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Books > Humanities > History > African history
The earliest development of Arabic historical writing remains
shrouded in uncertainty until the 9th century CE, when our first
extant texts were composed. This book demonstrates a new method,
termed riwaya-cum-matn, which allows us to identify
citation-markers that securely indicate the quotation of earlier
Arabic historical works, proto-books first circulated in the eighth
century. As a case study it reconstructs, with an edition and
translation, around half of an annalistic history written by
al-Layth b. Sa'd in the 740s. In doing so it shows that annalistic
history-writing, comparable to contemporary Syriac or Greek models,
was a part of the first development of Arabic historiography in the
Marwanid period, providing a chronological framework for more
ambitious later Abbasid history-writing. Reconstructing the
original production-contexts and larger narrative frames of
now-atomised quotations not only lets us judge their likely
accuracy, but to consider the political and social relations
underpinning the first production of authoritative historical
knowledge in Islam. It also enables us to assess how Abbasid
compilers combined and augmented the base texts from which they
constructed their histories.
Beginning in the late 1930s, a crisis in colonial Gusiiland
developed over traditional marriage customs. Couples eloped, wives
deserted husbands, fathers forced daughters into marriage, and
desperate men abducted women as wives. Existing historiography
focuses on women who either fled their rural homes to escape a new
dual patriarchy-African men backed by colonial officials-or
surrendered themselves to this new power. "Girl Cases: Marriage and
Colonialism in Gusiiland, Kenya 1890-1970" takes a new approach to
the study of Gusii marriage customs and shows that Gusii women
stayed in their homes to fight over the nature of marriage. Gusii
women and their lovers remained committed to traditional
bridewealth marriage, but they raised deeper questions over the
relations between men and women.
During this time of social upheaval, thousands of marriage
disputes flowed into local African courts. By examining court
transcripts, "Girl Cases" sheds light on the dialogue that
developed surrounding the nature of marriage. Should parental
rights to arrange a marriage outweigh women's rights to choose
their husbands? Could violence by abductors create a legitimate
union? Men and women debated these and other issues in the
courtroom, and Brett L. Shadle's analysis of the transcripts
provides a valuable addition to African social history.
Today, the East African state of Tanzania is renowned for wildlife
preserves such as the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area, and the Selous Game Reserve. Yet few know that
most of these initiatives emerged from decades of German colonial
rule. This book gives the first full account of Tanzanian wildlife
conservation up until World War I, focusing upon elephant hunting
and the ivory trade as vital factors in a shift from exploitation
to preservation that increasingly excluded indigenous Africans.
Analyzing the formative interactions between colonial governance
and the natural world, The Nature of German Imperialism situates
East African wildlife policies within the global emergence of
conservationist sensibilities around 1900.
'n Nuwe en bygewerkte uitgawe van die publikasie wat in 1990 uitgegee is deur die Nasionale Parkeraad van Suid-Afrika (tans SANParke).
Dit is die uitvoerige voorgeskiedenis en geskiedenis van die ou Transvaalse Laeveld en die gebeure wat gelei het tot die ontstaan van een van die eerste bewaringsgebiede in die ou Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek toe die Sabie-reservaat in 1898 geproklameer is.
Teen die einde van die Anglo-Boereoorlog was terme soos "misdaad
teen die mensdom", "oorlogsmisdadigers", volkemoord" en "etniese
suiwering" begrippe wat nog ver in die geskiedenis le. Bykans 'n
kwart van die konsentrasiekampbevolking het gedurende agt maande in
1901 daar omgekom. Aan die iende van die oorlog sou 29 000
afrikaners, waarvan 22 000 kinders, en moontlik soveel as 18 000
swart mense hulle einde in konsentrasiekapker-howe vind. Die
sterftes in die kampe, hele dorpe wat verwoes is, die platteland
wat grootskaals ontvolk is, en die vrees dat die "hele Afrikaanse
volk kan uitsterf", sou uiteindelik tot die Vrede van Vereeniging
lei. Die konsentrasiekampe het in die hart van die Afrikaner 'n
vuur van verbittering aangesteek wat dalk nooit geblus sal word
nie. As al die smart, smaad en verbittering wat die Afrikaner in sy
ganse geskiedenis gely het, lankal vergete sal wees, sal daardie
vuur nog vlam, want dit het " 'n merk vir die eeue gebrand op ons
volk"(Leipoldt).
Now combined into a single volume, these three brief history texts
provide a concise and eye-opening overview of the history of the
Middle East. Each is written by a leading expert, and all have been
hailed as outstanding introductions for the general reader. These
texts have been widely translated and adopted at universities in
Turkey, Norway, Italy, and Germany, as well as throughout North
America.
I am an African American male who has had to deal with the racism
and prejudice in this country, so the history that we were deprived
of as children is where my expertise lies. There are hundreds of
facts and events that are very important to the enrichment and
growth of the black nation. We've come very far without knowing our
history; imagine, if we were grounded in our roots, how far we'd
be. You can handcuff my wrists, you can shackle my feet, you can
bind me in your chains, you can throw me in your deepest darkest
dungeon ...but you can't enslave my thinking, for it is free like
the wind. Jaye Swift has sold over 40,000 CDs on the streets by
himself. His music is the epitome of hip hop, and his name has been
recognized by some of the greatest in music. His credibility in
music is flawless, and he has refused to record with mindless
artists who have no substance or integrity. It is only to his
credit that But You Can't Enslave My Thinking ...has been written
with the same impeccable consistency and wisdom. It's designed to
enlighten the minds of non-African Americans and enrich the lives
of all African Americans.
Liberia has a strong connection to the United States in that it was
founded by former slaves in 1822. Although Liberia had existed as
an independent African nation and a symbol of hope to the African
peoples under the rule of various colonial powers, its recent
history has been bedeviled by a prolonged upheaval following a
military coup d'etat in 1980. In this context, the narrative
highlights the distinctiveness of Liberians in their negotiation of
traditional indigenous and modern practices, and the changes
wrought by Christianity and Western influences.
In 1894 Jesus appeared in a dream to Rainisoalambo during a period
of intense national crisis shortly before the French colonial
invasion of Madagascar. An educated member of the southern
highlands aristocracy, Rainisoalambo was also a traditional
medicine man who had fallen into grave difficulty. Being stricken
with a case of then-rampant leprosy, his business had vanished and
he and his family were starving. In this vision, Jesus told
Rainisoalambo to put away his sampy, the small idols and charms he
used for his traditional divining and healing. When he awoke, he
found that he was healed. He quickly got rid of his charms and
began a new life of fervent prayer, witnessing to his neighbors
about what had happened, and reading the gospels with new eyes, as
current reality rather than ancient reports of the far-away
dealings of the white man's god. A group of believers soon gathered
around him. Within a year of intense activity they had formally
organized themselves at Soatanna into what we would now call a base
community, the Disciples of the Lord. Their simple rules called
them to lives of economic sharing and self-sufficiency, cleanliness
and orderliness in their persons, houses, and lands, learning to
read the Bible, daily communal prayers and study, and sending out
apostles and evangelists to establish other such households and
communities. This was the beginning of what is now called the
Fifohazana, or Awakening. More than a century later the movement
comprises several tobys, or base communities, following the
appearance of several more prophets, female and male, and their
miracle-working. The members of the movement, or mpiandry, live
throughout the island, some in the tobys butmost in the cities and
villages as members of a variety of churches. The Fifohazana
continues to stress spiritual healings, exorcisms, personal service
to the poor and sick, cleanliness, prayer, Bible study, and
witnessing. This volume provides the reader with a very clear
understanding of what the Fifohazanamovement is all about
historically, theologically, in terms of the main characters
involved, its tremendous contributions to what a Christian healing
ministry might ideally be, and as it relates to the larger world of
church and society. The book is strengthened by the contributions
of a diverse international group of scholars and participants in
the movement. This has fostered the creation of an authentic piece
of research, which combines the actual voices of participants
within the movement itself along with the perspectives of scholars,
who analyze the movement from the external periphery. This is the
first book-length treatment of the Fifohazana in English. Editor
Cynthia Holder Rich has gathered contributions from authors from
five countries, including several members of the movement, to offer
several perspectives onto the history and current life of the
movement. Articles include analysis of major movement leaders, the
place of healing in the movement, history of the conflict between
the missions and the movement, the significance of oral expression
in proclamation and as a means of revival, the role of women as
leaders in the movement, and theological issues. The Fifohazana is
one of the most intriguing current instances of indigenous
Christianity in the world. While the movement has greatly evolved
and changed in over a century, Jesus continues to appear and raise
up newleaders. Various branches of the movement have developed a
variety of institutions, but the movement has not lost its power of
transformation and change. The Fifohazana: Madagascar's Indigenous
Christian Movement is an important volume for research libraries,
universities, African studies institutions and theological schools.
A century ago, one of the five most recognizable names in the world
was arguably that of Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal
Republic-a small Southern African country inhabited by a white
tribe-who took on the overwhelming superiority of the mighty
British Empire in defense of his people's sovereign independence.
It was a David and Goliath story. As most of the world-including
the US-cheered the Boers on, they fought a desperate war to the
bitter end (1899-1902) against colonialism, until their country lay
smoldering in ruins and an estimated 27, 929 Boer women and
children, as well as an untold number of blacks, had died in
British concentration camps.Yet within little more than half a
century, those same Afrikaners had squandered their political
capital and gone from being the world's favorite underdog to one of
the most reviled names in history. Their subsequent social
engineering project known as apartheid became an abhorrent concept
in the eyes of the international community. Bernard Botes Kruger is
a fifth-generation descendant of the wartime president, Paul
Kruger. He is an Afrikaner who lived most of his life in the
turmoil and conflict that has dominated his country's history. His
new historical novel, A Battlement of Spears, tells the remarkable
story of how not only the Afrikaners, but also the many other
former sovereign nations within the redrawn borders of the postwar
South Africa struggled to come to terms with a common identity,
often with devastating consequences. "What cruel twist of tectonic
irony caused the deepest scar on the earth's surface across the
face of that continent that would also suffer the most appalling of
human tragedies?" the author asks. Set against the backdrop of the
timeless mountain called in Zulu uKhahlamba (Barrier of Spears), a
dramatic geographic boundary that divided nations throughout
history, A Battlement of Spears is an epic story spanning
twenty-four years and two continents, of two young men with similar
interests but vastly different cultural backgrounds who become
unlikely friends. In a tragic series of events they will discover
what sacrifices are exacted from those who would dwell in the
symbolic no man's land of the summit, where fog often obscures the
vision and deprivation dulls the senses, until it becomes all too
easy to drift into hostile territory or stumble into the jaws of
the precipice. In the process they will become separated, spending
a lifetime before finding each other again a world away, on a
different continent. But in the course of their respective
journeys, they will also learn that barriers are not always what
they seem, and that choices are sometimes inevitable, with
far-reaching consequences. In that hauntingly beautiful land it is
never merely about survival, but about the things that make it
truly worthwhile, such as loyalty, friendship and honor, regardless
of the price. Written in a style that endeavors to entertain while
enlightening the uninformed about South Africa's long road to
democracy, the book provides extensive background explanations
(yes, footnotes) to those interested in the historical,
anthropological or linguistic aspects of a 'rainbow nation, ' which
today recognizes eleven official languages and several royal
families, besides a multitude of unofficial languages and dialects.
And while A Battlement of Spears is a work of fiction, based,
according to the author, on "countless true stories," it becomes
evident within the first few pages that many of the events
portrayed are too detailed and specific not to have been
experienced by someone. Some elements of the story are unmistakably
autobiographical, but much of it simply represents the collective
consciousness of a people struggling to find solutions.
In the global context of the Cold War, the relationship between
liberation movements and Eastern European states obviously changed
and transformed. Similarly, forms of (material) aid and
(ideological) encouragement underwent changes over time. The
articles assembled in this volume argue that the traditional Cold
War geography of bi-polar competition with the United States is not
sufficient to fully grasp these transformations. The question of
which side of the ideological divide was more successful (or lucky)
in impacting actors and societies in the global south is still
relevant, yet the Cold War perspective falls short in unfolding the
complex geographies of connections and the multipolarity of actions
and transactions that exists until today. Acknowledging the
complexities of liberation movements in globalization processes,
the papers thus argue that activities need to be understood in
their local context, including personal agendas and internal
conflicts, rather than relying primarily on the traditional frame
of Cold War competition. They point to the agency of individual
activists in both "Africa" and "Eastern Europe" and the lessons,
practices and languages that were derived from their often
contradictory encounters. In Southern African Liberation Movements,
authors from South Africa, Portugal, Austria and Germany ask: What
role did actors in both Southern Africa and Eastern Europe play?
What can we learn by looking at biographies in a time of increasing
racial and international conflict? And which "creative solutions"
need to be found, to combine efforts of actors from various
ideological camps? Building on archival sources from various
regions in different languages, case studies presented in the
edition try to encounter the lack of a coherent state of the art.
They aim at combining the sometimes scarce sources with qualitative
interviews to give answers to the many open questions regarding
Southern African liberation movements and their connections to the
"East".
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