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Dr. Arthur Abraham, Chair
Professor of History and Eminent Scholar
Colson 101E
email: aabraham@vsu.edu
Education
1974: Doctor of Philosophy (History/African Studies), University of Birmingham, U. K.
Thesis topic: ‘The Mende Under Colonial Rule, 1890-1937’.
1971: Master of Arts (History), University of Sierra Leone.
Thesis topic: ‘The Rise of Traditional Leadership Among the Mende’.
1967: Bachelor of Arts with Honours, (History, with Anthropology subsidiary), University of Durham, U.K.
Research Areas
• Governance in Africa (including chieftaincy and local government)
• Current developments in Africa (including civil wars)
• Mende History
• The Gullah
• The Amistad.
Courses Taught
(Under-graduate)
- World History/Civilization (survey)
- African History/Civilization (survey)
- Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- African Nationalism and Pan-Africanism
- Economic History of West Africa
- West Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade
- The Rise of the Atlantic World
- West Africa Since the Late 18th Century
- African Political Systems
- Colonial Rule in West Africa
- The Slave Trade and the Diaspora
- British and European history
- Introduction to Social Anthropology
- Various West African country histories
(Post-graduate)
- Modern African History
- Development Education
- Project Planning and Development
- Politics in Developing Countries
- Contemporary Africa
- African history to 1800
Selected Publications
(In progress), Amistad Memoirs/The Making of the Amistad .
2003. An Introduction to the Precolonial History of the Mende of Sierra Leone. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press.
1994. Development Issues in Sierra Leone. Freetown, Institute of African Studies.
1987. (with E D A Turay), The Sierra Leone Army: A Century of History. Macmillan.
1981. (ed). Traditional Technology and Modern West Africa. Freetown, Aggrey Society.
1979. (ed). Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography, Vol. II, Sierra Leone and Zaire. Algonac, Reference Publications, (authored forty-seven articles in volume).
1978. Cultural Policy in Sierra Leone. UNESCO.
1978. Mende Government and Politics Under Colonial Rule. Oxford University Press and Sierra Leone University Press.
1976. Topics in Sierra Leone History. Freetown, Leone Publishers
Electronic Book
1998. Amistad CD-rom Study Guide, DreamWorks and SoftMedia
Monographs.
1998. La Revolt de L’Amistad: Un Legs Historique de la Sierra Leone et des Etats Unis, USIA Africa Regional Service, Paris.
1995. (with E A R Gaima), Ethnographic Survey of the Kalantuba Limba of Kalansogoia Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Institute of African Studies Occasional Paper No.5
1990. et.al. Klo Klo L? A Nja Ve: Mende Proverbs. Freetown, D V V (German Adult Education Programme)
1987. The Amistad Revolt, Freetown, U S Information Service
1980. The Pattern of Warfare and Settlement Among the Mende. IAS Occasional Paper No.1
1976. (with H. Turay), Catalogue of Sierra Leone Arts and Crafts in the Museum of African Art, Washington DC. Freetown, Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs
1975. Historical Background and Coronation Ceremonies of Paramount Chief R. T. Body-Blango II, Kaiyamba Chiefdom, Moyamba.
Articles, Book Chapters, Reports, Conference Papers, Presentations, etc.
2007
“The Role of Petersburg and Virginia in the Founding of the First African Republic, Liberia,” paper presented at Workshop II on “Establishing Black Institutions and Leadership,” under the project “Freedom, Economics and Religion: Race and the African American Experience in the Context of the Atlantic World – The Case of Petersburg,” Petersburg, November 9.
“Geostrategic and Regional Security Issues: Africa and US National Security”, paper presented at The Politics of National Security conference, Charlottesville, March 19-23.
“The Thorn in the Horn of Africa,” paper presented at VSU International conference, The Political Economy of Regional Conflicts and Challenges for U.S. Foreign Policy, April 13.
2006.
“Taylor, Charles Ghankay,” in Coppa, Frank J. (editor), Encyclopaedia of Modern Dictators: From Napoleon to the Present, Peter Lang.
“Kenyatta, Jomo,” in Coppa, ibid.
“Recapturing the Glory of Pendembu,” presented at the Upper Bambara Descendants Association annual forum, Philadelphia, PA, 19 August 2006.
“AIDS is not only a Health Issue,” presented at seminar on AIDS, Bowie State University, MD, 4 March.
2005.
“The Making and Unmaking of Kenema, Sierra Leone,” Kenema District Association Annual Forum, Silver Spring, MD, July.
“Africa and U.S. National Security,” Politics of National Security (PONS) conference, Charlottesville, VA, May.
2004.
“Richmond, Virginia – Africa: Making the Connection,” keynote presentation, 13th Annual Conference, US-Africa Sister Cities Commission, Richmond, VA, June 17-19, 2004.
“State Complicity as a Factor in Perpetuating the Sierra Leone Civil War,” chapter 5 in I. Abdullah (ed.), Between Democracy and Terror, Dakar: CODESRIA.
“The Elusive Quest for Peace: From Abidjan to Lome,” chapter 10 in I. Abdullah (ed.), Between Democracy and Terror.
“Fraud, Force, Foul-play: British Colonial imposition and African Resistance in Sierra Leone, 1875-1898,” African Studies Association 47th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November.
2003.
“Sierra Leone: Post-Conflict Transition or Business as Usual?” News From the Nordic Afrika Institute, Number 3, October.
2002.
“Mende,” in Katzner, Kenneth, The Languages of the World. Third Edition. Routledge.
2001.
“Who are the Mende … and the Loko?” presented at the African Studies Association meeting in Houston, TX, November.
“The Amistad: Before and After,” presented at Coppin State College, Baltimore, MD. October 5.
“Dancing With the Chameleon: Sierra Leone and the Elusive Quest for Peace,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19, 2, June, 2001.
“Franco-British Policy in Africa with Particular Reference to Liberia and Sierra Leone,” paper presented at the conference Saint-Malo Plus Three: Whither Franco-British Co-operation in Africa? London, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2 April.
“African Independence Lost and Regained,” paper presented at mini-conference on Africa, VSU, March 31.
2000.
“Liberia and Sierra Leone: History of Misery and Misery of History,” International Journal of Sierra Leone Studies and Reviews, I,1, Fall, 2000.
“The Quest for Peace in Sierra Leone,” in Engaging Sierra Leone, London: Centre for Democracy and Development, 2000.
“Sierra Leone and Liberia,” presentation made at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Policy Planning Seminar, Africa Prospects 2020, 24 May.
“The Collapsed State of Sierra Leone,” conference on State, Conflict and Intervention in Sierra Leone, Centre for African Studies, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, 13th-14th May.
“Liberia and Sierra Leone: Equal Partners in Misery,” conference on State, Conflict and Intervention in Sierra Leone, Centre for African Studies, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, 13th-14th May.
“The Amistad, Africa and America,” first annual conference of the Middle States African Studies Association, Charleston, WV, 23rd-26th March.
“The Black Man’s Burden: Civil War and Social decay in Africa – The West African Examples,” paper presented at Fairfield University, CT, 11 February.
1999.
“Fact, Fiction and the Making of the ‘Amistad’,” Film and History, C-D Rom
“Steven Spielberg as Historian,” Historical Society Conference paper, Boston, May.
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