New Publications
/ Research
Publication: "African Thresholds: Borders and Places of Passage in Africa, c.1450 to Present"
Ettore Morelli is the editor of a volume that questions the concept of border. Arguing that a border is a threshold made to be crossed, this book studies places of passage from all over the African continent. In a time when state borders are increasingly shut, "African Thresholds" aims to show that a border is made by those who cross it as much as by those who stand by it.
What is a border, and why does it exist? Reappraising a key idea from Arnold van Gennep’s Les rites de passage, this book argues that a border is a threshold, a limen, made to be crossed. "African Thresholds" studies places of passage spanning from the riverine networks of Senegambia to border-making in colonial Gold Coast and Côte d’Ivoire; from the desert roads of central southern Africa to river heartlands in colonial Togo; from flows of cowrie shells across the Volta River to insurgent borderities in the Lake Chad. In a time when state borders are increasingly shut, this book aims to show us that a border is made by those who cross it as much as by those who stand by it.