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Books > Humanities > History > African history
A Human Being Died That Night recounts an extraordinary dialogue. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who grew up in a black South African township, reflects on her interviews with Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned death squads under apartheid. Gobodo-Madikizela met with de Kock in Pretoria's maximum-security prison, where he is serving a 212-year sentence for crimes against humanity. In profoundly arresting scenes, Gobodo-Madikizela conveys her struggle with contradictory internal impulses to hold him accountable and to forgive. Ultimately, as she allows us to witness de Kock's extraordinary awakening of conscience, she illuminates the ways in which the encounter compelled her to redefine the value of remorse and the limits of forgiveness.
Even leaving aside the vast death and suffering that it wrought on indigenous populations, German ambitions to transform Southwest Africa in the early part of the twentieth century were futile for most. For years colonists wrestled ocean waters, desert landscapes, and widespread aridity as they tried to reach inland in their effort of turning outwardly barren lands into a profitable settler colony. In his innovative environmental history, Martin Kalb outlines the development of the colony up to World War I, deconstructing the common settler narrative, all to reveal the importance of natural forces and the Kaisereich's everyday violence.
South Africa's future is increasingly tied up with that of India. While trade and investment between the two countries is intensifying, they share long-standing historical ties and have much in common: apart from cricket, colonialism and Gandhi, both countries are important players in the global South. As India emerges as a major economic power, the need to understand these links becomes ever more pressing. Can the two countries enter balanced forms of exchange? What forms of transnational political community between these two regions have yet to be researched and understood? The first section of South Africa and India traces the range of historical connection between the two countries. The second section explores unconventional comparisons that offer rich ground on which to build original areas of study. This innovative book looks to a post-American world in which the global South will become ever more important. Within this context, the Indian Ocean arena itself and South Africa and India in particular move to the fore. The book's main contribution lies in the approaches and methods offered by its wide range of contributors for thinking about this set of circumstances.
In northwest Namibia, peopleOCOs political imagination offers a powerful insight into the post-apartheid state. Based on extensive anthropological fieldwork, this book focuses on the former South African apartheid regime and the present democratic government; it compares the perceptions and practices of state and customary forms of judicial administration, reflects upon the historical trajectory of a chieftaincy dispute in relation to the rooting of state power and examines everyday forms of belonging in the independent Namibian State. By elucidating the State through a focus on the social, historical and cultural processes that help constitute it, this study helps chart new territory for anthropology, and it contributes an ethnographic perspective to a wider set of interdisciplinary debates on the State and state processes."
This book examines proclivity to genocide in the protracted killings that have continued for decades in the northern Nigeria ethno-religious conflict, spanning from the 1966 northern Nigeria massacres of thousands of Ibos up to the present, ongoing killings between extremist Muslims and Christians or non-Muslims in the region. It explores the ethnic and religious dimensions of the conflict over five phases to investigate genocidal proclivity to the killings and the extent to which religion foments and escalates the conflict. This book adopts a conceptual analytic approach of establishing similarity of genocidal patterns to the northern Nigeria ethno-religious conflict by examining genocidal occurrences and massacres in history, particularly the twentieth-century contemporary genocides, for an understanding of genocide. With this reference frame, the study structures a Genocide Proclivity Model for identifying inclinations to genocide and derives a substantive theory using the Strauss and Corbin (1990) approach. By identifying genocidal intent as underlying the various manifestations and causes of genocide in specific genocide cases, the book establishes that genocidal proclivity or the intent to exterminate the "other" on the basis of religion and/or ethnicity underlies most of the northern Nigerian episodic, but protracted, killings. The book's analytic framework and approach are grounded in identifiable and provable evidences of specific intent to annihilate the "other," mostly involving extremist Muslims intent to 'cleanse' northern Nigeria of Christians and other non-Muslims through the 'exclusionary ideology' of imposition of the Sharia Law, and to 'force assimilation' or 'extermination' through massacres and genocidal killings of those who refuse to assimilate or adopt the Muslim ideology. The study establishes that the genocidal inclinations to the conflict have remained latent because of the intermittent but protracted nature of the killings and lends credence to the conception of genocidal intent and its covertness in situations of genocidal intermittency. The book unearths the latency of episodic genocide in the northern Nigeria ethno-religious conflict, prescribes recommendations, and launches a clarion call for international intervention to stop the genocide.
This edited volume examines the complexities of the Cold War in Southern Africa and uses a range of archives to develop a more detailed understanding of the impact of the Cold War environment upon the processes of political change. In the aftermath of European decolonization, the struggle between white minority governments and black liberation movements encouraged both sides to appeal for external support from the two superpower blocs. Cold War in Southern Africa highlights the importance of the global ideological environment on the perceptions and consequent behaviour of the white minority regimes, the Black Nationalist movements, and the newly independent African nationalist governments. Together, they underline the variety of archival sources on the history of Southern Africa in the Cold War and its growing importance in Cold War Studies. This volume brings together a series of essays by leading scholars based on a wide range of sources in the United States, Russia, Cuba, Britain, Zambia and South Africa. By focussing on a range of independent actors, these essays highlight the complexity of the conflict in Southern Africa: a battle of power blocs, of systems and ideas, which intersected with notions and practices of race and class This book will appeal to students of cold war studies, US foreign policy, African politics and International History. Sue Onslow has taught at the London School of Economics since 1994. She is currently a Cold War Studies Fellow in the Cold War Studies Centre/IDEAS
Spanning more than two thousand years of African history, from the African Iron Age to the collapse of colonialism and the beginnings of independence, Hosea Jaffe's magisterial work remains one of the few to do full justice to the continent's complex and diverse past. The great strength of Jaffe's work lies in its unique theoretical perspective, which stresses the distinctive character of Africa's social structures and historical development. Crucially, Jaffe rejects all efforts to impose Eurocentric models of history onto Africa, whether it be liberal notions of 'progress' or Marxist theories of class struggle, arguing instead that the key dynamics underpinning African history are unique to the continent itself, and rooted in conflicts between different modes of production. The work also includes a foreword by the distinguished economist and political theorist Samir Amin, in which he outlines the contribution of Jaffe's work to our understanding of African history and its ongoing post-colonial struggles.
By examining Mauritius and the Indian Ocean, this synthesis of imperial and naval/military history reveals the depths of colonial involvement in the Second World War and the role of colonies in British strategic planning from the 18th century. In the century of total war, the British Empire was fully mobilized. The author looks at how the Mauritian home front became regimented, troops were recruited for service overseas, the Eastern fleet guarded the Indian Ocean, and Mauritius became a base for SOE operations and intelligence-gathering for Bletchley.
Describing the fate of South Africa's drive, which began in 1949, to associate itself with Britain, France, Portugal and Belgium in an African defence pact, this book describes how South Africa had to settle for an entente rather than an alliance, and how even this had been greatly emasculated by 1960. In light of this case, the book considers the argument that ententes have the advantages of alliances without their disadvantages and concludes that this is exaggerated. There is also discussion of the background to the "fourth" secret Simonstown Agreement. Other books by the author include "The Politics of the South Africa Run: European Shipping and Pretoria", "Return to the UN" and "International Politics".
A powerful re-reading of modern South African history following apartheid that examines the violent transformation during the transition era and how this was enacted in the African townships of the Witwatersrand. In 1993 South Africa state president F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime". Yet, while bothdeserved the plaudits they received for entering the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid, the four years of negotiations preceding the April 1994 elections, known as the transition era, were not "peaceful": they were the bloodiest of the entire apartheid era, with an estimated 14,000 deaths attributed to politically related violence. This book studies, for the first time, the conflicts between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party that took place in South Africa's industrial heartland surrounding Johannesburg. Exploring these events through the perceptions and memories of combatants and non-combatants from war-torn areas, along with security force members, politicians and violence monitors, offers new possibilities for understanding South Africa's turbulent transition. Challenging the prevailing narrative which attributes the bulk of the violence to a joint state security force and IFP assault against ANC supporters, the author argues for a more expansive approach that incorporates the aggression of ANC militants, the intersection between criminal and political violence, and especially clashes between groups alignedwith the ANC. Gary Kynoch is Associate Professor of History at Dalhousie University. He has written one previous book, We are Fighting the World: A History of the Marashea Gangs in South Africa, 1947-1999 (OhioUniversity Press, 2005). Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Swaziland): Wits University Press
Opens a fresh conversation on the study of the Mau Mau rebellion and Kenyan history by arguing that Mau Mau was a nationalist movement rather than a Kikuyu war. Through a critical examination of the Mau Mau oath used to initiate and unite fighters, The Power of the Oath opens a fresh conversation on the study of Mau Mau and Kenyan history. It argues for a historiographical shift inthe framing of the Mau Mau rebellion as a Kikuyu war. Instead, Mickie Mwanzia Koster suggests that Mau Mau was a nationalist movement, embraced by non-Kikuyu communities like the Kamba ethnic group. Incorporating a creative blendof primary sources, including testimonies from ex-Mau Mau participants, survey analysis, archival data, Mau Mau court cases, ceremonial reenactments, and folklore, The Power of the Oath demonstrates how and why the movement was spread, embraced, and internalized. Mwanzia Koster traces the evolution and structure of the Mau Mau oath, examining the British criminalization of the oath, its gendered use, and the purification associated with it, in order to reveal how Mau Mau unfolded in Kenya. Mickie Mwanzia Koster is associate professor of history at the University of Texas, Tyler.
This volume presents a new reading of an extraordinary Proto-Coptic magical text. Papyrus British Museum EA 10808 features a unique spell for a victim of divine wrath composed in the liturgical language of ancient Egypt but in Greek script with a few Demotic signs. Sederholm reveals a coherent and distinctive text that contributes to the illumination of Egyptian thought in the Graeco-Roman Period just before the great shutdown of the ancient temple learning. In nine chapters of transcription, translation, and commentary, Sederholm considers such features as taboo, secrecy, and the efficacy of magical words and names. He also discusses the destructive nature of the stars and the role of Fate in the bloody slaughter of divine enemies within the text.
British sleeping sickness control in colonial Uganda and Tanzania became a powerful mechanism for environmental and social engineering that defined and delineated African landscapes, reordered African mobility and access to resources. As colonialism shifted from conquest to occupation, colonial scientists exercised much influence during periods of administrative uncertainty about the role and future of colonial rule. "Impartial" and "objective" science helped to justify the British "civilizing mission" in East Africa by muting the moral ambiguities and violence of colonial occupation. Africans' actions shaped systems of western scientific knowledge as they evolved in colonial contexts. Bridging what might otherwise be viewed as the disparate colonial functions of environmental and health control, sleeping sickness policy by the British was not a straightforward exercise of colonial power. The implementation of sleeping sickness control compelled both Africans and British to negotiate. Africans' actions shaped systems of western scientific knowledge as they evolved in colonial contexts. Bridging what might otherwise be viewed as the disparate colonial functions of environmental and health control, sleeping sickness policy by the British was not a straightforward exercise of colonial power. The implementation of sleeping sickness control compelled both Africans and British to negotiate. African elite, farmers, and fishers, and British administrators, field officers, and African employees, all adjusted their actions according to on-going processes of resistance, cooperation and compromise. Interactions between colonial officials, their African agents, and other African groups informedAfrican and British understandings about sleeping sickness, sleeping sickness control and African environments, and transformed Western ideas in practice.
Africa In Stereo examines the role that African American music has played in the pan-Africanist imagination since the end of the nineteenth century. Throughout, Jaji marshals a wide array of critical, archival, literary, visual, and sonic sources to craft an argument centered on the stereophonic echoes between three sites on the African continent emblematic of pan-Africanism (Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa) and black musical cultures in the US (as well as few other places on the diasporic landscape). Rather than take a purely musical tack that traces the influence of African American music on musical repertoires from Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa, Africa In Stereo beautifully shows how a US black popular musical genres inspired a host of writers and filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembene, John Akomfrah, Sol Plaatje, Leopold Senghor, K. Anyidoho, Charlotte Maxeke, Ken Bugul, as well as the glossy visual languages found in the early magazines Bingo (Senegal) and Zonk! (South Africa).
This volume examines how African indigenous popular music is deployed in democracy, politics and for social crusades by African artists. Exploring the role of indigenous African popular music in environmental health communication and gender empowerment, it subsequently focuses on how the music portrays the African future, its use by African youths, and how it is affected by advanced broadcast technologies and the digital media. Indigenous African popular music has long been under-appreciated in communication scholarship. However, understanding the nature and philosophies of indigenous African popular music reveals an untapped diversity which can only be unraveled by the knowledge of myriad cultural backgrounds from which its genres originate. With a particular focus on scholarship from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa, this volume explores how, during the colonial period and post-independence dispensation, indigenous African music genres and their artists were mainstreamed in order to tackle emerging issues, to sensitise Africans about the affairs of their respective nations and to warn African leaders who have failed and are failing African citizenry about the plight of the people. At the same time, indigenous African popular music genres have served as a beacon to the teeming African youths to express their dreams, frustrations about their environments and to represent themselves. This volume explores how, through the advent of new media technologies, indigenous African popular musicians have been working relentlessly for indigenous production, becoming champions of good governance, marginalised population, and repositories of indigenous cultural traditions and cosmologies.
Sylvia Pankhurst, the former British Suffragette, devoted the last forty years of her life to Anti-Fascism and support for Ethiopia, for many centuries Africa's principal independent state. She responded to Mussolini's invasion of the country in 1935 by founding a weekly newspaper New Times and Ethiopia News, which she was to edit for twenty years. She protested against the Fascist use of poison-gas in Ethiopia, and published news of the Ethiopian patriot resistance. Her paper condemned Britain's "appeasement" of the Axis Dictators, and supported the Republican Government in the Spanish Civil War. After Mussolini's entry into the European War, on the side of Nazi Germany, she agitated against the return to Italy of her African colonies. Ever against colonialism, she clashed with the British Government in demanding the full restoration of Ethiopian independence, and advocated the "reunion" of the former Italian colony of Eritrea with Ethiopia. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital, and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture. Having moved to Addis Ababa in 1956, with her son, the author, she founded a monthly journal, Ethiopia Observer, on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development. She died in 1960, and was buried with the Ethiopian Patriots, in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, in the presence of the Emperor.
A significant contribution to the emerging literature on decolonial studies, this concise and forcefully argued volume lays out a groundbreaking interpretation of the "Mandela phenomenon." Contrary to a neoliberal social model that privileges adversarial criminal justice and a rationalistic approach to war making, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni identifies transformative political justice and a reimagined social order as key features of Nelson Mandela's legacy. Mandela is understood here as an exemplar of decolonial humanism, one who embodied the idea of survivor's justice and held up reconciliation and racial harmony as essential for transcending colonial modes of thought.
Housing matters, no matter when or where. This volume of collected essays on housing in colonial and postcolonial Africa seeks to elaborate how and why housing is much more than an everyday practice. The politics of housing unfold in disparate dimensions of time, space and agency. Depending on context, they acquire diverse, often ambivalent, meanings. Housing can be a promise, an unfulfilled dream, a tool of self- and class-assertion, a negotiation process, or a means to achieve other ends. This volume analyzes housing in its multifacetedness, be it a lens to offer insights into complex processes that shape societies; be it a tool of empire to exercise control over private relations of inhabitants; or be it a means to create good, obedient and productive citizens. Contributions to this volume range from the field of history, to architecture and urban planning, African studies, linguistics, and literature. The individual case studies home in on specific aspects and dimensions of housing and seek to bring them into dialogue with each other. By doing so, the volume aims to add to the debate on studying urban practices and their significance for current social change. |
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