Greene gives the reader a vivid sense of the Anlo encounter with western thought and Christian beliefs... and the resulting erasures; transferences; adaptations; and alterations in their perceptions of place; space; and the body." ―Emmanuel AkyeampongSandra E. Greene reconstructs a vivid and convincing portrait of the human and physical environment of the 19th-century Anlo-Ewe people of Ghana and brings history and memory into contemporary context. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork; early European accounts; and missionary archives and publications; Greene shows how ideas from outside forced sacred and spiritual meanings associated with particular bodies of water; burial sites; sacred towns; and the human body itself to change in favor of more scientific and regulatory views. Anlo responses to these colonial ideas involved considerable resistance; and; over time; the Anlo began to attribute selective; varied; and often contradictory meanings to the body and the spaces they inhabited. Despite these multiple meanings; Greene shows that the Anlo were successful in forging a consensus on how to manage their identity; environment; and community.
#609801 in Books Edda L Fields black 2014-07-11Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .62 x 6.14l; .0 #File Name: 025301610X296 pagesDeep Roots Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora Blacks in the Diaspora
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Like many of the other reviews statedBy Thom DeLairLike many of the other reviews stated; this book's narrative begins long before the African Diaspora; with only the last chapter covering that. From my own personal readings of African and African American history; narratives often begin and focuses on slavery. Although the impact of slavery is discussed; I appreciated the treatment of a strong interdisciplinary relationship to these African people and their relationship to the environment around them; showing African history in a light that harmonizes it with nature rather than the bleak political and economic forces that often dominate African and African American history. By the author's careful linguistic and agricultural analysis; it provides a much "deeper" understanding these West Africans' value and innovation; creating more impact for the final chapter and what these West Africans brought across the Atlantic.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Mohamed S.nice book5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. An Excellent book!By GbakuHighly recommended for anyone interested in west African and diaspora history. The author uses a multi-disiplinary approach to go beyond the limits of written history to show the antiquity; nature and varieties of rice-growing techniques in coastal west Africa; focusing on a small area in what is now the Republic of Guinea. She also shows how the knowledge bases of these people (and some of the people themselves) were transplanted in the New World. It is particularly refreshing to see that; in addition to having an excellent command of the literature in a wide range of relevant topics (including such unusual things like Mangrove botany); she has also directly collected ethnographic and linguistic data and has even worked alongside African rice farmers in leech-infested water fending off swarms of mosquitoes.
