Journey through Africa
from Paris to Botswana and back to Paris
Dierk Lange and Michka Sachnine - 1966-7

Born in 1941 of German parents who returned from abroad to Germany at the beginning of the Second World War, I went to school in Hamburg where I finished my secondary education in 1961. After one year of military service I left the army as a conscientious objector, joined the Service Civil International in Paris and served unofficially in an international work camp in Southern France as compensation for three remaining months of military training.

In 1962 I began studying at the Sorbonne in Paris where I became interested in various academic fields such as Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, African Sociology, Anthropology, General History, Islamic Studies, and finally African History. Besides these studies in many directions there was also time to join Easter peace marches in neighbouring countries such as England, Switzerland and Germany. A work camp in Poland gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with life behind the Iron Curtain. Since I was with a group from France, I was in a slightly better position than if I had come from my home country.

 Click here for photos of the journey

Uncertain about my future career, I undertook an adventurous open-end trip through the whole of the African continent with Michka Sachnine in an eleven-year-old Citroën 2 CV. We set off in Paris in November 1966, travelled through the Sahara to East and southern Africa as far as Botswana, back through the Congo at the time of civil war, and finally arrived at our starting point after more than one year’s absence. Determined to continue travelling in the future in a more useful way, we both embarked on academic careers related to Africa.

In Paris I pursued my studies financing them by a part-time job, and did not refrain from joining the Événements de soixante-huit. I gained my Master’s degree in 1969 and finished my PhD in African History in 1974 with a thesis directed by Raymond Mauny, later published as Le Diwan des sultans du Kanem-Bornu: Chronologie et histoire d’un royaume africain, 1977. Situated on both sides of Lake Chad, Kanem-Bornu was one of the great empires of West Africa. Since the reconstruction of its medieval history relies mainly on its Arabic chronicle, the first edition of this unique document and the drawing up of a new chronology broke new ground for a scholarly view of African history in general. Having accomplished that work, my twelve years residence in Paris had come to an end. Time was ripe for a change and for opening up a wider view of the world than a solely European perspective. 

Supported by a grant from the  DAAD and  with  French  backing,  I continued  my studies in Cairo for the improvement of my knowledge of Arabic and for the extension of my research on Arabic manuscripts related to African history. At the same time I developed a keen interest in archaeology and ancient Egyptian civilization. I married Shamsa Dirie from Mogadishu, Somalia, herself a specialist in Arabic literature, and experienced the life of a European expatriate living in Egypt with mainly Egyptian friends at the intersection of European, African and Islamic cultures and at the frontiers of Arabism, Egyptology and African studies. The German and Egyptian scholarships which I was awarded were quite sufficient to support the modest life of a mixed couple who regarded the future not in terms of materially rewarding careers but bedazzled by the dream of greater satisfaction through contributions of a general and more lasting value.

While I was in Cairo, our friend, the Swiss medical doctor Silvio Berthoud from Geneva, suggested I should join an expedition to last several months for the purpose of exploring the Central Saharan trade route which had never been the object of valid research in recent times. During this journey along the now forgotten but earlier most permanent route between the Mediterranean world and sub-Saharan Africa, which was subsequently funded by the DFG, we discovered several new sites worth of archaeological exploration. As a follow-up of that expedition I began doing field research on oral traditions in the Bornu kingdom west of Lake Chad and the Sao-Kotoko civilization south of the lake, lasting for more than half a year. My experience of travelling on three different routes showed that the Sahara was much easier to cross than normally supposed. On that basis I was later able to develop the theory of intensive connections between Africa and the ancient Near East. 

Back in Cairo, the need to put an end to reliance on uncertain scholarships made itself increasingly felt. Providentially, old contacts in Paris and academic needs led to an offer by Djibo Hamani, the head of the History Department of the University of Niamey, Niger, to join the staff of his department. With additional financial support from the DAAD, my duties as a lecturer for medieval African and Islamic history began in 1980. Meanwhile my book on the second chronicle of Bornu was taking shape and was finally published in 1987 as A Sudanic Chronicle: the Borno Expeditions of Idris Alauma (1564-1576). Teaching African history in Africa and directing the research work of students in a francophone African country was a good experience for a German expatriate who owed his university education to French scholars.

Continued residence in Egypt for a total of ten years with periodical travel between Niamey and Cairo, and the absence of a more permanent home than occasional rented flats turned into serious handicap for a productive life of research. Moreover, in Niger, as elsewhere in Africa, it became obvious that European expatriates needed to give way to local academic staff especially in such a sensitive field as history. Therefore, after five years teaching at the University of Niamey and altogether twenty three years spent abroad, I decided to move back to Hamburg, my home town, to write a Thèse d’État or Habilitation in view of a more stable university career.

The writing up of the thesis on the basis of earlier research was accomplished in the course of two years’ residence in Hamburg, financed by of another DFG grant. It was Jean Devisse who organized a Soutenance de Thèse d'État at the Sorbonne in 1987 and Eike Haberland - who for many years had supported my applications for scholarships - was generous enough to agree to participate in that important rite de passage for an academic career. Titled Contribution à l’histoire du Bornu et des États hausa, the thesis explores the duration, scope and implications of the domination of the Bornu Empire over the Hausa city-states. It prepared the elaboration of more advanced ideas concerning statehood, imperial expansion and ethnicity in the context of West African history published in later articles.

As the culminating point of my long training as a scholar, this success in Paris came just in time for the new position in African History at the young University of Bayreuth. After being appointed Professor of African History in 1988, I subsequently became a member of the African research group of Bayreuth University (SFB). From now on field research, mainly in Nigeria but marginally also in Niger, was no longer a painstaking personal enterprise but an institutionally sponsored normal undertaking. Also, a wonderful library was at hand, my own books were always around on book shelves which soon became too small and curious students, eager to know more, asked stimulating questions. From this secure material basis the focus of my teaching and research slowly began to widen, from medieval West Africa to a transcontinental perspective involving the idea of important connections with the ancient Near East. First conceived as remnants of Phoenician trade relations with West Africa, anthropological survivals, the testimonies of oral traditions and the onomastic pointers in the early sections of local chronicles and king lists when properly analysed finally began to provide evidence of more important influences on African history from the major civilizations of the ancient Near East than ever imagined before. First presented in my book, Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, 2004, this theory in favour of a global historical approach to ancient Africa certainly needs to be more deeply explored and more comprehensively explained in future.

Looking back at my appointment to professorship in Bayreuth, I can now say that it was not only the end of an adventurous life in several countries and cultures but also a turning point and the beginning of a new stage in my research. On the basis of my secure position, the exploration of new and fully unorthodox perspectives on African history became a realistic possibility. Research on Israelite and Ugaritic religious and Assyrian historical texts were thus put on the agenda of African studies for the first time. Seriously opposed by influential Africanist colleagues, presumably because they thought it negated African creativity, such ideas could only be set forth and intensively explored in a small university with a limited number of students and exceptionally open-minded colleagues. The few students who were willing to follow me on that adventurous track and more than everybody else my wife have come to know how many disappointments and reversals one meets on such a track. After retirement from my university function in 2007, my further exploration and better understanding of how Africa was integrated in global history in ancient times does not seem to leave much room for leaning back and being pleased with previous achievements.

For the sake of completeness I should add that my wife and I have had the pleasure of bringing up Hassan Sidatt, a son of her first marriage who spent his early years in Mogadishu, and our common daughter Mona, both computer scientists, one in Africa, the other in Germany.

                 Cairo, 1975                                                                                              Bayreuth, 2015 

2016 Review of S.P. Blier, Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba (2016), in Anthropos 111 (2016), 670-672.

2016 "Yoruba: L`influence du Moyen-Orient", et d`autres textes in: P. Jean-Baptiste (éd.) (2016), Dictionnaire universel: Dieux, Déesses, Démons, Paris (2016), 877-8.

2014 Review of M. Brett, Approaching African History (2013), The Maghreb Review 39 (2014), 53-56.

2013 „New evidence on the foundation of Kanem: Zaghawa Origins“, in: T. El-Miskin et al., Kanem-Borno: A Thousand Year of Heritage (2013), Ibadan, 215-255.

2013 „Emergence of social complexity in the Southern Chad Basin towards 600 BCE“ , in: T. El-Miskin et al., Kanem-Borno: A Thousand Year of Heritage (2013), Ibadan, 291-327.

2013 Review of J. Olupona, City of 201 Gods (2011), Anthropos 108 (2013), 347-9.

2012 "The Bayajidda legend and Hausa history", in: E. Bruder and T. Parfitt (eds.), Studies in Black Judaism, Cambridge, pp. 134-170. 

2011 "Origin of the Yoruba and the 'Lost Tribes of Israel", Anthropos 106, 1 (2011), 579-595.

-    Matthias Schulz, "Treck in die Tropen", DER SPIEGEL 45, 2011, 144-6.

-    The Founding of Kanem by Assyrian Refugees ca. 600 BCE: Documentary, Linguistic, and Archaeological Evidence, Boston, Working Papers in African Studies n° 265, 44 p.

-     "Abwanderung der assyrischen tamkaru nach Nubien, Darfur und ins Tschadseegebiet'" , in: B. Nowak et al. eds., Miscellanea Tymowski, Warsaw, 2011, 199-226.

2010 "Afrika südlich der Sahara: Von den Sakralstaaten zu den Großreichen ", J. Fried und E.-D. Hehl (Hg.), Weltdeutungen und Weltreligionen 600-1500, Bd. III, WBG-Weltgeschichte, Darmstadt, 103-116. (German transl.: "Sub-Saharan Africa: From the sacred states to the empires"). An outline of a future history of Ancient Africa.

-    "An introduction to the history of Kanem-Borno: The prologue of the Diwan" , Borno Museum Society Newsletter 76-84 (2010), 79-103.

2009 "An Assyrian successor state in West Africa : the ancestral kings of Kebbi as ancient Near Eastern rulers ", Anthropos, 104, 2, 359-382.

-      "Biblical patriarchs from a pre-canonical source mentioned in the Diwan of Kanem-Bornu (Lake Chad region) ", Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 121, 4 (2009), 588-597. 

-      "The early magistrates and kings of Kanem as Assyrian state builders", Anthropos, 104, 1 (2009), 3-24. http://fr.calameo.com

 2008 "Immigration of the Chadic-speaking Sao towards 600 BCE ", Borno Museum Society Newsletter 72-75 (2008),  84-106.

-       "Islamic feedback or ancient Near Eastern survivals?" Paideuma 54 (2008), 253-264. 

2007 "The emergence of social complexity in the southern Chad Basin towards 500 BC: Archaeological and other evidence," Borno Museum Society Newsletter 68-71 (2007),  49-68.

2006 "The Mune as the Ark of the Covenant between Duguwa and Sefuwa [in ancient Kanem]", Borno Museum Society Newsletter 66-67 (2006), 15-25. 

In press:

-      "The Assyrian factor in West African history", in: W. van Binsbergen (ed.), Rethinking Africa's Transcontinental Continuities

-      "New evidence on the foundation of Kanem: Archaeology, Yemenite traditions and Zaghawa origins", in: A. G. Shettima (ed.), Borno Millennium Conference, Maiduguri, 12-16th November 2007 (in preparation).

2006a  "Staatengründungen in Westafrika", H. Hogen (Hg.), ZEIT-Weltgeschichte, Bd. IX, Hamburg, 114-138.

2006b “Das Überleben der kanaanäischen Kultur in Schwarzafrika: Totenkultbünde bei den Yoruba und in Ugarit“,  Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 72, 2 (2006), 303-345.

2005 “Die Egungun bei den Yoruba und in Ugarit (Syrien). Ein Beitrag der Ethnologie zur Altorientalistik“, in: K. Geisenhainer und K. Lange (Hrsg.), Bewegliche Horizonte. Festschrift für Bernhard Streck, Leipzig, Universitätsverlag, 265-282. 

2004d "Die Gründung der Hausastaaten: Ein Plädoyer für eine historische Ethnologie", in: K. Beck et al. (eds.), Blick nach vorn: Festgabe für Gerd Spittler, Köln, 28-39.

2004a "West Africa and the Classical World. Neglected Contexts", Bley, Helmut, et. al. (eds.): Africa in Context - 19th International Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association in Germany, Hannover June 2-5, Hannover, CD-ROM, Historisches Seminar, Universität Hannover, 20 S.

2003 "Der Ursprung des Bösen: Neue Evidenzen aus Afrika, Kanaan und Israel", in: W. H. Ritter und J. A. Schlumberger (Hg.), Das Böse in der Geschichte, Dettelbach, 1-27.

1999 "Äthiopien im Kontext der semitischen Welt: Die Königin von Saba als kanaanäische Liebesgöttin", in: H P. Hahn and G. Spittler (eds.), Afrika und die Globalisierung, Münster, Lit-Verlag, 269-277. (Ethiopia in the context of the Semitic world: The Queen of Sheba as the [legendarised] Canaanite deity of love).     Reviewed by Prof. M. Köckert in: Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche  Wissenschaft 113_2001_p. 120     

2004c "Review of Farias, Inscriptions (2003)" , Afrika und Übersee 87,  302-305 
2004b "Not yet Songhay", Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 99, 2, 145-156 Review of Hunwick, Timbuktu, 2003) 

5. Influences of Ancient Globalizaton on Africa (2005)

1981 "Un document_de_la_fin_du_XVIIe sìècle sur le commerce transsaharien", in: J. Devisse (ed.), Le sol, la parole et l'écrit. Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny, Paris, 673-684.

1977 with Silvio Berthoud, "Article_Al-Qasaba.et d'autres villes de la route centrale du Sahara", Paideuma 23, 181-200.

1987 “The Chad region as a crossroads”, in: M. al-Fasi (ed.), General History of Africa (UNESCO), vol. III, 436-460.

1984 “The kingdoms and peoples of Chad”, in: D. T. Niane (ed.), General History of Africa, (UNESCO), vol. IV, Paris, 238-265.

2005c "The Phoenician slave trade and the rise of states in the Central Sudan", in: François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar et Bertrand Hirsch (eds.), Mélanges Jean Boulègue (in press).

2003 "Der Ursprung des Bösen: Neue Evidenzen aus Afrika, Kanaan und Israel", in: W. H. Ritter und J. Schlumberger (eds.), Das Böse in der Geschichte, Dettelbach, 1-27.
    Reviewed by Jan Christian Gertz, Heidelberg, Zeitschrift für
       Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 118, 1 (2006), 130.

    2000b Rev. art., "Pemberton/Afolayan, Yoruba Sacred Kingship, 1996",         Odu, 40, 225-229.

2000a "Jesus und das Auferstehungsfest der Yoruba", in: U. Engel et al. (eds.), Afrika 2000 (17th Biennial Conference of Africanists in Germany), Leipzig 30th March to 1st April, Leipzig, 12 S.

    1999d Rev. art., "M. Smith, Government of Kano", Orientalische
     Literaturzeitung 94, 1 (1999), 124-127 (Engl. Transl. "Smith, Government
     in Kano, 1997", Mega-Tchad 99, 45-48.

1999c "Äthiopien im Kontext der semitischen Welt: Die Königin von Saba als kanaanäische Liebesgöttin", in: H. P. Hahn und G. Spittler (eds.), Afrika und die Globalisierung, Münster, 269-277.
Review by prof. M. Köckert in: Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 113_2001_p. 120

1999b "Das kanaanäisch-israelitische Neujahrsfest der Hausa", in: M. Kropp und A. Wagner (eds.), Schnittpunkt Ugarit, Frankfurt/M 1999, 109-162. Review by M. Dietrich in: Ugarit-Forschungen_30_1998_p. 823  
Review by E. J. Waschke in: Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 112,_2000_p. 477.

1999a "Das hebräische Erbe der Yoruba, II: Israelitische Geschichte und kanaanäischer Kult", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 149, 79-144.

1998b "Das sakrale Königtum der Hausa", in: T. Förster (ed.), Afrikaforschung in Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 77-82.

1998a "Zwischen Regenwald und Wüste - die Großreiche der westlichen Sudanzone (9. - 16. Jh.)", in: M. Münter-Elfner (ed.), Die Weltgeschichte - Brockhaus, Bd. III, Mannheim, 620-631.

1997b "Bornu region, history", J. Middelton (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Subsaharan Africa, Bd. I, New York, 189-190.

1997a "Das hebräische Erbe der Yoruba: I. Ursprungssagen, Schöpfungsmythen und Festrituale", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 147, 79-138.

1996b "The Almoravid expansion and the downfall of Ghana", Der Islam 73, 122-159 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 455-493; comments, 564-5).

1996a "La chute de la dynastie des Sissé: Considérations sur la dislocation de l'empire du Ghana à partir de l'histoire de Gao", History in Africa 23, 155-178 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 431-454; comments, 563-4).

1995e "Die Geschichte des westlichen Hausalandes und die Identifikation der Kanta-Sage als akkadische Ursprungstradition", in: G. Spittler und E. Breitinger (eds.), Afrikaforschung an der Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 80-84.

1995d "Ife and the origin of the Yoruba: Historiographical considerations", Ife: Annals of the Institute of Cultural Studies (Ife) 6, 39-49 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 307-318; comments,  560).

1995c "Ife und der Ursprung der Yoruba: Historiographische Betrachtungen", Periplus 5, 141-152.

1995b "Links between West Africa and the Ancient Orient", in: H. Willer et al. (eds.), Macht der Identität - Identität der Macht, Münster, 347-369 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 319-341; comments, 560-1).

1995a "The pre-Islamic dimension of Hausa history", Saeculum 46, 2, 161-203 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 171-213; comments, 558-9).

1994c "The Almoravids and the Islamization of the Great States of West Africa", in: R. Gyselen (ed.), Res Orientales, VI (Mélanges Claude Cahen), Bures-sur-Yvette, 65-76.

1994b "Der Ursprung des westafrikanischen Wettergottes Schango", Saeculum 45, 213-238.

1994a "From Mande to Songhay: Towards a political and ethnic history of medieval Gao", Journal of African History 35, 275-301 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 403-429; comments, 562-3).

1993b "Die Hausa-Tradition in ihrer Abhängigkeit von Kanem-Borno und Nubien", Anthropos 88, 47-76.

1993a "Ethnogenesis from within the Chadic state. Some thoughts on the history of Kanem-Borno", Paideuma 39, 261-277 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 137-153; comments, 555-7).

1992c "Ethnogenesis and the state in the Lake Chad region", in: E. B. Ruano und M. E. Burgos (eds.), 17e Congrès International des Sciences Historiques, Madrid, 651-660.

1992b "Das alte Mali und Ghana: Die Kritik einer historiographischen Fiktion", Historische Zeitschrift 255, 587-623.

1992a "Ein vernachläßigtes Forschungsgebiet: die Geschichte des westafrikanischen Mittelalters", Saeculum 43, 4, 291-306.

1991c (with R. Baumhauer) "Der Alaun des Kawar (Niger): Vorkommen und Abbau", Paideuma 37, 223-231.

1991b "Das frühe Kebbi und Mali: Versuch einer historischen Interpretation der Kanta-Traditionen", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 141 (1991), 139-166.

1991a "Les rois de Gao-Sané et les Almoravides", Journal of African History 32, 251-275 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 377-401; comments, 562).

1990 "Die Königinmutter im Tschadseegebiet: historische Betrachtungen", Paideuma 36, 139-156.

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1989 "Préliminaires à une histoire des Sao", Journal of African History 30, 189-210 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 115-136; comments, 554-5).

1988c "Der Ursprung des Namens 'Hausa' und die Entstehung der Hausa-Legende", in: H. Hagedorn und R. Baumhauer (eds.), Geowissenschaftliche Untersuchungen in Afrika, Würzburg, 305-315.

1988b "Neue Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte von Songhay", Afrika und Übersee 71, 5-15.

1988a "Trois hauts dignitaires bornoans du XVIe siècle: le Digma, le grand Jarma et le Cikama", Journal of African History  29, 177-189 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 101-113; comments, 552-4).

1987d "The evolution of the Hausa story: from Bawo to Bayajidda", Afrika und Übersee 70, 195-209 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 155-169;  comments, 558).

1987b Contribution à l'histoire médiévale du Borno et des États Hausa, Thèse de Doctorat d'État, Paris-Sorbonne, directed by J. Devisse and E. Haberland (not publ.).

Dierk Lange, A Sudanic Chronicle: The Bornu Expeditions of Idris Alauma (1564-1576), Stuttgart 1987.

1986c "A Sudanic Chronicle: The Borno expeditions of Idris Alauma according to the account of Ahmad b. Furtu", Bulletin d'Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae 11/12, 1986/1987, 42-47.

1986b "Notes sur Njimi, capitale du Kanem", Bulletin d'Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae 11/12, 1986/1987, 36-40.

1986a "Society in the Lake Chad area at the end of the Byzantine period, prior to the introduction of Islam", Libya Antiqua (The General History of Africa, UNESCO: Studies and Documents, 11) Paris, 235-42.

1984c "Niger", in: R. Hofmeier und M. Schönborn (eds.), Politisches Lexikon Afrikas, München, 240-248.

1984b "Notes sur le Kawar au Moyen-Age", Mu Kara Sani (Niamey) 3, 1, 12-18 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 43-47; comments,  547-8).

1983 "L'alun du Kawar: une exportation africaine vers l'Europe", Cahiers du Centre de Recherches Africaines 2, 21-4 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 35-41;  comments, 547).

1982 "L'éviction des Sefuwa du Kanem et l'origine des Bulala", Journal of African History 23, 315-331 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 83-99;  comments, 551-2).

1981 "Un document de la fin du XVIIe siècle sur le commerce transsaharien": J. Devisse (ed.), Le sol, la parole et l'écrit. Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny, Paris, vol. II, 673-84.

1980 "La région du lac Tchad d'après la Géographie d'Ibn Sa'id: texte et cartes", Revue d'Islamologie 16, 149-181.

1979c (with R. O'Fahey und J. Hunwick) "Two glosses concerning the Bilad al-Sudan on a manuscript of al-Nuwayri's Nihayat al-'Arab", Bulletin d'Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae 5, 16-24.

1979b "Un texte de Maqrizi sur les 'races des Sudan'", Revue d'Islamologie 15, 187-209.

1979a "Les lieux de sépulture des rois sefuwa (Kanem-Bornu)", Paideuma 25, 145-57 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 69-81; comments, 550-1).

1978b "Quelques remarques sur le Kitab ghazawat Barnu", Bulletin d'Information, Fontes Historiae Africanae 4, 45-7.

1978a "Progrès de l'Islam et changements politiques au K1nem du XIe au XIIIe siècle: un essai d'interprétation", Journal of African History 19 (4), 495-513 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 49-67; comments, 549-550).

1977a Chronologie et histoire d'un royaume africain: le diwan des sultans du Kanem-Bornu,  Wiesbaden, F. Steiner.

1977b (with S. Berthoud) "Al-Qasaba et d'autres villes de la route centrale du Sahara", Paideuma 23, 181-200 (reprinted in Lange, Ancient Kingdoms, 13-34; comments,  545-547).

1974 Contribution à l'histoire dynastique du Kanem-Bornu (des origines jusqu'au début du XIXesiècle), Thèse de 3ème Cycle dirigée par R. Mauny, Paris-Sorbonne (publ. 1977a).

1972b (with S. Berthoud) "L'intérieur de l'Afrique Occidentale d'après Giovanni Lorenzo Anania (XVIe siècle)", Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale 14 (2), 299-250.

1972a "Un vocabulaire kanuri de la fin du XVIIe siècle", Cahiers d'Études Africaines 12 (2), 277-90.