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Books > Humanities > History > African history
During the past five decades, sub-Saharan Africa has received more foreign aid than has any other region of the world, and yet poverty remains endemic throughout the region. As Kenneth Kalu argues, this does not mean that foreign aid has failed; rather, it means that foreign aid in its current form does not have the capacity to procure development or eradicate poverty. This is because since colonialism, the average African state has remained an instrument of exploitation, and economic and political institutions continue to block a majority of citizens from meaningful participation in the economy. Drawing upon case studies of Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria, this book makes the case for redesigning development assistance in order to strike at the root of poverty and transform the African state and its institutions into agents of development.
Global Medieval Contexts 500-1500: Connections and Comparisons provides a unique wide-lens introduction to world history during this period. Designed for students new to the subject, this textbook explores vital networks and relationships among geographies and cultures that shaped medieval societies. The expert author team aims to advance a global view of the period and introduce the reader to histories and narratives beyond an exclusively European context. Key Features: Divided into chronological sections, chapters are organized by four key themes: Religion, Economics, Politics, and Society. This framework enables students to connect wider ideas and debates across 500 to 1500. Individual chapters address current theoretical discussions, including issues around gender, migration, and sustainable environments. The authors' combined teaching experience and subject specialties ensure an engaging and accessible overview for students of history, literature, and those undertaking general studies courses. Theory boxes and end-of-chapter questions provide a basis for group discussion and research. Full-color maps and images illustrate chapter content and support understanding. As a result, this text is essential reading for all those interested in learning more about the histories and cultures of the period, as well as their relevance to our own contemporary experiences and perspectives. This textbook is supported by a companion website providing core resources for students and lecturers.
This handbook generates new insights that enrich our understanding of the history of Islam in Africa and the diverse experiences and expressions of the faith on the continent. The chapters in the volume cover key themes that reflect the preoccupations and realities of many African Muslims. They provide readers access to a comprehensive treatment of the past and current traditions of Muslims in Africa, offering insights on different forms of Islamization that have taken place in several regions, local responses to Islamization, Islam in colonial and post-colonial Africa, and the varied forms of Jihad movements that have occurred on the continent. The handbook provides updated knowledge on various social, cultural, linguistic, political, artistic, educational, and intellectual aspects of the encounter between Islam and African societies reflected in the lived experiences of African Muslims and the corpus of African Islamic texts.
Never before has such damning evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity been revealed in the midst of a conflict. As civil war raged in Syria, we owe the disclosure of this evidence to one man. He goes under the codename of Caesar. This military police photographer was required to document the murder and torture of thousands of Syrian civilians in the custody of the Assad regime. Over the course of two years he used a police computer to copy the photos, and in 2013 he risked his life to smuggle out 53,000 photos and documents that show prisoners tortured, starved and burned to death. In January 2015, in the American magazine Foreign Affairs, President Bashar al-Assad claimed that this military photographer didn't exist. "Who took the pictures? Who is he? Nobody knows. There is no verification of any of this evidence, so it's all allegations without evidence." Caesar exists. The author of this book has spent dozens of hours with him. His testimony is extraordinary, his photos shocking. The uncovering of the workings of the Syrian death machine that underpins his account is a descent into the unspeakable. In 2014 Caesar testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and his testimony provided crucial evidence for a bipartisan bill, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, that was presented to Congress in 2016. Caesar's photos have also been shown in the United Nations Headquarters in New York and at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. For the first time, this book tells Caesar's story.
Malawi native Mandala (history, U. of Rochester, New York) tells two stories, one based on linear time and the other on cyclical time, or rather two versions of a larger story that cannot be understood without considering both perspectives. He looks at how the production and consumption of food has changed over a century and a half in the Tchiri Va
This book highlights the positive achievements that Imperial Ethiopia made in its journey towards urbanization into the modern era, and undertakes a critical assessment of the economic, political, and social impediments that prevented the country from transitioning into a truly fully fledged modern urbanization. It provides a comprehensive history of the growth of towns between 1887 and 1974. It is organized chronologically, regionally, and thematically, divided into three distinct time periods during which Ethiopian towns saw progresses and exposures to limited modern urban features. First, during 1887-1936, the country saw the creation and growth of a national capital (1887) that coordinated the country's economic and political activities and facilitated the growth of other towns in the empire. It introduced new towns, the railway, modern schools, and health centers. Rudimentary factories were established in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, along with motor cars and modern roads, which increased trade between cities. The next era was the Italian occupation from 1936-1941, which shook the pre-existing process of urban growth by introducing a modern European style urbanization system. Ethiopian cities saw a qualitatively different way of urban growth in both form and content. The Italians introduced modern economic and physical planning, administration, and internal organization. People were introduced to modern life in urban areas, exposed to modern wage labor system, and thus moved to towns to take advantage of the opportunity. The Italian occupation left behind many features of modern urbanization, and this influenced population exposed to modern consumptive tastes was determined to retain what the Italians introduced. Finally, the post-Italian period saw a new era of urban growth. Due to economic and organizational problems resulting from destructions caused by the war, the process of urban growth was slowed down in the early 1940s. Although the government did not introduce a clear urban policy in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, towns continued to grow progressively from the early 1950s to 1974.
This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.
6 symbols with an ancient past: the scarab beetle, cobra goddess
Renenutet, falcon god Horu; vulture goddess Nekhbet, the Eye of
Horus, and Amun, "the king of gods," depicted as a ram.
Africa has an unenviable record of 100 military coups in the past five decades, and that may not be the last count. The military still holds power in Guinea and Mauritania, while their incursion saw the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau in March 2009. Fifteen of the 53 African leaders came to power by the force of arm; 23 have been on the throne for more than 10 years. The undemocratic inheritance left behind by military dictators and authoritarian one-party, sit-tight presidents, remain major sources of armed conflicts and civil wars that have claimed well over 20 million lives. The continent has a deluge of 3 million refugees. Out of the 23.7 million IDPs worldwide, 12.6 million are in Africa. Africa: Conflict Resolution And International Diplomacy, reflects on contending issues in contemporary African politics, examines Africa's crisis flash-points and traces various diplomatic initiatives taken by the international community; the UN, AU, EU, the G8, African regional communities and NGOs to ensure peace and stability. Seen purely from an African perspective, Ifeoha Azikiwe delves into the origin, the immediate and remote causes of these conflicts, as well as their cumulative effects and proffers short and long-term preventive measures. He foresees new conflicts erupting from desperate attempts to promote and institutionalise "democratic monarchy" - a recipe for future conflicts. Looking forward, he concludes by highlighting current initiatives, economic and political strategies that could fast-track the process towards full continental integration and formation of a "United States of Africa." Although a number of issues raised in the book may seem unpalatable, the author believes that the time has come to tell us some basic truth, if only to curb excessive impunity, uncanny democratic practices, external manipulations and neo-colonial tendencies that exacerbate conflicts in Africa.
Deneys Schreiner was one of an illustrious family that produced a world-famous author (his great-aunt Olive); a prime minister of the Cape Colony (his grandfather, W.P, who also defended a Zulu prince against specious charges in a colonial court); and Appellate Justice O.D. Schreiner, his father, who fought against National Party efforts to remove coloured people from the common voters' roll. Deneys was an academic, a scientist and a man of strong liberal principles, with a good sense of humour and widespread interests in the sciences, arts and public affairs. These qualities enabled him, in his quiet, steady way, to transform what was then the University of Natal and the society around it. Between the 1960s and 1980s, he supported and initiated several important endeavours to promote constitutional futures other than those imposed by the apartheid government. One of the most significant of these was the Buthelezi Commission, which he chaired. This biography sets out the contexts of Deneys's forebears, his youth, wartime service, studies in Britain and America, family life, and tenure as vice principal, as well as the context of the times in which he lived. It is based on extensive archival research, supported by interviews with family members, former colleagues, friends and journalists. The picture that emerges is of a man who made a great contribution to the struggle for democracy in South Africa. And then there is the story of his beard, once described as a potent symbol of his presence and implacable integrity.
The book examines popular fiction columns, a dominant feature in Kenyan newspapers, published in the twentieth century and examines their historical and cultural impact on Kenyan politics. The book interrogates how popular cultural forms such as popular fiction engage with and subject the polity to constant critique through informal but widely recognized cultural forms of censure. The book further explores the ways we see and experience how the African subaltern, through the everyday, negotiate their rights and obligations with the self, society and the state. Through these columns and their writers, the book examines the tensions that characterize such relationships, how the formal and informal interpenetrate, how the past and present are reconciled, and how the local and transnational collide but also collude in the making of the Kenyan identity.
The powerful Bamana State emerged in 1712 and centered around the Middle Niger, where most inhabitants were Bamanas with their own language and religion. It was a sophisticated society with nobles, casted groups, and slaves. The Bamanas built an empire based on a strong professional army. The author provides a colorful picture of this state, which for centuries was a solid commercial, military, and agricultural society formed by ideologies other than imported religions. This book is also the story of conquests and efforts by two alien powers to assert hegemony over the Bamana of Segu: the first was an African Jihad, led by al Hajj Umar Tal (1861) in the name of religious reform, and the second was European (1890), for the cause of French imperial expansion. The objects were similar: to dominate the rich agricultural lands and commercial routes in the Middle Niger.
This book is a vivid history of Madagascar from the pre-colonial era to decolonization, examining a set of French colonial projects and perceptions that revolve around issues of power, vulnerability, health, conflict, control and identity. It focuses on three lines of inquiry: the relationship between domination and health fears, the island's role during the two world wars, and the mystery of Malagasy origins. The Madagascar that emerges is plural and fractured. It is the site of colonial dystopias, grand schemes gone awry, and diverse indigenous reactions. Bringing together deep archival research and recent scholarship, Jennings sheds light on the colonial project in Madagascar, and more broadly, on the ideas which underpin colonialism.
Fireforce is the true account of Chris Cocks' service in 3 Commando, The Rhodesian light infantry, during Zimbabwe's bitter civil war of the '70s - a war that came to be known almost innocuously as 'the bush war'. 'Fireforce', a tactic of total airborne envelopment, was developed and perfected by the RLI, together with the Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian Air Force. Fireforce became the principal strike weapon of the beleaguered Rhodesian forces in their struggle against the overwhelming tide of the Communist-trained and -equipped ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas. The combat strain on a fighting soldier was almost unbelievable, for the Rhodesians, who were always desperately short of ground troops, were sometimes obliged to parachute the same men into action into as many as three enemy contacts a day. While estimates of enemy casualties vary, there seems little doubt that the RLI accounted for at least 12,000 ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas - but not without cost.
First comprehensive account of the origins and early history of the Chewa as revealed by oral tradition and archaeology that allows a more accurate picture of a pre-literate society. The Chewa are the largest ethnic group in Malawi, representing a third of the population of approximately 19 million, and their language - Chichewa - is Malawi's national language. Yet the last book on the history of this group was published in 1944, and was based on oral history, or tradition. As with much African history, oral history started to be recorded only in the late 19th century. This is the first book to use not only oral history, but also documents written by early Portuguese explorers, traders and government officials, as well as archaeology, to piece together the early history of the Chewa. The author is an archaeologist, who discovered the first major Chewa settlement, Mankhamba, near the southern part of Lake Malawi. His excavations have enabled a more scientific chronology of the migrations of the Chewa into what is today Malawi and have provided physical proof of their early history as well as their material and spiritual culture and way of life. Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi has written and documented a very readable history and description of archaeology, which reveals the value of combining oral tradition together with archaeology to arrive at a more accurate picture of the history of a pre-literate society. This book will be of value not only to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, but also the general reader interested in Africanhistory. YUSUF M. JUWAYEYI is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York. South Africa: UCT Press
First Published in 1966 Four Aspects of Egypt provides a picturesque tour of Egypt for visitors and new arrivals in the country. John Marlowe takes us on a journey by discussing the splendour and durability of the remains of Egypt's ancient civilization; the mosques, tombs, khans (inns) and sibilas (fountains) of mediaeval Cairo; the total dependence of Egypt upon the Nile and its life-giving waters; and with efforts of modernization in the country, to capture its enchantment through descriptions of the land and its history. This book will be an interesting read for general readers interested in history of Egypt and travelogues.
examines the life and work of Mazisi Kunene explores how 'oraliterature' and cultural traditions informed Kunene's poetry draws on a range of interviews and comparative studies, the book situates Kunene's work in a wider conversation about South African social struggles. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of one of the giants of African literary history. As such, it will be of interest to researchers across African literary and postcolonial studies.
The United Africa Company (UAC), formed in 1929 by the fusion of the Niger Company and the African and Eastern Corporation, was by far the largest single commercial organization in West and Equatorial Africa, and thus central to modern African economic history. This is the first detailed account to be published and one which fills a serious gap in the literature. It was not commissioned by the company (now reabsorbed into Unilever) but the author had full access to all confidential material in the UAC and Unilever archives and complete freedom in what he wrote. The book is not intended to be primarily a company history but uses the UAC as a focal point for detailed study of how the role of foreign merchant capital changed in response to economic and political developments in Black Africa during this critical half century.
First Published in 1965 Anglo - Egyptian Relations 1800-1956 provides a comprehensive overview of the political history of Egypt from 1800-1956. John Marlowe discusses important themes like the first British occupation; Great Britain and Mohamed Ali; second British Occupation; the 1936 treaty; the second German war; Egypt and the Arab League; post-war nationalism; revolution and the road to Suez. This book is a must read for students and scholars of Egyptian history, African history, and history in general.
This book analyzes the influence of memory on social conflict as well as the role of ethnicity in state formation and governance in Nigeria. It examines the nexus between the Nigerian civil war and the conflict in the oil rich Niger Delta against the background of memory and ethnicization of the state. Ultimately, both social conflicts, though separated by decades, profit from shared memories in a largely ethnicized state structure. Nigeria emerges as a centrifugal state characterized by bias in resource distribution and concentration of power in the center. These forces create the perception of marginalization and sponsor enduring memory of a biased state not helped by failure of the state to ensure closure of the civil war. The book argues that the non-systematic closure of the civil war has generated memory lapse which has given rise to social conflicts and dissension in the socio-geographical region of the erstwhile Biafra republic. These conflicts in the contemporary history of Nigeria include the persistent Niger Delta oil conflict and recurrent struggle for the realization of a sovereign state of Biafra. In effect, these conflicts are products of structural bias and distributional injustice; and both can be related to the social memory lag of the civil war and weak Nigerian state. The book traces how memory is produced and disseminated within social groups in Southeastern Nigeria, which is the theater of both the civil war and youth-driven oil conflict in the Niger Delta. While these conflicts have without doubt benefitted from memory lapse of the past, they have equally drawn momentum from ethnicity which has significantly and negatively affected the role of the state.
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