Vincent Hiribarren

This project digitised the archives of the nineteenth-century prime minister of Madagascar, Rainilaiarivony. Written in Malagasy, the Prime Minister's archives use the Latin alphabet introduced in 1823. They allow researchers to understand how a precolonial kingdom managed to dominate the whole of Madagascar and how it was influenced and later colonised by the Europeans.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the island was divided into different polities before the Merina King took the title of 'King of Madagascar' in 1817 (Treaty between Great Britain and the Merina Kingdom), and his successors tried to unify and modernise the island prior to the European colonisation in 1895. The prime minister, whose position was created in 1833, was in charge of these centralising policies and can be considered as the instrument and symbol of the precolonial political modernisation of the island.

The most successful figure of Prime Minister under the royal government was the younger brother of Prime Minister Raharo, Rainilaiarivony, commander in chief, who discredited and replaced him in 1865 as the queen’s official lover and Prime Minister (1864-1895). He was the head of the government under three successive queens, Rasoherina, Ranavalona II and Ranavalona III, whom he married until his arrest after the capture of the royal capital by the French expeditionary force on 1 October 1895.

The archives have been inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register since 2009. They have never been systematically studied and will offer researchers invaluable insights into the history of precolonial Madagascar and the role played by this man who was in charge of the day-to-day government of the kingdom, but who also commanded its armies. In addition, his attempts to re-organise the government along Western lines will provide historians interested in Western imperialism with the tools to analyse the political evolution of a kingdom which was not directly colonised by the Europeans but which was simultaneously caught between British and French expansionisms. These documents will thus illustrate British abolitionist and religious policies and French territorial ambitions in the Indian Ocean. Knowing that the French heavily relied on the institutions of the kingdom of Madagascar during the colonial period, the archives of the prime ministers will shed new light on the precolonial times and the construction of the colonial state.

This project digitised the 23 registers of Rainilaiarivony (and a few photographs), creating over 6,000 images, and trained three technicians of the National Archives of Madagascar in digitisation techniques. The equipment acquired is now available for a future research and/or digitisation project.

"These maps created by Simon Burrows and Vincent Hiribarren are available in two different open formats. The first one is widely used format by GIS software packages (shp files). The second one is a GeoJSON format used by online mapping services.


The 1st map divides late eighteenth-century Europe into geopolitical/linguistic zones. The zones represented are artificial constructs developed for analytical purposes in the The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe project itself.

The 2nd map deals with sovereign territories in eighteenth Europe. The borders apply to the period 1772-1791. (Admin 0 - Eighteenth Century Countries).

The 3rd map is a reconstruction of the administratives subdivisions (provinces) of eighteenth-century European countries. The borders apply to the period 1772-1791. (Admin 1 - Eighteenth Century Provinces)."

http://fbtee.uws.edu.au/main/download-maps/

This short report gives the rationale behind the creation of the website https://archivescolonialesbrazzaville.wordpress.com/ , dedicated to the colonial archives of French Equatorial Africa in January 2015. It is argued that researchers and archivists can build highly useful websites in Africa even with a limited Internet connection.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous state-home to one in every six people living on the African continent. In 2050, Nigeria should even be the fourth largest country on the planet according to the United Nations. In this module, students will analyse the political, religious and cultural history of the different communities living in Nigeria from the beginning of the British colonisation until today. While we will study the history of the Biafran War or that of Boko Haram, we will also focus on the rise of Nigeria as one of the largest democracies in the world. The students will also understand the success of Nigerian novels, films and music in Nigeria, West Africa and beyond. Learning outcomes This module aims to provide students with: 1. Systematic, thematic, and critical historical engagement with the development of power in twentieth-century Nigeria, including ethnic identity, national politics, religious and cultural life. 2. Appreciation of and competence in handling a wide variety of historical evidence, including written documentation and material, all to be studied in depth and to be the subject of a written dissertation. 3. Understanding and knowledge of the colonial and postcolonial history of Nigeria, and its relationship with Africa and the rest of the world. Skills Students will demonstrate the critical, communicative and transferable skills and depth of knowledge required at Level 6. By the end of the module, students will be able to: 1. Devise a research topic concerning the history of colonial and/or postcolonial Nigeria. 2. Demonstrate advanced understanding of scholarship on the history of Nigeria and relate it effectively to the primary source material. 3. Interpret primary source material in a sophisticated way and use these interpretations to make effective arguments. 4. Reflect on methodological problems concerning the use of particular source types. 5. Direct their own studies and manage their own time in reading and researching. 6. Become aware of a wide range of primary sources for the study of Nigerian and African history. Credits and assessment 60 credits (or optional 30 credits for combined honours students) 1 x 3-hour examination (30 credits), 1 x 10,000-word dissertation (30 credits-optional for combined honours students). 20 x 2-hour seminars (weekly)