"Egyptian Mummies" is regarded by egyptologists as the classic account of mummification in ancient Egypt. Originally published in 1924, its re-issue in complete form will be welcomed by all those who have sought rare second hand copies in vain. This book provides the most comprehensive account available of the technical processes and materials employed by the ancient Egyptian embalmers together with a historical analysis of their modification throughout the dynastic period. The authors draw on fully illustrated archaeological and pathological evidence together with Egyptian and Greek textual references to provide a thorough survey of the mummification process and attendant funeral ceremonies, and to offer clues to an understanding of the custom's significance and the reasons for its adoption.

A History of Africa is a powerful narrative history of the continent from its beginnings to the twenty-first century.
Long established at the forefront of African Studies, the fourth edition of this classic history brings the book up to date to address the events of the 1990s. The issues discussed include:
* post-apartheid South Africa
* the prospects for democratisation in Africa at the beginning of the new millennium
* developments in Muslim North Africa including the threat of Islamic fundamentalism
* economic and social developments including the devastating impact of the Third World debt and the provision of debt relief
* cultural, environmental and gender issues in Modern Africa.

Conceptions of medicine and medical practice among the Kedjom peoples in Cameroon embrace more than western biomedical understandings of medicine. For these peoples, medicine implies substances, knowledge, practices and institutions bound up with protection and intervention against misfortune and the active promotion of well-being. Nor are medical concerns primarily about the individual. Medicine in the precolonial era was a matter for groups. In short, medicine was preeminently public. Perhaps the major transformation since the colonial period and extending into the postcolonial, has been the increasing commercialization of "traditional" medicine as African healers shift their practices away from group concerns to a focus more concerned with treating the individual. Written in a lucid style, full of vibrant anecdotes, Maynard's book will appeal not only to medical anthropologists and development workers, but also to anyone interested in nonwestern medicine and practices.

Long regarded as the preserve of French scholars and Francophone audiences due to its significance to France's colonial empire, North Africa is increasingly recognized for its own singular importance as a crossover region. Situated where Islamic, Mediterranean, African, and European histories intersect, the Maghrib has long acted as a cultural conduit, mediator and broker. From the medieval era, when the oasis of Sijilmasa in the Moroccan wilderness funnelled caravan loads of gold into international networks, through the 16th century when two superpowers, the Ottomans and the Spanish Hapsburgs, battled for mastery of the Mediterranean along the North African frontier, and well into the 20th century which witnessed one of Africa's cruellest wars unfold in "French Algeria," the Maghrib has retained its uniqueness as a place where worlds meet.

This book explores the process, effects, and results of codification of Egyptian personal status laws as seen through the eyes of the 'ulama'. The codification process began in the mid-1800s and continued until the abolishment of the Shari'a courts in 1955 with the absorption of personal status statutes into the newly drafted civil code and the national courts that administered them.

Although much has been written about the conduct of the war in South Africa, very little has been written about how it was regarded on the world stage by powers both great and small. This collection of specially commissioned essays seeks for the first time to put the Boer War (1899-1902) in its international context. Each of the core chapters focuses on the perspective of one country (France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and the United States) and assesses the extent to which each national government tried to capitalize on Britain's embarrassment and distraction while often entangled in imperialist ventures of their own. The anglophobia of many of the nations' press, the activities of pro-Boer organizations, and the shaping of public and parliamentary opinion are examined alongside the real politics and diplomatic considerations that took precedence. In addition, there are summation chapters that examine both the origins of the war and its legacy for Britain's expansionist ambitions. Together these essays present the latest findings on a watershed in international relations that heralded substantive changes of attitude and policy on the part of national governments towards their dependencies and had far-reaching consequences for alliance systems and the international balance of power at the start of the twentieth century.

Most studies of famine and the African food crisis stress how the socio-economic context influences the occurrence of food shortages. By contrast, this book argues that food insecurity itself influences the social and economic organization of the society. Through this approach, the author provides a new interpretation of the causes and consequences of Tanzania's present economic crisis. The book examines the effects of changing food availability on the functioning of the state, the market and clientage networks, over the past seven decades. The conclusion is that clientage is no less important than the state and market as an organizational force in Tanzanian society, and, under heightened food insecurity, the state and market lose ground to clientage.

In the story of the The Golden Republic, Bulpin sets a stage on which we meet some of the strangest characters that fate had ever attached to the puppet strings of destiny. The grim Mzilikazi; the hot-headed Hendrik Potgieter and his trekkers; prospectors like Charlie the Reefer; gaudy rogues like Gunn of Gunn and his Highlanders; bandits, highwaymen, rand lords, gold rushers, to name just a few. He tells of leaders like Pretorius and Kruger, and many others who each played a part in establishing the Republic of the Transvaal – a seemingly impossible task considering all the small wars and skirmishes on the veld and the rumble of arguments rising out of each farmhouse. In his remarkably engaging style of writing he sketches scenes of rough but beautiful land, which must have been fascinating to explorers who roamed about the old Transvaal with all its scenic novelties where every turn yielded some marvel for the geologist, the botanist, or the zoologist. The Golden Republic tells of the adventure that raised the Republic to its peak and the complex intrigues that brought it down to the dust; of misfortune and riches, and despair of such magnitude that the birth of a Republic seemed inevitable considering the economic disaster it at times experienced … Until gold poked out its shiny head and gave hope again. The characters who crowded into diggers’ towns were some of the wildest and most colourful ever known in the Transvaal. From all over South Africa they flocked to the scene, in the hope of finding fortune. Most of them were just opportunists, who knew nothing about gold except how to spend it. This is a brilliant book of the birth, life and death of the old Republic written in the tell-tale style Bulpin does so well.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book vividly recreates the lives and identities of the children born of relationships between French men and African women in colonial French West Africa. The book shows how colonial policies and attitudes influenced the lives of this mixed-race population, and analyses their responses to living in a racially divided society.

In the period between the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and the enactment of university apartheid by the Nationalist Government in 1959, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits) developed as an ‘open university’, admitting students of all races. This, the second volume of the history of Wits by historian Bruce Murray, has as its central theme the process by which Wits became ‘open’, the compromises this process entailed, and the defence the University mounted to preserve its ‘open’ status in the face of the challenges posed by the Nationalist Government.

The University’s institutional autonomy is highlighted by Yunus Ballim in his preface to the centenary edition of WITS: The ‘Open’ Years. He writes: ‘The emerging posture of a university willing to rise in defence of academic freedom was important because this was to become infused into the institutional culture of Wits.’

The book looks at the University’s role in South Africa’s war effort, its contribution to the education of ex-volunteers after the war, its leading role in training job-seeking professionals required by a rapidly expanding economy, and the rise of research and postgraduate study. Students feature prominently through their political activities, the flourishing of a student intelligentsia, the heyday of the Remember and Give (Rag) parade, rugby intervarsity, and the stunning success of Wits sportsmen and women. Wits: The ‘Open’ Years paints a vivid picture of the range of personalities who enlivened the campus – among them some well-known figures in the new South Africa.

The book includes chapters by Alf Stadler, who was Professor of Political Studies at Wits and the author of The Political Economy of Modern South Africa, and Jonty Winch, former Sports Officer at Wits and the author of Wits Sport.

Scholars opinions are mixed regarding the wonders Herodotus described in his travels. Among the buildings, the Egyptian Labyrinth was at the top of his list, and this has given rise to much speculation about its form, size, and purpose over the last two centuries. Pharoah's Gateway to Eternity searches for the answers to these problems.

This book depicts the history of Lamu, once an important East African port city, now known as an unspoiled tourist destination and scenic location for Hollywood movies. For centuries, communities from India, Yemen, and Oman intermingled with coastal and central African groups. This unique situation provides the author with a vantage point to observe non-European multicultural interaction. Oral traditions are central to this study. Records from both the distant past and the more recent period give voice to the opinions of the WaAmu on many issues: Islam, slavery, material culture, and the wide-ranging effects of colo-nialism. We see how religious practices differed between slaves who were brought to the Lamu hinterland and island, the Muslim Shi'a (who were themselves divided), and the orthodox Sunni community and the Hadramis, who introduced elements of Sufism. When outsiders threatened, the diverse religious groups almost always united against the opposition. The Portuguese and Turks put in an appearance, as did the French, Americans, and the Germans, who had imperial designs on the Lamu archi-pelago. But it was the British who triumphed in the late nineteenth century. The author describes internecine conflicts, the importance of Islam, and repeated efforts to thwart the British. Romero weaves into her account fascinating aspects of Lamu's material culture, social structure, and family life among those who are called the Swahili.

This book explores the lived experiences of formerly colonized people in the privacy of their homes, communities, workplaces, and classrooms, and the associations created from these social interactions. It examines the centrality of gender and social identity in the formation of non-western people in the British Empire.

Growing up in Rhodesia in the 1960s, Peter Godwin inhabited a magical and frightening world of leopard-hunting, lepers, witch doctors, snakes and forest fires. As an adolescent, a conscript caught in the middle of a vicious civil war, and then as an adult who returned to Zimbabwe as a journalist to cover the bloody transition to majority rule, he discovered a land stalked by death and danger.

During the late nineteenth century a number of organised treks left the Transvaal. The first of these left the ZAR in May 1874. Seven years later, in January 1881, after the amalgamation of the first three treks, they settled at Humpata on the Hufla highlands in the Portuguese colony of Angola. From 1892 to 1894 three further major treks followed. After the last major trek in 1907 the Portuguese government prohibited further treks. In 1928 about 2000 Angola Boers were repatriated to South-West Africa, while 380?470 remained in Angola. These treks were complex phenomena as a result of economic, religious and political factors. Initially, resistance to the irreligious and liberal government of T.F. Burgers were the most important reasons for the trek. New labour legislation, political uncertainty, internal dissent in the Transvaal and economic factors also contributed to the dissatisfaction. Lack of sufficient farming land, population pressure, poverty, misgivings about new taxes and the search for new hunting grounds probably played a minor role. Dread of modernisation and British imperialism, the introduction of intensive farming, gold fever, drought or natural disasters and the trekking spirit or trek fever probably played no role at all.

On 2 September 1898 Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army defeated the massed armies of dervishes at the battle of Omdurman. To commemorate the centenary of these events, eleven historians have collaborated to produce a fresh reappraisal of the reconquest and its international repercussions. They examine some of the policies, personalities and issues involved from different perspectives.
British political and military policies are reviewed, with studies of the aims and motives of Lord Salisbury, the political problems of Kitchener's command, and the experience of campaigning in the Sudan. There are analyses of the images sent back from the Sudan, the difficulties of reporting the campaign, and the role of unofficial correspondents, with a facsimile reproduction of a dispatch from Winston Churchill.
The contributors examine the colonial difficulties that triggered the campaign, the machinations of the Kaiser in trying to bring about a war between Britain and France, the evolution of French attitudes and the resolution of the Fashoda crisis, the well-informed and incisive monitoring of events by Austria-Hungary, and the widespread European view that Omdurman constituted a triumph for 'civilisation'. Finally, the significance of the reconquest is reviewed for its impact upon Sudanese history, particularly for the deeply rooted and enduring legacy of Mahdism.

The cross-cultural usage of a particular cloth type - blueprint - is central to South African cultural history. Known locally as seshoeshoe or isishweshwe, among many other localised names, South African blueprint originated in the Far East and East Asia. Adapted and absorbed by the West, blueprint in Africa was originally associated with trade, coercion, colonisation, Westernisation, religious conversion and even slavery, but residing within its hues and patterns was a resonance that endured. The cloth came to reflect histories of hardship, courage and survival, but it also conveyed the taste and aesthetic predilections of its users, preferences often shared across racial and cultural divides. In its indigenization, isishweshwe has subverted its former history and alien origins and has come to reflect the authority of its users and their culture, conveying resilience, innovation and adaptation and above all a distinctive South Africanness. In this beautifully illustrated book Juliette Leeb-du Toit traces the origins of the cloth, its early usage and cultural adaptations, and its emerging regional, cultural and aesthetic significance. In examining its usage and current national significance, she highlights some of the salient features associated with histories of indigenisation.

Just before Christmas 1989, a small group of armed fighters crossed a narrow river marking the frontier with Sierra Leone, and entered the West African state of Liberia. The civil war which followed plunged the African continent's oldest republic into a long and agonising nightmare, during which the country was torn apart and its people brutalised by terror, violence and bloodshed. The war promised to liberate Liberians after almost ten years of vicious dictatorship under President Samuel Doe; instead, as the first shots were fired, the seeds of Liberia's devastation were sown.
Mark Huband's account of the conflict, which begins a few days after the original incursion, is a moving and dramatic portrayal of the war as it unfolded. His extensive research and access to key figures in the conflict, together with a wealth of poignant and disturbing eye-witness detail, provide a fascinating portrait of Doe, his US-backed rule, and the enemies he made. Vivid and often harrowing, the book draws upon the author's experience of living among the fighters, the leaders and the terrorised population as they witnessed the growing horror of the conflict in which they had become trapped.