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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Fonti orali, trascrizioni, 'costruzioni': un manoscritto inedito sulla cronologia del regno di Porto-Novo (Hogbonu)
Author:Giordano, RosarioISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione
Volume:60
Issue:3-4
Pages:341-360
Language:Italian
Geographic term:Benin
Subjects:Porto-Novo polity
chronology
historiography
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/40761806
Abstract:The discovery of an unpublished mansucript, written in 1877, allows the author to re-examine certain historical and historiographical issues concerning the chronology of the Porto-Novo kingdom (Benin) as this was established in 1953 by A. Akindélé and C. Aguessy. This chronology has been blindly accepted in subsequent publications. The various stories, transmitted both in writing and orally in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, suggest the creation of a tradition on the origin of the kingdom that reveals a divergence with regard to the genealogy of the dynasty between a more ancient tradition (the 1877 manuscript) and the more recent one (the 1953 publication). In this divergence two aspects are significant: the rivalry with the more powerful 'brother' kingdom of Dahomey, and, related to the colonial context, the desire of providing Porto Novo with a written history according to European cultural standards. Notes, ref., sum. in English and French, text in Italian. [Journal abstract]
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