Beschreibung
Set in the pre-colonial Guinea Bissau region, Silences and Soundbytes
deals with the largely ignored roles women – and men – played as traders
and brokers in Afro-Atlantic trade settlements emerged after first contact
in the fifteenth century. Largely based upon unpublished archival
material, the book traces the evolution of these riverine settlements and
their populations until the military occupation by Portugal in the early
twentieth century. It holds that the formation of settlement communities
that operated the relay trade along the region’s many rivers between the
region’s hinterland and the coast created opportunities for enterprising
and well-connected women.
