Which capital has more generals – Paris or London? I suspect Paris would win that contest easily, but perhaps I just tend to notice them more there.
This tower in central Paris has been under scaffolding for as long as I can remember. But to judge from the part now peaking out of the top, it is going to be mighty spectacular when finally unveiled.
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The joys of holiday reading – things that you are interested in for no ulterior process…
The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa is one of those books that does just what it says in the title: this introductory text by Patricia and Frederick McKissack sets out a brief history, a short outline of the life and economies of the kingdoms, and describes the sources on which this information is based – and their contradictions.
That’s great, and is probably all most readers are going to want, since I suspect most will, like I did, come to the subject from the starting point of almost total ignorance. What sparked my interest was a discussion on the Medieval-L listserv, which started with the incidence of the plague in Africa and branched out. I was vaguely aware that there were big and important kingdoms in West Africa at that time, but that knowledge was about as far as it goes.
Royal Kingdoms begins usefully with a map, which places the extent of the medieval kingdoms on a modern map. The first, Ghana (c. 300AD- c.1050AD), was (confusingly) largely in modern-day Mali. The second, Mali (c.1200AD-1500AD), extended beyond that, into the south of what is now Mauritania, most of Senegal and Guinea, and into the western corner of Niger, incorporating the one place name here that almost everyone will know – Timbuktu. Songhay (c.800AD-1580AD) was at its height the largest, extending to cover much of Niger, plus the north of Benin and Nigeria.
The basis of the economy of all of these empires was simple: salt and gold. The latter was so plentiful that it was said in the kingdom of Ghana the value of the two comodities was equivalent, pound for pound. The source of the salt was well-known – the city of Taghaza in the Sahara desert, where the mines were worked by slaves (either captives of war or criminals) whose lives were miserable and short. The city was so miserable that their free overseers worked only on two-month contracts.
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Pictures from a complete set to be found on Flickr. (Just click on one of these pics to find more.)
This protest was held on Saturday, with more than 100 people attending despite bitterly cold weather. The group is campaigning for the 3 acres of land behind the British Library to be kept by the government and used for council housing and community facilities, rather than be sold off. I’ve written before, and will again soon on another forum….
Media or any other use of these pictures is welcome with appropriate credit.
(A young participant showing what he’d like the land used for.)
Well, I suppose it isn’t a good holiday question, but it is an interesting one. I was thinking over dinner about how to work out what really matters to you, and trying to answer this question is an interesting way of approaching the less momentous one.
My conclusion? I’d spend it in the British Museum (or given where I am at present in the Louvre) or so other equivalent place of cultural interest.
Yes, OK, you can now all tell me I’m “sad”….
This week’s roundup – and a fine selection with quite a few new (to me) blogs is now up on Liberal England.
And next week is my (official) turn – as opposed to fill-in occasions – so please get those nominations rolling in: the address is easy to remember – britblog AT gmail DOT com.
I’m spending a few days in Paris, trying if not entirely succeeding in getting away from it all (well when I’m not writing letters/reports etc). But I did get to stroll along “Path of plants†from the Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes (built on an old railway line – raised through the central part so you get a great different angle on Paris) on a lovely sunny winter’s day.
At the “forest†(well it is really more like Hyde Park), I got to expand my French vocabulary with the posters indicating the names of the (generally not so wild) animal life. I was taken by the names for house martin and swifts (Hirondelle de fenetre and Hirondelle de cheminee respectively – an eminently practical if I suspect, not entirely accurate division). And I learnt that anguille means eel – possibly a useful fact for the next time I feel the urge to order the “I wonder what that is?†object on the menu.
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