Willing Migrants: Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848-1960 (Western African Studies) - Softcover

Francois Manchuelle Martin A. Klein; Martin A. Klein

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0852557566 ISBN 13: 9780852557563

Publisher: James Currey, 1998

Synopsis

Of all France's black African migrants, 85 per cent are Soninke from one area of West Africa. This study of their migration to Europe challenges the view that they were coerced by colonial tax and violence and claims that the evidence shows rather that they were indeed willing migrants. North America: Ohio U Press

About this title

About the Author

François Manchuelle was killed on TWA 800 flight to Paris in 1996. He taught at Georgia Southern University, Bowdoin College, New York University, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. At the time of his death, he was Associate Director of Africana Studies and the Institute for Afro-American Affairs at New York University.

Review

Having silenced traditional migration theory, Manchuelle called instead for a historical typology of migrations which would include all migrations worldwide. For one of the delights of this enjoyable book is his constantly finding analogies outside Africa - with peasant migrations from the Auvergne or Corsica, with transatlantic migrations, with the flow of seasonal traders into the Chinese Empire from Szechwan, or his setting the high wages earned in Senegal in the 1880s against the starvation wages then paid in rural Normandy. How sad that we shall have no more delights from this lively-minded, erudite and cultured historian. - Christopher Fyfe in JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES

Edition details

• Publisher: James Currey
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0852557566
• ISBN 13: 9780852557563
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 392