Mahir Saul & Patrick Royer 
West African Challenge to Empire 
Culture and History in the Volta-Bani Anticolonial War

Contributes to the anthropology of colonialism, the military history of indigenous Africa, and to theoretical debates on structure and agency.


Winner of the 2001
Amaury Talbot Prize for African Anthropology



The anti-colonial war in the Volta and Bani region of West Africa in 1915-16 was one of the largest armed oppositions to colonialism anywhere in Africa, yet it is largely unknown in the English-speaking world. This book combines cultural and sociological analysis to explore the origins of the movement, its strategy, the reasons for its initial success, and its legacy for the region after its defeat.


North America: Ohio U Press

Table of Content

Introduction

1 The West Volta in the Nineteenth Century

2 The Muslim Houses of the Volta and the Beginnings of French Occupation

3 An Incomplete Colonial Occupation

4 Before the Storm

5 The Call to Arms

6 The First Victories of the Anticolonial Party

7 Terror as Strategy: The War in the Cercle of Dedougou

8 The War in the Cercle of Bobo-Dioulasso

9 The Pilgrim and the Shrines: The War in Koutiala, San, and Bandiagara

10 East of the Volta: The War in the Cercle of Ouagadougou

Conclusion

Appendix: Letters Used as Evidence in the Muslim Conspiracy Trials

About the author

Patrick Royer is Adjunct Professor, Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institut. He is co-author of West African Challenge to Empire, which was awarded the Amaury Talbot Prize of the Royal Anthropological Society, and author of La guerre en miroir, conquête et pacification au Soudan Occidental [War, Conquest, and Pacification in Western Sudan] (2019), which received the Robert Cornevin Prize from the Académie des sciences d’outre-mer in Paris.