Abstract
The research project “Arms, Beads and Cloth. African Consumers and the 19th-century Global Economy” explores 19th-century trajectories of three crucial trade items – arms, beads and cloth – in a vast region of east-central Africa to demonstrate the centrality of African societies and their material practices to global processes of production, exchange and consumption. Rejecting the still common view that the Africans’ contribution to the rise of the modern global economy was limited to their role as “commodities” in the slave trade or as producers of raw materials for Western markets, the project casts the spotlight on African consumer demand. Thanks to its cohesive intellectual agenda, interdisciplinary approach and broad geographical frame of reference, the project is expected to illuminate the agency of African consumers in driving global processes of production and trade and to make a case for regarding African networks of exchange and consumption as nodal points of global intersection. Main results achieved by the Bologna unit include: • Reconstruction of the economic and cultural connections linking Venetian glass bead production to East African markets and consumer preferences in the nineteenth century, based on archival and museum research conducted in Italy, Tanzania, and Austria (Archivio di Stato di Venezia, the Museo Correr, the Zanzibar National Archives, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, the University of Vienna Library, and the Weltmuseum Wien). • Development of an innovative collaboration with the digital humanities project Time Traveller, applying computational text analysis to historical sources in order to investigate the circulation of glass beads, trade networks, and precolonial currency systems across Africa. • Publication of peer-reviewed research outputs, including an article in African Economic History, and preparation of further international publications, including collaborative work on glass beads and precolonial currency areas in Africa. • Coordination and organization of the international workshop Arms, Beads and Cloth: African Consumers and the Global Economy (18th–20th Century), held at the University of Bologna in September 2025, which brought together project members and international scholars and laid the foundation for an edited open-access volume titles Arms, Beads and Cloth: African Consumer Demand and the Global Economy (18th–20th century), currently under consideration by international academic presses. • Organization, together with the other project units, of the online seminar series African Consumers and the Global Economy: A New History (February – May 2025), featuring nine international speakers. The seminars were integrated into the teaching activities of the Master’s Degree Programme in Historical Sciences at the University of Bologna and made available in open access through the project’s YouTube channel. • Significant public engagement and outreach activities, including collaboration with the Canada Pavilion Trinket at the 2024 Venice Biennale, public lectures at the Museo Correr and during Venice Glass Week, contributions to the new permanent exhibition on Africa at the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, and the dissemination of research results through the project website, blog, and publications aimed at wider audiences, such as The Conversation. Overall, the research conducted by the University of Bologna demonstrated that nineteenth-century East African consumers were not passive recipients of imported goods but active participants in shaping global markets. Through the study of glass beads and their multiple functions as currency, adornment, and trade commodity, the project revealed how East African demand influenced production strategies in Venice and contributed to broader processes of global economic integration.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Karin Pallaver
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 208.439,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 64.943,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
