, Sierra Leone has historically referred to a mountain, a peninsula, a coastline, a tribal kingdom, a settlement and a colony. It was not until 1896, the year of the proclamation of the Protectorate of Sierra Leone by the British, that the toponym received its current referential meaning. Hair’s article reads like a toponymic account of one of the geo-political sagas that have marked the colonial history of the African continent.

43. Holsoe, Svend E. A Standardization of Liberian Ethnic Nomenclature. Philadelphia: Institute for Liberian Studies, 1979. 28 leaves. [Bibliography ; cross-references ; map]

This small book contains a proposal for standardizing Liberian ethnic names. The criteria and recommendations for such a project are based on a discussion of fifteen ethnonyms. The author defines two categories of criteria in the first part of the book: cultural criteria and linguistic ones. According to the first category, acceptable ethnonyms should be of a well established tradition of use, not derogatory and, more importantly, they should be self-bestowed names, that is names by which the concerned ethnic groups call themselves. As for the second category of criteria, it states that the standardization of Liberian ethnonyms should be “based on linguistic terms” and the names should be written in standard English alphabet. Only widely used variant names should be retained and placed within parentheses. In the second part of the book the author lists the ethnic names mentioned above and provides all the variations on them as well as a list of ethnonyms given by others (people other than the ethnic groups concerned).

44. Houis, Maurice. “Projet d’enquête sur la signification et la structure des toponyms.” Notes africaines: bulletin d'information et de correspondence de l'Institut français d'Afrique noire 66, 48-50 (1955).

Maurice Houis outlines the conditions of fulfillment of an onomastic project which would cover all the countries of West Africa. The project would consist of creating a data base of toponyms collected in every language of the region. The proposed collecting process would be based on a questionnaire designed by toponymists, with questions relating to the different aspects of physical and social reality from which the toponyms are derived. The author provides a sample list of names of such aspects and suggests cultural and methodological ways of dealing with them effectively.

45. ----------. “Toponymie et sociologie.” Bulletin de l’Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire 22 (B), nos. 3-4 (1960): 443-5.

According to Houis, one important objective of toponymic research is to provide us with the knowledge of ancient forms of languages in general, and place names in particular. In the case of Africa, because of the lack written documents, toponymic investigation has to rely on oral documents. Although the outcome is often a reflection of actual data about languages and place names, it can be indicative of important historic and cultural phenomena such as language contacts and acculturation. Houis compares linguistic and toponymic studies done in Guinea, Senegal and Burkina Faso and comes up with two important findings with regard to the phenomena mentioned above. First, he remarks that the language with cultural and economic prestige assimilates the toponyms of the less-prestigious one. The language considered prestigious is the language of the administration and, eo facto, the language of the political elite. Second, the author describes the existence of two toponymies in the countries cited above: the official toponymy used and imposed by the administration, and the traditional toponymy which is more authentic but which survives mainly in rural areas. Houis shows how the existence of two toponymies is a direct consequence of the phenomenon of language contact and cultural assimilation.

46. Kake, Baba I. Glossaire critique des expressions géographiques concernant le pays des Noirs d’après les sources de langue arabe du milieu du VIIIe à la fin du XIIe siècle. Paris: Présence africaine, 1965. 156 p. [Bibliography]

This small collection of forty toponyms related to the historic geography of West Africa is a pioneering work in its genre. The author relies chiefly on Arabic sources which he thinks are, if not more accurate with regard to African history, at least necessary as a complement to Western sources. Each toponym is followed by a relevant extract from the sources and the author’s glossary. The forty toponyms are divided into country and city names (8), ethnonyms (2), hydronyms (2) and oronyms (3).

47.Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. A Preliminary Inquiry into Hausa Onomatology: Three Studies in the Origins of Personal, Title and Place Names. Zaria, Northern Nigeria: Institute of Administration, 1964. 56 p. [Appendices ; bibliography]

The general purpose of this book is to serve as a practical guide to newcomers to Hausaland in Northern Nigeria, and to facilitate a deeper understanding of some of the phenomena of Hausa society. The author begins his book by examining the traditional country breakdown as well as some of the modern modifications which are due in part to the British administration of the country. The main part of the book comprises chapters on anthroponyms, titles and toponyms. The chapter on toponyms is divided into five parts which deal with the origin of the toponyms, their modes of derivation and their spellings.

48. Law, Robin. “Ethnicity and the Slave Trade: Lucumi and Nago as Ethnonyms in West Africa.” History in Africa 24 (1997): 205-19. [Notes]

Law addresses in this article the issue of the emergence of ethnic consciousness in West Africa with regard to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. His starting point is constituted by two positions on the issue. The first, widely held view is that the Yoruba people lacked any sense of common ethnicity prior to the 19th century and that their ethnic consciousness emerged in the Diaspora, more precisely in Sierra Leone where former African slaves were expatriated. The second position is held by Biodun Adediran who notes that, in addition to the names Yoruba and Aku, the Yoruba were also known in the Diaspora by the terms Lucumi and Nago. Adediran goes on to suggest that ‘Diaspora usage must have been based on conventions already current in the Yoruba homeland’. Law presents and develops each of these two positions to their logical conclusions by using his own remarkable knowledge of historical facts about the trans-Atlantic slave trade. His investigation of the historical facts on both sides of the Atlantic leads him to support Adediran’s hypothesis. Indeed, he reaches the well-founded conclusion that although the generic use of the term Nago in West Africa in recent times reflects feedback from the Diaspora, the terms Nago and Lucumi were both in usage in Africa prior to the slave trade, but with different geographic referents.

49. Leriche, A. Terminologie géographique maure. Saint-Louis (Sénégal): l'Institut français d'Afrique noire, 1955. 73 p. [Index]

This small book proposes a clarification of the meaning of some toponymic terms used by the Moors. It is intended for young geographers who might be concerned with Saharan studies, and also for geologists to whom Moorish toponyms might be of some use. The book contains detailed topographic descriptions and the etymological glossary is replete with anatomic metaphors. The author explains that in the desert environment every physical entity can be used as a landmark. As for the plethora of anatomic metaphors, he claims that the Moors perceive their natural environment based on the analogy with human body. The book contains 389 terms arranged alphabetically and a helpful index.

50. Lespinay, Charles de. “Action sur le territoire, marqueurs toponymiques et enjeux socio-juridiques en Casamance (Sénégal): le cas des ‘autochtones’ Baynunk.” In Noms et re-noms: la dénomination des personnes, des populations, des langues et des territoires, edited by Salih Akin, 165-81. Rouen: Publications de l’Université de Rouen, 1999. [Bibliography ; notes]

This article shows how toponymy can be used by a people as a political means for defending their very existence. The people described here are the Baynunk, an agricultural population living in Casamance (Senegal). They are considered the most ancient population of the region, known since the fifteenth century through the writings of Portuguese travelers and historians. Their centuries-old presence in Casamance has left profound toponymic marks on many aspects of the socio-cultural and geographical landscape. Today, the Baynunk have become an endangered people because of the destructive territorial policy of the Senegalese government, and to a lesser degree, to their own hospitable policy of lending their land for indefinite periods of time to newcomers. Faced with these two threats to their existence, the Baynunk have begun to use their toponymic heritage as a survival strategy to claim their inalienable rights over their territorial properties in Casamance.

51. Lewicki, T. “Gannar - Le nom wolof de la Mauritanie”. Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde 35 (1989): 177-79.

What do Wolof-speaking Senegalese call Mauritania and its inhabitants.? Lewicki says they call Mauritania Gannar and the Moors Nar-Gannar, and he traces the origin of both the toponym and the ethnonym. Using written sources on the Mahgreb region dating from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the author concludes that Gannar is a Lybic name that entered the Wolof language a very long time ago. Lewicki structures his arguments around a critique of two theses on the origin of the toponym. The first thesis, rejected by Lewicki on the grounds that is based on doubtful sources, is offered by the German scholar J. Marquart who states that Gannar derives from the Latin canis (dog) and means dog-eaters. According to this thesis, the Gannar originate from a Latin people who were dog-eaters. The second thesis, favored by Lewicki, is attributed to the Latin historian Pliny who identified Gannar (Canarri in Latin) with the name of the Lybic tribe of the Canary Islands. Thus, Lewicki contends the Moors are most probably descendants from the ancient Canarri.

52. Mauny, Raymond. Glossaire des expressions et termes locaux employés dans l’Ouest africain. Dakar: Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire, 1952. 69 p. [Bibliography]

This small book contains an interesting glossary of words and expressions used in the French language spoken in West Africa by the expatriate French community. The author explains in his very informative introduction that this form of French language is not a dialect, but “authentic French”, only adapted to the African environment. Indeed a language cannot be indifferent to the culture, the fauna, the flora and the ways of life of the country where it is spoken. Thus, the French community living in West Africa had to borrow expressions from local languages and to adapt them. They also adopted expressions from other European languages, particularly Portuguese. It is the vocabulary resulting from this multifaceted linguistic experience that Mauny presents in the main part of his book. The glossary proper is preceded by a useful bibliography that acknowledges the authors who have contributed works on older forms of the vocabulary.

53. ----------. “Noms de pays d’Afrique occidentale”. Présence africaine 34/35 (1960-61): 61-72. [Notes]

Upon achieving their independence, African countries joined the United Nations. Some of them took on new names. Even those who kept their old names were not well known in the international community. The author of this article proposes to present the French- speaking countries of West and Equatorial Africa. In his introduction, Mauny draws the reader’s attention to some of the onomastic problems these countries face. For instance, many of the now independent countries had European names that were imposed upon them and whose referent differed from the territorial entity covered by the new names. There is also the confusion that arises from the fact that some countries bore the same European name, only distinguished by an adjective. Dropping the adjective resulted in a referential confusion, hence the necessity for a standardization of African country names. To be sure, the article by Mauny is outdated as far as the country names are concerned, but some of the problems he raises, such as the necessity of the standardization of African toponyms in general, are still relevant issues today.

54. Newman, Paul. “Ethnonyms in Hausa.” Studies in African Linguistics 15 (1984): 301-320. [Bibliography]

This article presents the results of a morphological study of Hausa toponyms the author has done based on an extensive corpus of names. Newman begins his article by defining the concept of Hausa toponyms as “terms indicating a person’s origin, ethnic affiliation, or professional or social position” and he goes on to provide a detailed analysis of the segmental and tonal characteristics of Hausa ethnonyms. He chose not to treat etymological questions for methodological reasons. Yet the results of his study are of importance even to the general African onomastician. For instance, the use of Hausa ethnonyms to indicate supporters or followers of a person, and the functioning of ethnonyms as adjectival qualifiers are two results whose importance for a comparative onomastics is undeniable. The article ends with an important list of bibliographical references.

55. Obeng, Samuel Gyasi. “Vowel Harmony and Tone in Akan Toponyms.” Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 30, no. 2 (2000): 173-183. [Bibliography]

Obeng’s study focuses on the vowel harmony process in Akan. He shows that, contrary to the established theory, there are several toponyms that violate the process. The author does not look at the etymological origin nor the semantic impact on the process but only at the phonological aspect. Yet the onomastician can draw important conclusions as to the semiotic nature and the interpellative function of toponyms from this study.

56. Poltires, R. “Notes de toponymie rurale au Fouta-Djallon.” Recherches africaines: etudes guinéenes 1-4 (1964): 151-59.

The Fouta is a frontier region between two West-African countries: Guinea and Senegal. Roland Poltires uses the rural toponymy of that region to show how human spatial and temporal representations can be determined by agricultural practices. He illustrates his thesis by comparing the meaning and reference of a series of toponyms used on both sides of the Fouta, that is, in Fouta-Djalon (Guinea) and Fouta-Toro (Senegal). One such toponym is the term “enclosure” which designates a fence or a separation between a house on the one hand, and a garden or cultivated fields on the other hand. The author shows that although the same name is used in Fouta-Djalon and in Fouta-Toro, its referent is different because its spatio-temporal implications are different. The fence (tapade in Guinea and tapate in Senegal) is used to separate the same physical entities but in different ways depending on the side of the Fouta.

57. Rouch, Jean. “Toponymie légendaire du “W” du Niger.” Notes africaines: bulletin d'information et de correspondence de l'Institut français d'Afrique noire 46 (1950): 50-2. [Notes]

The author begins his informative and stimulating article with a topographic description of the settings of his toponymic study. It is a mountainous region of Niger with scattered villages. The River Niger runs through it, drawing on its passage a W shape, hence the name “W” given to the region. After providing a vivid description of the physical settings, the author gives a list of place names with their literal meaning and then proceeds to analyze two types of meaning of the toponyms selected: the meanings based on the experiences and observations of the indigenous navigators, and those based on mythical and magical stories. Behind the thick layers of the etymologic meanings of the names under consideration, Jean Rouch paints for us a vivid picture of the cultural heritage of “W.”

58. Sumner, A. T. “The Derivation of Certain Place Names in the Protectorate of Sierra Leone.” Sierra Leone Studies 15 (1929): 4-15.

Sumner’s article contains a study of some eighty Mende place names from colonial Sierra Leone. At the outset of his article he gives us the philosophical context of his study. He thinks that there are, in each country, place names of historic interest, and that the bestowing of these names is not an arbitrary act. On the contrary, it is based on factors such as cultural associations, geographical position, geographic conditions of the place and, peculiarity of the relationship of the names to the language. Sumner also states that the study of the derivations of these place names can provide us with a great deal of information on the movement of the people who lived in those places and who must have left their records in the names. The author applies this context to the study of the eight Mende names by first describing their generic morphological structure and then showing their derivations and explaining their connotations.

59. Tchitchi, Toussaint Y. “Toponymie et histoire nationale.” Africa Zamani 1 (1993): 53-64. [Notes]

Toussaint Tchitchi gives us an explanation as to why toponymy matters so much to the historical study of African nations, particularly to the movements of populations. Using two historical examples from his own country of Benin, Tchitchi shows that the histories of modern African countries are inseparable from the motivations behind population movements and the formation of national territories. By answering the question why a group of people left one place and established themselves in another, one gains a better understanding of a group’s history. However, names are only elements of languages with more complex historical roots, the author recommends an inter-disciplinary approach to toponymy, with History playing the dominant role.

60. Vydrin, V.F. “Who speaks Mandekan?: A Note On Current Use of Mande Ethnonyms and Linguonyms.” Mansa Newsletter 25, (1996): 6-9. [Notes]

Vydrin clarifies a terminological confusion about the Mande people and languages rampant in scholarly publications. The confusion, says the author, is due to the use of a plethora of names to designate the cluster Mandinka-Maninka-Bamana-Jula-Dafin on the one hand, and the whole Mande family on the other hand. He shows that the confusion is two-fold. First, the different names used by European and American scholars to designate the Mande family are pure creations. Second, European and American scholars cannot seem to agree on a common terminology, which is misleading for non-specialists. Vydrin offers some arbitrage. After considering the pros and cons of each tradition, he opts for the European position on the ground that it proceeds from a more venerable and still active tradition in contrast to the American scholarship on Mande which he claims (at the time of this article) is in decline. Finally, the author states that there is a continuum between the different Mande ethnic groups and languages, and he proceeds to provide an overview of the five subcontinua constituting Manding.