Both present to the world through its continental massiveness and perceived as an obstacle to the establishment of direct links between West and East, Africa has long seemed inescapable to Mediterranean navigators. In light of this observation, which shaped the way Africa was viewed from the outside, this year's lecture will examine the medieval period in African history.
Taking in the diversity of several medieval worlds (the Sahels and their trans-Saharan relations with the Maghreb and Egypt, the Horn of Africa, the Swahili coast), the lecture will focus on the ways in which Africa was connected to the Islamic world, its geography and temporality, the ways in which African societies were involved in these processes, and the forms of urbanism and architectural traditions. Written sources, mainly Arabic, will be mobilized, but perhaps less so than archaeological data, whether urban remains or the prestigious furnishings found in burials.
In a dynamic approach to spaces, the construction of political formations, and religious phenomena (notably the question of relations between Islam and local religions), we propose to revisit several African kingdoms under the category of "broker kingdoms", which endeavored to ensure the interface (ecological, commercial, political, religious, linguistic...) between economic basins and opposing cultural worlds.
And, without refraining from a few seemingly anachronistic comparisons with the present, we will reflect on the implications, for research itself, of the conversation that African societies have maintained with the outside world.