Among the few surviving archaeological sites from the medieval Christian kingdom of Nubia-located in present day Sudan-Qasr Ibrim is unique in a number of ways. It is the only site in Lower Nubia that remained above water after the completion of the Aswan high dam. In addition, thanks to the aridity of the climate in the area the site is marked by extraordinary preservation of organic material, especially textual material written on papyrus, leather, and paper. Particularly rich is the textual material from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, written in Old Nubian, the region's indigenous language. As a result, Qasr Ibrim is probably the best documented ancient and medieval site in Africa outside of Egypt and North Africa. Medieval Nubia will be the first book to make available this remarkable material, much of which is still unpublished. The evidence discovered reveals a more complicated picture of this community than originally thought. Previously, scholars had thought medieval Nubia had existed in relative isolation from the rest of the world and had a primitive economy. Legal documents, accounts, and letters, however, reveal a complex, monetized economy with exchange rates connected to those of the wider world. Furthermore, they reveal public festive practices, in which lavish feasting and food gifts reinforced the social prestige of the participants. These documents show medieval Nubia to have been a society combining legal elements inherited from the Greco-Roman world with indigenous African social practices. In reconstructing the social and economic life of medieval Nubia based on the Old Nubian sources from the site, as well as other previously examined materials, Giovanni R. Ruffini will correct previous assumptions and produce a new picture of Nubia, one that connects it to the wider Mediterranean economy and society of its time.

The volume Environmental Change and African Societies contributes to current debates on global climate change from the perspectives of the social sciences and the humanities. It charts past and present environmental change in different African settings and also discusses policies and scenarios for the future. The first section, "Ideas", enquires into local perceptions of the environment, followed by contributions on historical cases of environmental change and state regulation. The section "Present" addresses decision-making and agenda-setting processes related to current representations and/or predicted effects of climate change. The section "Prospects" is concerned with contemporary African megatrends. The authors move across different scales of investigation, from locally-grounded ethnographic analyses to discussions on continental trends and international policy. Contributors are: Daniel Callo-Concha, Joy Clancy, Manfred Denich, Sara de Wit, Ton Dietz, Irit Eguavoen, Ben Fanstone, Ingo Haltermann, Laura Jeffrey, Emmanuel Kreike, Vimbai Kwashirai, James C. McCann, Bertrand F. Nero, Jonas O. Nielsen, Erick G. Tambo, Julia Tischler.

The history of Liberia and the United States are closely tied together, but few people have taken the necessary steps to understand the complicated relationship between the two countries. " Liberia: America's Footprint in Africa " traces the history of an African nation whose fate is closely tied to an uprising of slaves that began on the island that is now Haiti. The violence there caused people in the United States to wonder about the future of slavery and blacks in their own nation. In this detailed history written by a Liberian educator, you'll discover: how the American Colonization Society played a critical role in the creation of Liberia; how courageous blacks living in the United States persevered in seeking freedom; how Liberia is culturally, socially, and politically connected to the United States. Discover the rich history of two nations and why Liberia remains relevant today. Enriched with interviews of scholars, Liberian community elders and detailed research, " Liberia: America's Footprint in Africa " is a step-by-step account of an overlooked country.

Routledge Library Editions: Immigration and Migration, a collection of 20 previously out-of-print titles, features some key research on a multitude of subject areas. Integration, assimilation, multi-culturalism, historical and modern migration, questions on culture, language, labour and law - all are covered here, forming a snapshot of the immigrant experience across the world.

This is the extraordinary story of Mikidadi, an ordinary Tanzanian from a remote coastal island, who became a Koran-school teacher, charity leader, environmental activist and guardian of an extended family. But this biography is not only about Mikidadi's life and legacy, but also his times. He lived through transitions from colonialism to independence, socialism to neoliberalism, a single- to a multi-party state, and a local Swahili Islam to a more globalized and politicized form. He also experienced the growth of corruption, and the increasing role of Western NGOs and Islamic charities. In considering how wider historical processes impacted on Mikidadi, as life got progressively harder for his family, this book seeks to counter some of the recent rewriting of Tanzania's post-colonial history. Skilfully moving through the decades, between events at national, regional and individual levels, between three generations, and even adding a further layer of her own life as an anthropologist, Caplan succeeds in writing an engaging, accessible account that will appeal to both academics and students. For at the centre of this book is an unlikely friendship that began in 1966 between a 12-year-old boy and a 23-year-old woman, and lasted nearly four decades, to be cut short by Mikidadi's untimely death in 2002. Recollections of meetings, and extracts from fieldwork notes and correspondence, bring a lively immediacy to this exchange, in which profound cultural differences between researcher and researched are transcended in interconnected lives. "This clear and well-written book celebrates a life and its place in history. It is an exemplar of public anthropology." - David Zeitlyn, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford. 'An unprecedented ethnographic analysis of contemporary Tanzanian history exploring how individuals, families and communities over time perceive, act, negotiate and strive to adjust in the shade of shifting political, economic and ideological conditions.' - Kjersti Larsen, Professor, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo 'Clear, engaging, and insightful, this accessible biography provides a rich entry point into African history and anthropology through an intimate account of life in a coastal East African village.' - Christine J. Walley, Professor of Anthropology, Director of Graduate Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'A model of participatory and ethical research, Mikidadi is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, development practitioners, and environment activists.' - Marjorie Mbilinyi, Professor, University of Dar es Salaam (1968-2003); Principal Policy Analyst, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (2004-14)

In Middle Eastern and Islamic societies, the politics of sexual knowledge is a delicate and often controversial subject. Sherry Sayed Gadelrab focuses on nineteenth and early-twentieth century Egypt, claiming that during this period there was a perceptible shift in the medical discourse surrounding conceptualisations of sex differences and the construction of sexuality. Medical authorities began to promote theories that suggested men's innate 'active' sexuality as opposed to women's more 'passive' characteristics, interpreting the differences in female and male bodies to correspond to this hierarchy. Through examining the interconnection of medical, legal, religious and moral discourses on sexual behaviour, Gadelrab highlights the association between sex, sexuality and the creation and recreation of the concept of gender at this crucial moment in the development of Egyptian society. By analysing the debates at the time surrounding science, medicine, morality, modernity and sexuality, she paints a nuanced picture of the Egyptian understanding and manipulation of the concepts of sex and gender.

This collection of essays on international relations and conflict in Africa is offered as a scholarly tribute to Professor Victor Ojakorotu, a distinguished scholar of African international politics. The editors, rising scholars Kelechi Johnmary Ani and Kayode Eesuola, have assembled a team of contributors whose work examines vital themes for understanding modern Africa. The volume encompasses assessments of African international politics, governance, conflict dynamics, and peacekeeping efforts, focusing on the national conflicts in Central African Republic and Somalia, protests in South Africa, terrorism in Nigeria, and insecurity in West African states. The dynamics of diplomacy and challenges of bilateral and multilateral relations, peacekeeping, gender in governance, and international trade figure prominently. International Relations and Security Politics in Africa will be essential reading for all students of the continent. The second theme of International Relations and Environmental Conflict in Africa covers pressing issues of environmental politics, such as environmental activism and litigation, climate change, conservation, the challenges of coastal communities, flood prevention, and waste management. Oil subsidy removal, rule of law, and the roles of media and religion are also closely considered. This collection's final theme covers domestic security issues, such as policing, ethno-religious conflicts, local conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, and strategies of conflict resolution. Other issues under discussion include peacebuilding, urban machine politics, the place of children and youth in nation building, and the intersection of politics and psychology in self-determination struggles. Of vital importance to any student of modern Africa, these chapters offer a solid and detailed compendium of readings to contextualize key international relations subjects in the real world. The compendium is also a fitting tribute to the life's work of one of the brightest scholarly minds Africa has produced.

How do educators and activists in today's struggles for change use historical materials from earlier periods of organizing for political education? How do they create and engage with independent and often informal archives and debates? How do they ultimately connect this historical knowledge with contemporary struggles? History's Schools aims to advance the understanding of relationships between learning, knowledge production, history and social change. This unique collection explores engagement with activist/movement archives; learning and teaching militant histories; lessons from liberatory and anti-imperialist struggles; and learning from student, youth and education struggles. Six chapters foreground insights from the breadth and diversity of South Africa's rich progressive social movements; while others explore connections between ideas and practices of historical and contemporary struggles in other parts of the world including Argentina, Iran, Britain, Palestine, and the US. Besides its great relevance to scholars and students of Education, Sociology, and History, this innovative title will be of particular interest to adult educators, labour educators, archivists, community workers and others concerned with education for social change.

Africa has emerged as a prime arena of global health interventions that focus on particular diseases and health emergencies. These are framed increasingly in terms of international concerns about security, human rights, and humanitarian crisis. This presents a stark contrast to the 1960s and '70s, when many newly independent African governments pursued the vision of public health "for all," of comprehensive health care services directed by the state with support from foreign donors. These initiatives often failed, undermined by international politics, structural adjustment, and neoliberal policies, and by African states themselves. Yet their traces remain in contemporary expectations of and yearnings for a more robust public health.
This volume explores how medical professionals and patients, government officials, and ordinary citizens approach questions of public health as they navigate contemporary landscapes of NGOs and transnational projects, faltering state services, and expanding privatization. Its contributors analyze the relations between the public and the private providers of public health, from the state to new global biopolitical formations of political institutions, markets, human populations, and health. Tensions and ambiguities animate these complex relationships, suggesting that the question of what public health actually is in Africa cannot be taken for granted. Offering historical and ethnographic analyses, the volume develops an anthropology of public health in Africa.

Contributors: P. Wenzel Geissler; Murray Last; Rebecca Marsland; Lotte Meinert; Benson A. Mulemi; Ruth J. Prince; and Noemi Tousignant.

Great Presidents of Nigerian 4th Republic Nigeria has arrived; Nigeria is born again with the most credible April 2011 general and presidential elections in 50 years according to International Community. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, VP Namadi Sambo and INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega deserve national and international honours. President Jonathan won landslide with 23 million votes across all party lines. The 'Promised Land' journey begins in earnest. Nigeria is marching forward steadfastly despite bumps and teething gestation problems to encounter. With 160 Million inhabitants, Nigeria is world's largest concentration of Blacks. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan's presidency beginning May 29, 2011 represents the fulfillment of hope, change, salvation, good luck and blessings after decades of military dictatorships between 1966 and 1999. Structured like USA Presidency, bi-cameral Legislature and Independent Judiciary, Nigeria became beloved to International Community sooner than anticipated. With membership in UN, OPEC, Commonwealth of Nations, AU, ECOWAS, NEPAD, Nigeria is seventh world's largest petroleum supplier and fifth supplier to USA. Nigeria is becoming economic super-power - 'Vision 2020' with abundance of oil, gas, bitumen, gold, etc. Nigeria is beautified by Atlantic Ocean, Rivers Niger and Benue, Lake Chad, Tinapa Holiday Resort (world-class), Olumo Rock, Igbesa Free Trade Zone. Nigeria, blessed and protected from natural disasters never witnessed devastating Tsunami, Katrina, volcano, thunderstorm, iceberg, earthquake and mudslide that wipe-out settlements and kill thousands seasonally. International Social Scientists' 4-year survey rated Nigeria as the world's happiest country (2006) while USA, Britain, Japan and Russia were outside the first 10. Also, International Financial Agencies confirmed Nigeria's 35% return on investment as world's highest. Nigeria's incredible hospitality encourages some Americans, Europeans and Asians to become naturalized citizens of Nigeria.Oil-rich country Nigeria, often described as African giant, peace and power broker Nigeria, granted amnesties to secessionists (1970), Niger Delta militants (2009) and settled Bakassi Peninsula dispute with Cameroon (2006) diplomatically. War-mongering super-powers and allies, intimidating and occupying weaker nations illegally, should emulate Nigerian leadership examples of Presidents Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan's peaceful conflict resolution best practices for world peace. Wake Up Nigerians Make Nigeria Great and Prosperous Failure Is Not An Option Nigerians Are Tired of Excuses for Avoidable Leadership Indiscretion and Slumber for 50 Years of Independence Always Put Nigeria First Change 'Business as Usual' GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

Few would disagree that since 1990 Sub-Saharan Africa has undergone a process of political transformation. Where one-party systems once stood, multi-parties are now dominant; where heads of state once ruled autocratically, open elections have emerged. In this study, both African and non-African scholars take a critical look at the evolution and contradictions of democratization in seven African nations: Malawi, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, and Gabon, each at a different stage in the democratization process. Some of these countries historically have not received much attention in North America. For example, little is known about Malawi, and Gabon has escaped notice outside the Francophone world. While other works have focused primarily upon the role that institutions have played in the democratization process, this study looks at individual leaders. Some of the authors were themselves participants in the reform movements in their home countries, and they examine the role that the military and the church played in the process. This volume also includes a discussion of why democratization has stagnated or been reversed in some nations.

This is the account of a huge Central African country, almost completely unprepared for liberation from colonial rule in 1960, plunged into the anarchy of factional struggles for central power, against a background of regional separatism. A UN force stepped in to prevent the mineral rich province of Katanga from breaking away and stayed for nearly four years, after which quarrelling warlords fought for central power, or for or against separatism. In 1965, Mobutu came to power, ruling as a dictator his Single Party State, until he was finally toppled in 1997 by a Tutsi backed invasion force led by Kabila.

'A brilliant account of Africa’s most extraordinary dictator . . . This book will become a classic.' Economist

A sparkling account of the rise and fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, the charismatic dictator who plundered his country’s wealth and indulged a passion for pink champagne, gold jewellery and chartered Concordes. Absurdity, anarchy and corruption run riot in Michela Wrong’s fascinating dissection of the Congo; a story of grim comedy amidst the apocalypse and a celebration of the sheer indestructibility of the human spirit.

In Conflict and Human Security Threats in Africa, South African scholar Victor Ojakorotu unravels the dynamics of conflicts and human security threats now affecting numerous African nations. While some of these conflicts are local, others are national and international. This current and highly engaging study captures multiple cases of insecurity, presenting discussions of terrorism, kidnapping, militia activities, human trafficking, political violence, teenage pregnancy, civil war, and armed conflicts, as well as strategies for their future management. Ojakorotu documents a philosophical assessment of African politics as well as the place of the "new" media in the politics of human security and the development of an African worldview in the post-modern intellectual arena. This book is a must-read for all students of African and global politics, as well as policy makers and diplomats working with Africa, which will soon be home to more than three billion people and a center of global growth.

Die Angola-Boere was afstammelinge van die Dorslandtrekkers wat vir sewe jaar deur woeste en onbekende lande moes swerf voordat hulle die “beloofde land” bereik het. Hier vertel die ou Boerepioniers op hulle eie, ongekunstelde manier van hulle jagvernuf en krygsvernuf – en hoe hulle in Angola geleef en die land help tem het. Willie Meester (Opperman) vertel van die kaalvoetjagter Larssen (“die knapste olifantjagter wat seker ooit geleef het”), die jagkonings van die Shimborro, die kwaai olifant van Catengue, petaljes met seekoeie, leeujag en slawerny in Angola. Oom Willem Grobler (’n Voortrekker-afstammeling) vertel van oom Paul Venter en sy viool en die veldtogte teen Maranga, Ndoendoema en Huambo. Oom Peet van der Merwe (skrywer van Ons halfeeu in Angola) vertel van die Vlugekspedisie (1906) en die Wenekspedisie (1907).

As soon as Europeans set foot on African soil, they looked for the equivalents of their kings - and found them. The resulting misunderstandings have lasted until this day. Based on ethnography-driven regional comparison and a critical re-examination of classic monographs on some forty cultural groups, this volume makes the arresting claim that across equatorial Africa the model of rule has been medicine - and not the colonizer's despotic administrator, the missionary's divine king, or Vansina's big man. In a wide area populated by speakers of Bantu and other languages of the Niger-Congo cluster, both cult and dynastic clan draw on the fertility shrine, rainmaking charm and drum they inherit.

Gustavus Vassa was on the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement in England at the end of the eighteenth century. He provided a voice for people of African descent in the British Atlantic world. His Interesting Narrative has influenced countless works, both fiction and non-fiction.

The nucleus of society is situated at the local level: in the village, the neighborhood, the city district. This is where a community first develops collective rules that are intended to ensure its continued existence. The contributors look at such configurations in geographical areas and time periods that lie outside of the modern Western world with its particular development of society and statehood: in Antiquity and in the Global South of the present. Here states tend to be weak, with obvious challenges and opportunities for local communities. How does governance in this context work? Scholars from various disciplines (Classics, Theology, Political Science, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Human Geography, Sinology) analyze different kinds of local arrangements in case studies, and they do so with a comparative approach. The sixteen papers examine the scope and spatial contingency of forms of self-governance; its legitimization and the collective identity of the groups behind them; the relations to different levels of state governance as well as to other local groups. Overall, this volume makes an interdisciplinary contribution to a better understanding of fundamental elements of local governance and statehood.

Originally published in 1921. Leaves from the note-book of a district commissioner in British Somaliland. Author: Major H. Rayne, M.B.E., M.C. Language: English Keywords: Somaliland Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.