2026 SOE Sessions
West African societies harnessed key geographic features—such as the Niger River and Saharan trade routes—and innovations like iron smelting and gold mining to build powerful and enduring states. Dr. Gomez’s distinguished scholarship on African political thought and state formation illuminates how geography and technology shaped enduring traditions of leadership and governance across West Africa.
FEATURING:
Dr. Michael Gomez, Silver Professor; Professor of History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies and Founder, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)
“All too often, Africa does not enter the pages of world history until we get to the colonial era, and this is a very misleading and something that we need to push back against.”
Dr. Madina Thiam, Fannie Gaston-Johansson Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and History, Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
“A custodian [of history] can choose what they highlight or what they cannot. They can choose what to put a veil on, what to hide, and what to promote. And it is indeed true that in Mali, arguably our best historical exports today, Mansa Musa, the best known figure from the region outside of Mali, is one that has been completely shut down by the locals, like the griots and the oral record.”