Summary
The Horn of Africa is often depicted in negative terms in today's mass media, as a place of famine, ethnic conflict, war and terrorism. This negative picture reinforces ideas of Africa as a dark continent without history. However, the Horn has been historically the home of a bewildering variety of societies, both indigenous and diasporic, who have interacted in a myriad ways to create rich, hybrid cultures. In this session we will explore the place of materiality in the creation and development of religious, cultural, economic and political networks involving people from the Horn and societies along the Indian Ocean, Arabia ad Europe. We welcome papers that address issues of connectivity, hybridity and interaction from a long term perspective.
Keywords
Trade. Landscape. Religious interaction. State-building.