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Books > Humanities > History > African history
The slow collapse of the European colonial empires after 1945
provides one of the great turning points of twentieth century
history. With the loss of India however, the British under Harold
Macmillan attempted to enforce a 'second' colonial occupation -
supporting the efforts of Sir Andrew Cohen of the Colonial Office
to create a Central African Federation. Drawing on newly released
archival material, The Politics and Economics of Decolonization in
Africa offers a fresh examination of Britain's central African
territories in the late colonial period and provides a detailed
assessment of how events in Britain, Africa and the UN shaped the
process of decolonization. The author situates the Central African
Federation - which consisted of modern day Zambia, Zimbabwe and
Malawi - in its wider international context, shedding light on the
Federation's complex relationships with South Africa, with US
Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy and with the
expanding United Nations. The result is an important history of the
last days of the British Empire and the beginnings of a more
independent African continent.
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.
The defeat of Apartheid and triumph of non-racial democracy in South Africa was not the work of just a few individuals. Ultimately, it came about through the actions – large and small – of many principled, courageous people from all walks of life and backgrounds.
Some of these activists achieved enduring fame and recognition and their names today loom large in the annals of the anti-apartheid struggle. Others were engaged in a range of practical, hands-on activities outside of the public eye. These were the loyal foot soldiers of the liberation Struggle, the unsung workers at the coal face who, largely behind the scenes, made a difference on the ground and helped to bring about meaningful change.
Even though Apartheid was aimed at entrenching white power and privilege, a number of whites rejected that system and instead joined their fellow South Africans in opposing it. Of these, a noteworthy proportion came from the Jewish community.
Mensches in the Trenches tells the hitherto unrecorded stories of some of these activists and the essential, if seldom publicised role that they and others like them played in bringing freedom and justice to their country.
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.
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