Abstract
Mapping African History: The Lebu Migration
Track: Teaching with GIS Across the Curriculum
Authors: John Glover, Marc Guidry, David Smith
ArcGIS Explorer Online presents an exciting opportunity for students of history to explore primary and secondary historical sources. In the context of African history, University of Redlands students use primary and secondary historical sources as raw materials in constructing web maps demonstrating their knowledge of change across time. Students have been able to visually explore trans-Saharan trade, the Atlantic slave trade, colonization, conflict zones, and natural resources.
The concept of mapping migration has been further refined with the development of an original web application that lends itself to the graduate and post-graduate researcher. The web application relies on a wide range of historical sources to plot the movements, or flow, of an ethnic group, the Lebu, over a span of 800 years in West Africa. Like the students using ArcGIS Explorer Online, researchers across the world will be able to contribute to the development of this map of Lebu movement.