PROFESSOR
ELISÉE SOUMONNI
IBERDA, Université Nationale du Bénin
NETWORK PROFESSOR YORK/UNESCO NIGERIAN HINTERLAND PROJECT
Since the late 1960s, Professor
Soumonni has been teaching and conducting research in West Africa, first at the
University of Ile-Ife (now Awolowo University), where he received his Ph.D., then at
Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, and since 1984 at the Université Nationale du Bénin in
Cotonou. He currently is Coordinator of Institut Béninois d'études et de recherche sur
la diaspora africaine (IBERDA). In 1997/98 Professor Soumonni was a Fulbright Research
Scholar at Emory University, Atlanta. He currently holds a Leverhulme Trust Visiting
Fellowship at the University of Hull (U.K.), where he is collaborating with Professor
David Richardson on a variety of projects associated with the Nigerian Hinterland Project.
He is a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO "Slave
Route" Project, and he sits on the Steering Committee of the UNESCO ASPnet
Transatlantic Slave Trade (TST) Education Project. He is the Chair of the Organizing
Committee for the forthcoming IBERDA/EPA/NHP conference: "Aguda: Aspects of
Afro-Brazilian Heritage in the Bight of Benin" (Porto-Novo, République du Bénin,
26-30 November 2001) and is a member of the Text and Testimony Collective.
Professor Soumonni's research focuses on the
slave ports of the Bight of Benin, as well as the specific history of Dahomey and the
various Yoruba states. He is currently writing a book with Professor Paul Lovejoy on the
History of Atlantic Africa; his ongoing research includes a biography of Pierre Tamata,
the leading merchant at Porto-Novo at the end of the eighteenth century. In addition, he
is also engaged in a larger project on the biographies of Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban
families in the towns of the Bight of Benin.
During his tenure as a Network Professor at the
Nigerian Hinterland Project, Professor Soumonni has participated in various conferences
and workshops, and he has presented papers at the Tubman Seminar "Afro-Brazilian
Returnees to the Bight of Benin." Professor Soumonni has been particularly helpful in
advising graduate students, both at York and within the Network. He recently participated
in the African American History Month at the University of the West Indies (Mona), and
helped to launch the Text and Testimony Collective. He also presented a public lecture
'The Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Inter-Ethnic Relations in Contemporary
Africa' (23 February 2001). In October 2001, Professor Soumonni will undertake a five-week
lecture tour of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Bahia) and Cuba (Havana) under the
auspices of Amsterdam-based SEPHIS. His lectures will focus on themes relating to Dahomey
and the Atlantic world.
As Coordinator of IBERDA, Université Nationale
du Bénin, Professor Soumonni is charged with implementing the mandate of the UNESCO
"Slave Route" Project, which at its inaugural conference in Ouidah in 1993,
unanimously recommended that a research institution on the African diaspora be established
in West Africa. In response, the York/UNESCO Nigerian Hinterland Project, with the support
of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the Network Professor
Program, has assisted in the development of a program of research and institutional
planning in support of IBERDA. The Nigerian Hinterland Project has provided a network
which has assisted in this endeavour through the establishment of institutional links with
the University of the West Indies, the University of Hull, Emory University, and various
institutions in Latin America.
Publications
Chapters in Books
| 1999 |
'The Administration of a Port of the Slave Trade: Ouidah in the Nineteenth
Century' in Robin Law & Silke Strickrodt (eds.), Ports of the Slave Trade (Bights of
Benin and Biafra), Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling) |
| 1997 |
'The Neglected Local Source Material for Studying the Slave Trade and
Slavery in Dahomey', in Robin Law (ed.), Source Material for Studying The Slave Trade and
the African Diaspora (Centre of Commonwealth Studies, University of Stirling) |
| 1995 |
'The Compatibility of the Slave and Palm Oil Trades in Dahomey', in Robin
Law (ed.), From Slave to 'Legitimate' Commerce. The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth
Century West Africa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) |
| 1993 |
'The Policy of Trans-border Chieftaincy Institutions: the Yoruba astride
the Nigeria-Benin Border', in A.I.Asiwaju & O.J.P.Igue, The Nigeria-Benin Trans-border
Co-operation (University of Lagos Press, Lagos) |
| 1992 |
'Aspects des mouvements nationalistes en Pays Yoruba', in C.R.Ageron &
M.Michel (eds.), L'Afrique noire française: l'heure des independences (Editions du CNRS,
Paris) |
| 1991 |
'Historiography of Dahomean Yorubaland', in T.Falola (ed.), Yoruba
Historiograohy (African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc.) |
Articles
| 2001 |
'Some Reflections on the Brazilian Legacy in Dahomey', Slavery and
Abolition, vol. 22 |
| 1998 |
'De l'interieur a la cote: des lacunes à combler dans l'étude de la
traite negriere au Dahomey', Cahiers des Anneaux de la Memoire, vol. 1 |
| 1991 |
'Pour un programme coherent de recherche en histoire nationale', Afrika
Zamani, New Series, vol. 1, Special Issue on Benin. |
Conference Papers
| 1999 |
'Ouidah dans le reseau de la traite negriere transatlantique' (Universidad
de Costa Rica, San Jose, 23-26 February 1999) |
| 2000 |
'The Afro-Brazilian Communities of Ouidah and Lagos: a Comparative
Analysis,' Conference on "Enslaving Connections: Africa and Brazil during the Era of
the Slave" (York University, 12-15 October 2000) |
| 2001 |
'Lacustrine Villages in South Benin as Refuges against the Slave Trade,'
Conference on "Fighting Back: African Strategies Against the Slave Trade"
(Rutgers University, 16-17 February 2001)
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