Une histoire maritime africaine est-elle possible ? Historiographie et histoire de la navigation et de la pêche africaines à la côte occidentale depuis le XVe siècle.

Résumé En

J.-P. Chauveau — Is a Maritime History of Africa Possible? Historiography and History of African Navigation and Fishing on the West Coast since the i$th Century. Historical works dealing with African societies' relationship to the sea indicate that they ignored the marine milieu or even found it repulsive. The recurring environ-mental and historical arguments supporting this 'fact' are examined and criticized from the view-point of their inner validity. It is quite exceptional to find it examined in itself. Even so, such an examination is biased by the representative interference of external factors—mainly the 'great inland history' and the European expansion. The 'maritime fact' is held for null or negligible simply because it cannot be conceived within the frame of African historiography and its attendant notions. In opposition to this interpretation, we are proposing an outline reconstruction of West African maritime history from the Mauretanian to the Nigerian coast. The existence of marine foci before the coming of the Portuguese and their conti-nuity up to the 2oth century are presented in their relation with the main environ-mental and historical factors. The conclusion sets forth the hypothesis that, far from being unilaterally determined by the 'European factor', West African maritime history has been a precondition of Afro-European contacts and an important element in the development and shaping of European settlement. That is not without consequences touching the historical interpretation of the relations between 'economies-worlds'. (A note by G. Chauvet on The Repartition of Pathogenic Risks bound to Vector Endémies in Relation to Phytoclimatic Milieus is appended to this paper.)