Au carrefour des histoires: traditions orales de la région Yana (Burkina Faso). Edited by ZACHARIE MINOUGOU and ANDREA REIKAT. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 2004. Pp. 113. €14.80, paperback (ISBN 3-89645-162-6).

Arabic Medieval Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali. Epigraphy, Chronicles and Songhay-Tuāreg History. By Paulo F. de Moraes Farias (ed.). Fontes Historiae Africanae, New Series, No. 4. Oxford University Press/The British Academy, Oxford/New York, 2003, X-CCXLVI + 280 pp., 5 plans and 247 plates. ISBN 0-19-726222-8. Price UK£ 99.00, US$ 185.00.

ARROWS AND EARTH SHRINES: TOWARDS A HISTORY OF DAGARA EXPANSION IN SOUTHERN BURKINA FASO

The history of the Black Volta region in what is currently south-west Burkina Faso and north-west Ghana has been marked by the agricultural expansion of Dagara-speaking groups. This article explores how and why these groups were able to expand at the expense of neighbouring segmentary societies such as the Phuo and the Sisala. Violence certainly played a role in their territorial expansion, but so did specific strategies of ritual appropriation of new territories. The Dagara system, with its characteristic fission of existing earth shrines and networks of interlinked shrines, allowed mobility and helped the migrants bring new territories under their ritual control. In addition, patriclans a…