Ancient Near Eastern Studies:
Kaiser, O., Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 119, 2007, p. 145.
Otto Kaiser is professor em. and Dr. h.c. mult. of Old Testament Studies at the University of Marburg. At present he is still the editor of TUAT, a three volume edition of Texts of the Ancient Near East in Relation to the Old Testament. He is also the honorary editor of the journal ZAW of which he has been the chief editor for many years. He is considered to be the dean of Old Testament Studies in Germany.
In his view there exist "remarkable parallels between the New Year Festival of Ife and Ugarit...A similar festival is very likely to have also been celebrated in Israel although the details provided by the Psalms are only fragmentary. Therefore it is all the more important to compare them with the findings of the author...The scholars of Old Testaments studies would be well advised to have their eyes sharpened by the remarkable cult-dramatic details of the festival and its myth...The two chapters of the book concerning the history of the Hausa and the New Year Festival of Ife are strongly recommanded to the scholars of Old Testament studies".
Oswald Loretz is professor em. of Biblical and Orientalist studies at the University of Münster. He is a leading specialist of Ugaritic studies. His review concludes “from the side of Orientalist studies one should be grateful to the author for his courage to have opened up and to have set foot on a new field of research”.Otto Kaiser is professor em. and Dr. h.c. mult. of Old Testament Studies at the University of Marburg. At present he is still the editor of TUAT, a three volume edition of Texts of the Ancient Near East in Relation to the Old Testament. He is also the honorary editor of the journal ZAW of which he has been the chief editor for many years. He is considered to be the dean of Old Testament Studies in Germany.
In his view there exist "remarkable parallels between the New Year Festival of Ife and Ugarit...A similar festival is very likely to have also been celebrated in Israel although the details provided by the Psalms are only fragmentary. Therefore it is all the more important to compare them with the findings of the author...The scholars of Old Testaments studies would be well advised to have their eyes sharpened by the remarkable cult-dramatic details of the festival and its myth...The two chapters of the book concerning the history of the Hausa and the New Year Festival of Ife are strongly recommanded to the scholars of Old Testament studies".
Niemeyer, H. G., "Blick auf Afrika", Antike Welt, Zeitschrift für Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte 37, 1, 2006, 101.
Hans Georg Niemeyer is professor em. of Ancient history and archaeology at the University of Hamburg. He is a leading specialist of the Phoenician expansion. In his opinion it is quite plausible to suppose wide reaching effects of the Phoenician expansion on sub-Saharan Africa. He thinks that “further thorough and unprejudiced research will eventually uncover even more mythological and institutional parallels” between the sub-Saharan societies and the Canaanite-Phoenician world of North Africa.
Edith Bruder is a research associate of the CNRS. The basis of her book was a PhD written under the supervison of Prof. Tudor Parfitt at the SOAS, London. She places Ancient Kingdoms in the context of considerations of earlier scholars - now considered obsolete - concerning the migration of Jews to sub-Saharan Africa.
African History and Anthropology:
Baroin, C., Bulletin Méga-Tchad, 20 (2005), 48-50.
Catherine Baroin is Directrice de Recherche in Anthropology in the CNRS and she ist the editor of the Bulletin Méga-Tchad. She has written several books and a great number of articles on various anthropological topics and in particular on the Teda-Dazza of Niger and Chad. She considers the parallels between the cult-mythology of Hausa and Yoruba society on one hand and Canaanite-Israelite society on the other in some detail and agrees that these structural elements point to ancient connections.
Barrows, L. C., International Journal of African Historical Studies 39, 1 (2006), 171-3.
Leland Conley Barrows is professor of history at the Voorhees College, Denmark, South Carolina, US. He finished his PhD 1974 in UCLA and is a specialist of French colonial history. Formerly he also taught at the University of Constantine, Algeria.
Leland Conley Barrows is professor of history at the Voorhees College, Denmark, South Carolina, US. He finished his PhD 1974 in UCLA and is a specialist of French colonial history. Formerly he also taught at the University of Constantine, Algeria.
Helmut Bley is professor emeritus of African and World History at the University of Hannover. He was the first German academic to teach African history at University level and he is the dean of Arican history in Germany. Specializing in modern African history he trained a number of later German historians occupying University positions.
Harding, L., Historische Zeitschrift, 282, 1 (2006), 163-164.
Leonard Harding is professor of African History emeritus of the University of Hamburg. He is a specialist of modern African history. He has also written an apologetical study on Sheikh Anta Diop, the Senegalese precursor of Afrocentism. He agrees with the idea that the Phoenicians reached the region of Lake Chad and established various states there but his is reluctant to follow the author with respect to the Canaanite-Israelite background of the New Year festival of Ife (Yoruba).
comment to L. Harding
Leonard Harding is professor of African History emeritus of the University of Hamburg. He is a specialist of modern African history. He has also written an apologetical study on Sheikh Anta Diop, the Senegalese precursor of Afrocentism. He agrees with the idea that the Phoenicians reached the region of Lake Chad and established various states there but his is reluctant to follow the author with respect to the Canaanite-Israelite background of the New Year festival of Ife (Yoruba).
comment to L. Harding
Henige, D., Paideuma 53 (2007), 284-287.
David Henige from the University of Wisconsin, USA, is known for his methodolocial approach to African history. In 1982 he wrote Oral Historiography, London, in which he outlines he significance of feedback phenomena for African oral traditions. He tends to believe that all Biblical survivals in Africa must derive from loans taken from the Bibel or the Koran. Being convinced of fast changes in African societies he neglects the importance of the longue durée for the study of African history.
Reply to D. Henige, Paideuma 54 (2008), 353-264.
David Henige from the University of Wisconsin, USA, is known for his methodolocial approach to African history. In 1982 he wrote Oral Historiography, London, in which he outlines he significance of feedback phenomena for African oral traditions. He tends to believe that all Biblical survivals in Africa must derive from loans taken from the Bibel or the Koran. Being convinced of fast changes in African societies he neglects the importance of the longue durée for the study of African history.
Reply to D. Henige, Paideuma 54 (2008), 353-264.
It is rather disppointing that Henige does not answer to any of the objections addessed to his review of my Ancient Kingdoms. He now shifts his arguments from methodological critizism to the a priori assumption that oral traditions and rituals cannot survive for 3000 years. The exemples from the Christian world he provides do not disprove the possibility of a much longer retention of these phenomena in societies developping at a slower rythm. To reject the corresponding results without any consideration of the available evidence has more to do with wishful thinking than with historical analysis.
Osswald, R., Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 102, 1 (2007), 112-116.
Rainer Osswald is professor of Islam and particularly of Islam in Africa at the University of Bayreuth. He has specialized on the history of Islam in Africa writing on the history of Islam in Mauretania and on the Jihad of Northern Nigeria.
The author summerizes correctly some of the older and the three extensive new contributions concerning the history of the Hausa, the Yoruba and the Middle Niger. He appreciates the innovative thust of the ideas expressed with respect to Ancient Near Eastern influences on the process of state building in the Central Sudan.
Rainer Osswald is professor of Islam and particularly of Islam in Africa at the University of Bayreuth. He has specialized on the history of Islam in Africa writing on the history of Islam in Mauretania and on the Jihad of Northern Nigeria.
The author summerizes correctly some of the older and the three extensive new contributions concerning the history of the Hausa, the Yoruba and the Middle Niger. He appreciates the innovative thust of the ideas expressed with respect to Ancient Near Eastern influences on the process of state building in the Central Sudan.
Weisser, G., Journal of African Archaeology, 3, 2 (2005), 297-299.
Gabriele Weisser helds a doctorate in Historical Anthropology. Presently she participates in a DFG sponsored Research Program of the Frobenius Institute, University of Francfort, concerning the pictoral heritage of Leo Frobenius.
Vansina, J., private letter to the author 15/2/2005
Jan Vansina is professor emeritus of history and anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published a number of books on African history and is considered the most influential living scholar in the field of pre-colonial African history. His positive assessment to the author's comparisons are partly the result of his historical and anthropolgical approach.____________________________________________________________________________ African Archaeology:
Gronenborn, D., Anthropos 101 (2006), 299-300.
Dr. Detlef Gronenborn is an archaeologist who has conducted serveral compaigns of field research in the region south of Lake Chad. Subsequently he completed a thesis on the achaeology and history of the chiefdoms south of Lake Chad from the seventh to the twentieth century. He appreciates the studies concerning the medieval period and considers the suggestions for ancient history as interesting but on the whole too speculative.
comment to D. Gronenborn
Insoll, T., Journal of African History 47 (2006), 491-492.
Timothy Insoll was born in 1967 and is professor of archaeology at the University of Manchester. He is a specialist of Islamic archaeology and has done field research in Gao in eastern Mali and elsewhere.
comment to T. Insoll
Others:
Eschenbacher, U., "Fazit aus dreißig Jahren Forschung", Nordbayrischer Kurier, Thursday 1/8/2006, 8
The article is based on an interview with the author and has two original photos from Ile-Ife, one showing members of the cult-group of Obatala and the other members of the Oluyare/Igbo.
Jacques Debergh, Latomus, n° 67 (2008), p. 269.
The article is based on an interview with the author and has two original photos from Ile-Ife, one showing members of the cult-group of Obatala and the other members of the Oluyare/Igbo.
Jacques Debergh, Latomus, n° 67 (2008), p. 269.
In preparation:
Alfred Adler, L'Homme
Vittorio Morabito, Afrique et Histoire
Paolo Xella, Rivista di Studi Fenici