5. Similar cycles of change
UNMECHANIZED AGRICULTURE MEANS THAT COMMUNAL AGRICULTURE IS AT BOTH
SOCIETIES' BASE...
Les très riches heures du duc de Berry, June / zoom
But economic growth brings an individual search for profit, that customs and philosophies inevitably reflect.
The profit-seekers break rules that restrict them: For the Senufo gender associations that obliterate class lines. For Protestants, please read on. Conflict is inevitable:
- In Djimini, between Tofanga with his "pagan" song and non-pagans, who can only be Muslims and so traders.
- In France, the 16th-century "Wars of Religion" between Catholics who limit private and nascent capitalists who promote it.
Le Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy (detail) by François Dubois, toward 1580 / zoom
Strife ends in compromise.
- Tofanga voluntarily cedes to Gnapon, a "warrior" who establishes Bokhala, the region's first market.
- Catholics accept Protestants and their destabilizing activities (the Edict of Nantes in 1598) which a much stronger monarchy (that of the Bourbons) controls.
Economic growth and political centralization characterize both societies for almost a century.
- In Dimini, stronger authority is implied by Gnapon being succeeded by his son Nambolosse, a warrior who keeps the traders under control until his death (in 1878). The new market of Bokhola prospers, and others spring up.
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Zoom |
- In France five years of civil war (the Fronde, in 1648-1653) confirm the exceptionally powerful kingship (that monuments along the main trade route already show).
Combat of two horsemen during the Fronde, anonymous, 17th century / zoom
Conflict breaks out again:
- In Djimini, the Muslim producers become more powerful and sweep over much of the savannah, establishing theocracies whose economic dynamism is based on intensive slave labor. The legendary conqueror Samory defeats the Senufo, enslaves them and establishes such a state (in 1894).
Animist horseman / zoom
- In France, Louis XIV* eliminates the emerging capitalists, who convert to Catholicism or leave France.
*Active, 1660-1715
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Louis XIV, roi de France en tenue du sacre ("Louis XIV in coronation costume") by Hyacinthe Regaud, 1701 / zoom |
In spite of the extreme misery that wars of choice soon bring, his monarchy is reinforced and economic growth is slowed.
The cycle ends in Djimini when an outside force steps in and in France when growth can no longer be contained.
- In Djimini the French conquerors liberate the captive labor force and impose their own economy,
- In France when the French Revolution and Revolution of 1830 bring capitalism's success.
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These pages have suggested
another view of African history.
Now they do the same for France.
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