This edited collection explores varying shapes of nationalism in different regional and historical settings in order to analyse the important role that nationalism has played in shaping the contemporary world. Taking a global approach, the collection includes case studies from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America. Unique not only in its wide range of geographically diverse case studies, this book is also innovative due to its comparative approach that combines different perspectives on how nations have been understood and how they came into being, highlighting the transnational connections between various countries. The authors examine what is meant by the concepts of 'nation' and 'national identity,' discussing themes such as citizenship, ethnicity, historical symbols and the role of elites. By exploring these entangled categories of nationalism, the authors argue that throughout history, elites have created 'artificial ' versions of nationalism through symbolism and mythology, which has led to nationalism being understood through social constructivist or primordialist lenses. This diverse collection will appeal to researchers studying nationalism, including historians, political scientists and anthropologists.

Electoral violence is a persistent problem in Zambia. This book is a case study of the usage, importance and impact of Public Diplomacy (PD) and Smart Power (SP) by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Zambia) and Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Zambia by means of collaborating with local NGOs - the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) and the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) to help elections take place among poor, uneducated voters without resorting to violence. General and by-election periods have for more than five decades generated an increased intensity of electoral violence by hired impoverished youth political cadres who are increasingly becoming more daring and lethal, capable of damaging property, inflicting injuries on victims or causing death. There is a growing urgent need for special-tailored programmes that target instigators and perpetrators of electoral violence - more definitely needs to be done besides efforts by international organisations. It is up to citizens, local NGOs and especially political parties and responsible public institutions to act in order to limit electoral violence in Zambia.

Touts is a historical account of the troubled formation of a colonial labor market in the Gulf of Guinea and a major contribution to the historiography of indentured labor, which has relatively few reference points in Africa. The setting is West Africa's largest island, Fernando Po or Bioko in today's Equatorial Guinea, 100 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria. The Spanish ruled this often-ignored island from the mid-nineteenth century until 1968. A booming plantation economy led to the arrival of several hundred thousand West African, principally Nigerian, contract workers on steamships and canoes. In Touts, Enrique Martino traces the confusing transition from slavery to other labor regimes, paying particular attention to the labor brokers and their financial, logistical, and clandestine techniques for bringing workers to the island. Martino combines multi-sited archival research with the concept of touts as "lumpen-brokers" to offer a detailed study of how commercial labor relations could develop, shift and collapse through the recruiters' own techniques, such as large wage advances and elaborate deceptions. The result is a pathbreaking reconnection of labor mobility, contract law, informal credit structures and exchange practices in African history.

In September 1958, Guinea claimed its independence, rejecting a constitution that would have relegated it to junior partnership in the French Community. In all the French empire, Guinea was the only territory to vote "No." Orchestrating the "No" vote was the Guinean branch of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA), an alliance of political parties with affiliates in French West and Equatorial Africa and the United Nations trusts of Togo and Cameroon. Although Guinea's stance vis-a-vis the 1958 constitution has been recognized as unique, until now the historical roots of this phenomenon have not been adequately explained.
Clearly written and free of jargon, "Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea" argues that Guinea's vote for independence was the culmination of a decade-long struggle between local militants and political leaders for control of the political agenda. Since 1950, when RDA representatives in the French parliament severed their ties to the French Communist Party, conservative elements had dominated the RDA. In Guinea, local cadres had opposed the break. Victimized by the administration and sidelined by their own leaders, they quietly rebuilt the party from the base. Leftist militants, their voices muted throughout most of the decade, gained preeminence in 1958, when trade unionists, students, the party's women's and youth wings, and other grassroots actors pushed the Guinean RDA to endorse a "No" vote. Thus, Guinea's rejection of the proposed constitution in favor of immediate independence was not an isolated aberration. Rather, it was the outcome of years of political mobilization by activists who, despite Cold War repression, ultimately pushed the Guinean RDA tothe left.
The significance of this highly original book, based on previously unexamined archival records and oral interviews with grassroots activists, extends far beyond its primary subject. In illuminating the Guinean case, Elizabeth Schmidt helps us understand the dynamics of decolonization and its legacy for postindependence nation-building in many parts of the developing world.
Examining Guinean history from the bottom up, Schmidt considers local politics within the larger context of the Cold War, making her book suitable for courses in African history and politics, diplomatic history, and Cold War history.

This book examines conferences and commissions held for British colonial territories in East and Central Africa in the early 1960s. Until 1960, the British and colonial governments regularly employed hard methods of colonial management in East and Central Africa, such as instituting states of emergency and imprisoning political leaders. A series of events at the end of the 1950s made hard measures no longer feasible, including criticism from the United Nations. As a result, softer measures became more prevalent, and the use of constitutional conferences and commissions became an increasingly important tool for the British government in seeking to manage colonial affairs. During the period 1960-64, a staggering sixteen conferences and ten constitutional commissions were held for British colonies in East and Central Africa. This book is the first of its kind to provide a detailed overview of how the British sought to make use of these events to control and manage the pace of change. The author also demonstrates how commissions and conferences helped shape politics and African popular opinion in the early 1960s. Whilst giving the British government temporary respite, conferences and commissions ultimately accelerated the decolonisation process by transferring more power to African political parties and engendering softer perceptions on both sides. Presenting both British and African perspectives, this book offers an innovative exploration into the way that these episodes played an important part in the decolonisation of Africa. It shows that far from being dry and technical events, conferences and commissions were occasions of drama that tell us much about how the British government and those in Africa engaged with the last days of empire.

This book examines the political and economic philosophy of Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo and his concepts of democratic socialism (Liberal Democratic Socialism). It studies how Chief Awolowo and his political parties, first the Action Group (AG) 1951-1966 and later the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) 1978-1983, acted in various Nigerian political settings. Chief Awolowo was a principled man, who by a Spartan self-discipline and understanding of himself, his accomplishments, failures and successes, was a fearless leader. He has set an example of leadership for a new generation of Nigerian politicians. He was not only a brilliant politician, but a highly cerebral thinker, statesman, dedicated manager, brilliant political economist, a Social Democrat, and a committed federalist. From all accounts, Chief Awolowo knew the worst and the best, laughter and sorrow, vilification and veneration, tribulations and triumphs, poverty and prosperity, failures and successes in life.

The comparison of early Italy's and Japan's colonialism is without precedence. The majority of studies on Italian and Japanese expansion refer to the 1930-1940s period (fascist/totalitarian era) when Japan annexed Manchuria (1931) and Italy Ethiopia (1936). The first formative and crucial steps that paved the way for this expansion have been neglected. This analysis covers a range of social, political and economic parameters illuminating the diversity but also the common ground of the nature and aspirations of Japan's and Italy's early colonial systems. The two states alongside the Great Powers of the era expanded in the name of humanism and civilization but in reality in a way typically imperialistic, they sought territorial compensations, financial privileges and prestige. A parallel and deeper understanding of the nineteenth century socio-cultural-psychological parameters, such as tradition, mentality, and religion that shaped and explain the later ideological framework of Rome's and Tokyo's expansionist disposition, has never been attempted before. This monograph offers a detailed examination of the phenomenon of colonialism by examining the issue from two different angles. The study contributes to the understanding of Italy's and Japan's early imperial expansion. In addition, it traces the origins of these states' similar and common historical evolution in late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.

Systems of belonging, including ethnicity, are not static, automatic, or free of contest. Historical contexts shape the ways which we are included in or excluded from specific classifications. Building on an amazing array of sources, David L. Schoenbrun examines groupwork-the imaginative labor that people do to constitute themselves as communities-in an iconic and influential region in East Africa. His study traces the roots of nationhood in the Ganda state over the course of a millennia, demonstrating that the earliest clans were based not on political identity or language but on shared investments, knowledges, and practices. Grounded in Schoenbrun's skillful mastery of historical linguistics and vernacular texts, The Names of the Python supplements and redirects current debates about ethnicity in ex-colonial Africa and beyond. This timely volume carefully distinguishes past from present and shows the many possibilities that still exist for the creative cultural imagination.

A magisterial history of South Africa, from the earliest known human inhabitation of the region to the present.

Leonard Thompson, a leading scholar in southern African history and politics, provides a fresh and penetrating exploration of the country's history, from the earliest known human inhabitation of the region to the present, focusing primarily on experiences of its black inhabitants.

The Fourth Edition of this classic text brings South Africa's history up to date with a new chapter chronicling the first presidential term of Mbeki and ending with the funeral of Nelson Mandela.

Kolonie aan die Kaap is die derde van vyf boeke oor vroeë blanke vestiging aan die Kaap.

In dié deel vestig Karel Schoeman die aandag op die eerste blanke intrekkers. Die VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie), het in 1651 besluit om in Tafelbaai ’n verversingspos te stig ten behoewe van die Kompanjie se skeepvaart tussen Nederland en die Ooste en dis met hierdie doel dat kommandeur Jan van Riebeeck in Desember van daardie jaar met sy vlootjie van vyf skepe na die Kaap uitgeseil het.

Die eerste hoofstuk gee aandag aan Van Riebeeck se lewe en loopbaan tot en met hierdie datum en in die tweede hoofstuk word die werksaamhede rondom die vestiging van die verversingspos aan die hand van Van Riebeeck se dagboeke en briewe en die geskrifte van vroeë besoekers beskryf. Die omstandighede van die pioniersgroepie wat uitvoering aan Van Riebeeck se opdragte en ambisieuse planne moes gee, word in hoofstuk 3 bespreek. Aanvanklik moes alle lewensmiddele, gereedskap, saad, plantjies en selfs perde uit die Ooste ingevoer word. ’n Fort, wat skuiling en beskerming teen wilde diere en vyandige Khoi-stamme moes gee, is in 1666 voltooi. Hoe die verskillende sosiale groeperinge soos die hoë amptenare, die ambagsmanne, soldate en slawe in dié Fort gewerk, geleef en soms ook gesterf het, die onthale, kerk- en gebedsdienste en militêre parades kom in hoofstuk 4 aan die bod.

’n Klein klompie hoë Kompanjiesamptenare was deel van die Kaapse nedersetting, maar dit was hoofsaaklik uit die groter groep werksvolk, soldate en matrose dat die latere vryburgers afkomstig was. Die uiters moeilike omstandighede, teenslae en mislukkings van die aanvanklike groepie van nege, maar ook die enkele suksesverhale, word in hoofstuk 7 bespreek. Die boek sluit af met ’n oorsig oor Van Riebeeck se latere loopbaan in die Ooste en sy oorlye in 1677.

This is a collection of key essays about the Akan Peoples, their history and culture. The Akans are an ethnic group in West Africa, predominately Ghana and Togo, of roughly 25 million people. From the twelfth century on, Akans created numerous states based largely on gold mining and trading of cash crops. This brought wealth to numerous Akan states, such as Akwamu, which stretched all the way to modern Benin, and ultimately led to the rise of the best known Akan empire, the Empire of Ashanti. Throughout history, Akans were a highly educated group; notable Akan people in modern times include Kwame Nkrumah and Kofi Annan. This volume features a new array of primary sources that provide fresh and nuanced perspectives. This collection is the first of its kind.

The first full-length examination of the archaeology and history of the Namib Desert. This is a story of human survival over the last one million years in the Namib Desert - one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Namib reveals the resilience and ingenuity of desert communities and provides a vivid picture of our species' response to climate change, and ancient strategies to counter ever-present risk. Dusty fragments of stone, pottery and bone tell a history of perpetual transition, of shifting and temporary states of balance. Namib digs beneath the usual evidence of archaeology to uncover a world of arcane rituals, of travelling rain-makers, of intricate social networks which maintained vital systems of negotiated access to scarce resources. Ranging from the earliest evidence of human occupation, through colonial rule and genocide, to the invasion of the desert by South African troops during the First World War, this is the first comprehensive archaeology of the Namib. Among its important contributions are the reclaiming of the indigenous perspective during the brutal colonial occupation, and establishing new material links between the imperialist project in German South West Africa during 1885-1915 and the Third Reich, and between Nazi ideology and Apartheid. Southern Africa: University of Namibia Press/Jacana

For every gallon of ink that has been spilt on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its consequences, only one very small drop has been spent on the study of the forced migration of black Africans into the Mediterranean world of Islam. From the ninth to the early twentieth century, probably as many black Africans were forcibly taken across the Sahara, up the Nile valley, and across the Red Sea, as were transported across the Atlantic in a much shorter period. Yet their story has not yet been told. This book provides an introduction to this ""other"" slave trade, and to the Islamic cultural context within which it took place, as well as the effect this context had on those who were its victims. After an introductory essay, there are sections on Basic Texts (Qur'an and Hadith), Some Muslim Views on Slavery, Slavery and the Law, Perceptions of Africans in Some Arabic and Turkish Writings, Slave Capture, the Middle Passage, Slave Markets, Eunuchs and Concubines, Domestic Service, Military Service, Religion and Community, Freedom and Post-Slavery, and the Abolition of Slavery. A concluding segment provides a first-person account of the capture, transportation, and service in a Saharan oasis by a West African male, as related to a French official in the 1930s.