Africa Yearbook 5

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> Africa Yearbook 5

Africa Yearbook 5

Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara 2008

Edited by Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber and Klaas van Walraven. Sub-editor: Rolf Hofmeier

Books

Available
Publication year: 2009


Series:	Africa Yearbook, 5
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 17811 3
ISBN-10:	90 04 17811 2

Cover:	Paperback
Number of pages:	xvi, 520 pp.
Google Book Search:	View this book at Google Book Search
E-Book:	Buy this Book as an E-Book

List price:	€ 89.00 / US$ 139.00

Table of contents

Contents
i. Preface ........................................................................................................... vii
ii. List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................... ix
iii. Factual Overview ........................................................................................... xiii
I. Sub-Saharan Africa (Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber & Klaas van
Walraven) ....................................................................................................... 1
II. United Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa (Linnea Bergholm) ......................... 19
III. African-European Relations (Sven Grimm) ................................................... 33
IV. West Africa (Klaas van Walraven) ................................................................. 43
Benin (Laurens Nijzink) ................................................................................. 57
Burkina Faso (Alexander Stroh) ..................................................................... 65
Cape Verde (Gerhard Seibert) ........................................................................ 73
Côte d’Ivoire (Bruno Losch) .......................................................................... 79
Gambia (Abdoulaye Saine) ............................................................................ 87
Ghana (Paul Nugent) ..................................................................................... 93
Guinea (Mike McGovern) .............................................................................. 103
Guinea-Bissau (Christoph Kohl) .................................................................... 111
Liberia (Lansana Gberie) .............................................................................. 117
Mali (Martin van Vliet) .................................................................................. 123
Mauritania (Claes Olsson & Helena Olsson) ................................................. 131
Niger (Klaas van Walraven) ........................................................................... 137
Nigeria (Heinrich Bergstresser) ..................................................................... 145
Senegal (Vincent Foucher) ............................................................................. 161
Sierra Leone (Krijn Peters) ............................................................................ 169
Togo (Dirk Kohnert) ...................................................................................... 177
V. Central Africa (Andreas Mehler) ................................................................... 185
Cameroon (Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle & Fanny Pigeaud) .................. 193
Central African Republic (Andreas Mehler) .................................................. 203
Chad (Han van Dijk) ..................................................................................... 211
Congo (Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga) .............................................................. 219
Democratic Republic of Congo (Denis M. Tull) ........................................... 227
Equatorial Guinea (Cord Jakobeit) ............................................................... 241
Gabon (Douglas Yates) ................................................................................. 247
São Tomé and Príncipe (Gerhard Seibert) .................................................... 253
VI. Eastern Africa (Rolf Hofmeier) ..................................................................... 259
Burundi (Stef Vandeginste) ........................................................................... 275
Comoros (Rolf Hofmeier) ............................................................................. 285
Djibouti (Rolf Hofmeier) ............................................................

Readership

Students, politicians, diplomats, administrators, journalists, teachers, practitioners in the field of development aid as well as business people.

About the author(s)

Andreas Mehler Ph.D. (1993) in Political Science, University of Hamburg, is Director of the Institute of African Affairs, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg. He has published extensively on democratisation processes and violent conflicts in West and Central Africa.
Henning Melber, Ph.D. (1980) in Political Science, University of Bremen, is Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala/Sweden. He has published extensively on Southern Africa and in particular Namibia.
Klaas van Walraven Ph.D. (1997) in Political Science, University of Leiden, is a researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden. He has published on Africa’s international relations (OAU, AU, ECOMOG) and is working on a history of the Sawaba rebellion in Niger (1954-1975).

The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year. The Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa) focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organizations as well as one article on continental developments and one on European-African relations. While the articles have thorough academic quality, the Yearbook is mainly oriented to the requirements of a large range of target groups: students, politicians, diplomats, administrators, journalists, teachers, practitioners in the field of development aid as well as business people.

Buyers of the print edition get free access to the online version of all yearbooks published so far until Oct. 31, 2010. Go to www.brillonline.nl/accesstoken

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