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

In Francophone West Africa, orpaillage, an ancient indigenous gold mining industry, is explored in Robyn dAvignon's book. It reveals a dynamic "ritual geology" of techniques and cosmological engagements with the earth developed by agrarian residents, challenging colonial and corporate exploration geology. The book spans the medieval and imperial past to the postcolonial present, weaving together ethnographic and oral historical work with archival and archeological evidence from multiple countries.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 17 July 2022
Publisher: Duke University Press

In the backdrop of the ongoing corporate enclosure of West Africa's goldfields, A Ritual Geology unveils the untold history of one of the world's oldest indigenous gold mining industries: Francophone West Africa's orpaillage. By positioning African miners as the producers of subterranean knowledge, Robyn dAvignon explores a dynamic "ritual geology" of techniques and cosmological engagements with the earth developed by agrarian residents of gold-bearing rocks in savanna West Africa. While colonial and corporate exploration geology in the region relied on the ritual knowledge, gold discoveries, and skilled labor of African miners, states racialized African mining as archaic, criminal, and pagan. Spanning the medieval and imperial past to the postcolonial present, dAvignon 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 novel regional framework for African studies, environmental history, and anthropology.

Weight: 449g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478018476