A Ritual Geology: Gold and Subterranean Knowledge in Savanna West Africa

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A Ritual Geology: Gold and Subterranean Knowledge in Savanna West Africa

by Robyn d'Avignon

Duke University Press, 2022

ISBNs

Cloth: 978-1-4780-1583-3

Paper: 978-1-4780-1847-6

eISBN: 978-1-4780-9267-4 (OA)

eISBN: 978-1-4780-2307-4 (standard)

About the Book

Set against the ongoing corporate enclosure of West Africa’s goldfields, A Ritual Geology tells the untold history of one of the world’s oldest indigenous gold mining industries: Francophone West Africa’s orpaillage. Establishing African miners as producers of subterranean knowledge, Robyn d’Avignon uncovers a dynamic “ritual geology” of techniques and cosmological engagements with the earth developed by agrarian residents of gold-bearing rocks in savanna West Africa. Colonial and corporate exploration geology in the region was built upon the ritual knowledge, gold discoveries, and skilled labor of African miners even as states racialized African mining as archaic, criminal, and pagan. Spanning the medieval and imperial past to the postcolonial present, d’Avignon weaves together long-term ethnographic and oral historical work in southeastern Senegal with archival and archeological evidence from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali. A Ritual Geology introduces transnational geological formations as a new regional framework for African studies, environmental history, and anthropology.

About the Author

Robyn d’Avignon is Assistant Professor of History at New York University.

Reviews

“The foremost contribution of A Ritual Geology is the representation of African miners as intellectual actors. . . . A Ritual Geology is impressive. It is crucial reading for anthropologists and historians looking to understand decolonial methodologies. It should also find a readership among actors who intervene in mining worlds, be it as corporate employees, state officials or development agencies.”

-- Dr Dagna Rams LSE Review of Books

“Examining the ritual meaning of mining—which focuses on African relations with territorial spirits—[D’Avignon] brings a rich new perspective to understanding the mining industry, which considers Africans as intellectual actors, not just exploited laborers who were forced to work in European-owned mines because of land alienation. Recommended.”

-- E. S. Schmidt Choice

"D’Avignon illuminates the complex narrative of African knowledge production and resource extraction using thick ethnographic descriptions, oral and life histories, and archival sources. ... [The] book is refreshing and provokes debates about African artisanal miners and local knowledge."

-- Jabulani Shaba H-Environment, H-Net Reviews

"It is a rare to read a book that is, at once, innovative in its methodology, provocative in its argument, convincing in its claims and evidentiary foundations, and beautifully written throughout. ... [D'Avignon's] book testifies to the complex and often moving insights that can be gained from approaching peoples and places, of the past and of the present, with humble curiosity and a profound sense of shared humanity."

-- Emily Lynn Osborn Journal of African History

"Historians of geology, anthropologists focused on mining, and anyone interested in the relationship between West Africa’s futures and its longue durée will all find this book tremendously valuable."
-- Tom Özden-Schilling American Ethnologist

“Robyn d’Avignon . . . has written a pathbreaking book that will be of interest not only to an academic audience but also to a broader public one. . . . D’Avignon sheds light on what might seem obvious but is often made invisible in many histories of science on Africa: the historical continuities and relevance of local knowledge and ontologies in the modeling of technical, social, and economic aspects of the practices historians examine.”

-- Sara Albuquerque Isis

“A Ritual Geology makes a remarkable contribution to mining studies by weaving together geological knowledge and accounts of ritual practices through interdisciplinary inquiry. . . . Scholars investigating small-scale and corporate mining in sub-Saharan Africa— particularly historians and anthropologists—will find this book a worthwhile read.”

-- Fahmi Fahroji Exertions