Synopses & Reviews
Revealed to Western culture in the 1850s by the German explorer H. Barth, the Diwan, or genealogy, is a remarkable collection of facts, deeds, and descriptions of the sultans of Kanem-Bornu, one of the most advanced civilizations in West Africa. The Diwan has traditionally been perceived as a mere fragment of a larger set of the now-lost Royal archives, a compilation of biographies assembled by palace bureaucrats over the centuries. In
The Diwan Revisited, Augustin Holl challenges such assumptions. Reevaluating almost 150 years of research, Holl agrees that the Diwan was probably a segment of a larger, more diversified domain of literary genres an Epic originally situated within a thriving oral tradition.
Combining the latest advances in paleo-climatology, archaeology, social anthropology, ethnohistory, and linguistics, The Diwan Revisited is an ambitious, interdisciplinary endeavor. It will add significantly to a deeper understanding of this fascinating historical document and to the early history and culture of West Africa in general.