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210 JAN KIENIEWICZ, MARCIN KULA

piński concerned himself with the Hausa States,¹³ and Bronisław Nowak with local merchant groups.¹⁴ Barbara Stępniewska stud-ied the problem of Islamie penetration.¹⁵ The purpose of these studies was to elucidate the causes and naturę of the slow de-velopment of West African territories and sources of their sub-seąuent regression.

Conforming with the generał trend in world science, a group of Warsaw scholars concentrated on research of economic founda-tions of the phenomena studied. A series of interesting details were established in this respect.¹® They studied various forms of trade and the social reasons of economic stabilization in Su-danese countries.¹⁷ It would seem however, that reflections on

XXIX, 1974, pp. 51-79, and above all: Le developpement et la regression chez les peuples de la boncie du Niger a Vepoque precoloniale, Warszawa 1974.

¹³    Karpiński also undertook verification of Małowisfs hypotheses in: Organizacja służebna a problem kast w Zachodnim Sudanie [Ancillary System and the Problem of Castes in the Western Sudan], „Przegląd Historyczny”, vol. LVII, 1966, No. 2, pp. 235-250, and subseąuently dealt with the problem of reasons for the lack of state organization in the Hausa region: Państwo-miasto Kano do dżihadu Fulanich. Struktury polityczno-gospodarczo-społeczne [The City-State of Kano up to the Fulani Jihad. Political, Economic and Social Structures], in typescript, Warszawa 1973.

¹⁴    Making use of ethnographic studies and the retrogression as a method, B. Nowak concerned himself primarily with the role of groups which might have brought new elements to the Sudan, and shifted the centre of interest to a later period, between the 17th and 19th centuries: Czarni kupcy Mandingo w Afryce Zachodniej w okresie przedkolonialnym [Negro Mandingo Merchants in West Africa in the Pre-Cólonial Era], Warszawa 1974.

¹⁶ Portee Sociale de l⁹islam en Soudan Occidental au XIV^e-XV* siecles [Social Influence of Islam in the Western Sudan Between the 14th and 16th Centuries], “Africana Bulletin”, vol. XIV, 1971, pp. 35-58, and in particular: Rozpowszechnienie się Islamu w Sudanie Zachodnim [Spread of Islam in the Western Sudan], Wrocław 1973.

¹⁶    Particularly M. Tymowski: Le Niger, voie de communiction des grands etats du Soudan Occidental jusqu^fa la fin du XVI siecle, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. VI, 1967, pp. 73-95; Les domains des princes du Songhay (Soudan Occidental). Comparaison avec la grand proprietd fonciere en Europę au debut de Vepoque fdodale, “Annales ESC”, 1970, No. 6, pp. 1637-1658; La peche a l*6poque du Moyen Age dans la boucle du Niger, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. XIX, 1970, pp. 7-26.

¹⁷    M. Mało wist, Le commerce d^for et d’esclaves au Soudan Occidental, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. III, 1966, pp. 49-72, and: Quelques obser-vations sur le commerce de Uor dans le Soudan Occidental au Moyen Age, “Annales ESC’, vol. V, 1970, pp. 1630-1636. R. Karpiński, Considera-tions sur les echanges de caractere local et exterieur de la Senegambie dans la deuocieme moitie du XV^e et au debut du XVIe siecles, “Africana Bulletin”, vol. VIII, 1968, pp. 65-83, in which he concerned himself with less known territories on the Atlantic littoral.