Cartography and colonial power in colonizing western Africa

following the notes I sent from my lecturer I was hoping there could be more about the types of power as well as how this plays out for the African natives. At the moment, it seems primarily concerned with cartography as product, taking for granted its effects on indigenous conceptualizations of place and space and also assuming the intents behind mapping. her notes – “If you want to focus on the epistemology and practices of colonial cartographers, you can certainly do that. But I would like to see more explanation—of intention, worldview, etc.—and some detail about just how these practices were entangled in the colonial enterprise. i.e., try and include some nuance. Crucially, if you are addressing mapping as a phenomenon of power—what kind of power? For what intentions? How does the power work? One complexity: relationships between more abstract epistemologies and policy/practicaledubirdie.combased approaches to cartography. (I assume a tension between administrators, economic interests, etc., on the one hand and scholars on the other, much as was the case for anthropology in colonial times.) Knowledge/power relationships in colonial places seem always to have been vexed by contending interests among colonizers, as well as between colonizer and colonized. If, though, you are also interested in the outcomes for indigenous people, shown in your concern with silencing, then we need to know more about the interaction of colonial and indigenous worldviews and understandings of land and place. See also the note above, suggesting that you consider whether colonizers got it all their own way. There is quite a bit of anthropological material on place, etc., including mapping and contention, and I’d like to see you do some research in the field, rather than apparently sticking solely to what looks like cartographic studies + geography. You could start with Hugh Brody’s Maps and Dreams and track more contemporary work citing and building on it. You may also find Lewis’s Cartographic Encounters useful since it includes material on Aztecs. Both of these sources highlight the interactive nature of cartography in colonial contexts of unequal power. A single case study is a good idea. What are your sources in western Africa? What period are you covering? Etc.” focus more on the epidemiology of cartography – only using western Africa as an example of how it played out. – consider the kinds of power More analytical than descriptive