Defining Regions of Pre-Colonial Africa: A Controlled Vocabulary for Linking Open-Source Data in Digital History Projects

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Henry B. Lovejoy, University of Colorado; Paul E. Lovejoy, York University; Walter Hawthorne, Michigan State University; Edward A. Alpers, University of California Los Angeles; Mariana Candido, Emory University; Matthew S. Hopper, California Polytechnic State University; Ghislaine Lydon, University of California Los Angeles; Colleen E. Kriger, University of North Carolina; John Thornton, Boston University
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1017/hia.2020.17
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: History in Africa
• Volume: 48
• Start Page: 9
• End Page: 34
• Keywords: data containers; sub-regions; pre-colonial Africa; digital humanities
• Research Categories: History, African

Abstract

Regionalizing pre-colonial Africa aids in the collection and interpretation of primary sources as data for further analysis. This article includes a map with six broad regions and 34 sub-regions, which form a controlled vocabulary within which researchers may geographically organize and classify disparate pieces of information related to Africa’s past. In computational terms, the proposed African regions serve as data containers in order to consolidate, link, and disseminate research among a growing trend in digital humanities projects related to the history of the African diasporas before c. 1900. Our naming of regions aims to avoid terminologies derived from European slave traders, colonialism, and modern-day countries.