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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 656: West African Borders: Reading through External Accounts

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Historisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Organiser:Adam Simmons, Department of History, Lancaster University
Moderator/Chair:Verena Krebs, Historisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Paper 656-aRecognition of Rulership: A Comparison of European Narratives of Political Encounter and Diplomacy in West Africa
(Language: English)
Iona McCleery, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Spanish or Portuguese, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 656-bTranscending Borders in Medieval Africa: Before and after the Libro del conoscimiento, c. 1378-1402
(Language: English)
Adam Simmons, Department of History, Lancaster University
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Spanish or Portuguese
Abstract

West Africa does not often appear alongside other regions of Africa and its connectivity to the wider medieval world due to limited textual sources. This session will analyse the contemporary understanding of West African political and geographical borders through rereading European texts. Whilst sources may be scarcer than for other regions, those that do exist offer many more insights than have currently been gained from them.