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This lecture investigates the deep and conflict-laden history of West African resource extraction, metallurgy, and material culture. Bridging the pre-colonial and colonial periods, it examines how the production and appropriation of metalware – ranging from weapons to bells – challenged pre-existing power structures, spiritual practices, and ecological orders. Tracing the shift from decentralized governance to centralized early modern kingdoms and subsequent colonial rule, this presentation explores how royal courts, blacksmith guilds, and secret societies negotiated access to forests, mineral resources, and sonic spaces. When Christian missions and colonial authorities monopolized loud, metallic bells and industrial mining operations, they collided with established West African orders where metalworking and sacred environments were deeply intertwined. Drawing on studies from Ghana and Nigeria, the lecture demonstrates how the resources required for smelting, the metal objects and soundscapes served as vital media for state-building, giving rise to fragile ecological compromises and historical conflicts over forest, metal and noise.

Stephanie Zehnle is Professor of Environmental and Technology History at the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of Passau. Her research in the field of global and (post)colonial environmental and technological history bears on  the interrelations between humans, environments, animals and pathogens. Her focus in the field of colonial history is on human–wildlife interactions, agricultural colonialism and its consequences, and the emergence of zoonotic diseases resulting from changes in ecological systems. Zehnle's research is interdisciplinary and linked to the environmental humanities as well as the natural and life sciences.