On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, however, the people's dream remains elusive. During its first five decades Kenya has experienced assassinations, riots, coup attempts, ethnic violence, and political corruption. The ranks of the disaffected, the unemployed, and the poor have multiplied. In this authoritative and insightful account of Kenya's history from 1963 to the present day, Daniel Branch sheds new light on the nation's struggles and the complicated causes behind them. Branch describes how Kenya constructed itself as a state and how ethnicity has proved a powerful force in national politics from the start, as have disorder and violence. He explores such divisive political issues as the needs of the landless poor, international relations with Britain and with the Cold War superpowers, and the direction of economic development. Tracing an escalation of government corruption over time, the author brings his discussion to the present, paying particular attention to the rigged election of 2007, the subsequent compromise government, and Kenya's prospects as a still-evolving independent state.

Battles of the Anglo-Boer War series provides an accessible guide to some of the major campaigns, battles and battlefields of this historic conflict in KwaZulu-Natal. The books are written for the general reader as well as for historians seeking fresh insights into the events leading up to, during and after the battles. The text is supported by contemporary accounts and photographs, some of which have never previously been published. Maps show in detail the routes and dispositions of the opposing forces for each battle. This comprehensive and accessible box set includes the 8 battle titles and a field guide: The Battle of Talana; The Battle of Elandslaagte; The Battle of Modder Spruit and Tchrengula; The Battle of Colenso; The Battle of Spioenkop; The Battle of Vaalkrans; The Siege of Ladysmith; The Relief of Ladysmith; A Guide to the Anglo-Boer War Sites of KwaZulu-Natal.

The author's title is the true account of the traumatised memory of the people of at least five townships in the Vaal. They made it happen; they suffered the consequences; they are remembered. They're burning the churches is written in the downfall of apartheid. The authors' unbiased historical record regarding important events such as the Sharpeville Six trail, the Delmas Treason trial, the 1984 uprising that led to international sanctions against South Africa, the first-ever army invasions of the Vaal townships, and the still controversial Boipatong massacre that stopped the negotiations for a new South Africa for at least six months.

When the Second Boer War erupted in South Africa in 1899, Great Britain was confident that victory would come quickly and decisively. Instead, the war lasted for three grueling years. To achieve final victory, the British government was forced to depend not only on its Regular Army but also on a large volunteer force. This book spotlights Britain's "citizen army" to show who these volunteers were, why they enlisted, how they were trained-and how they quickly became disillusioned when they found themselves committed not to the supposed glories of conventional battle but instead to a prolonged guerrilla war.In Volunteers on the Veld, Stephen M. Miller focuses on the connection between Britain's auxiliary forces-volunteers, militia, and yeomanry-and its imperial mission during the late Victorian era, looking especially at why the British war effort came to depend on their performance. Miller examines motivations for enlistment, the use of citizen-soldiers in guerrilla warfare, and the effects of combat on the soldiers themselves, weaving together the sense of national emergency, the influence of popular culture, and images of manhood that propelled so many Britons into the ranks of volunteers. By revisiting one of the most significant guerrilla wars of the modern age-and one of the earliest examples of the use of modern media to promote mobilization for a foreign war-Volunteers on the Veld lends fresh insight into British imperial warfare while suggesting unmistakable parallels between these citizen-soldiers and today's American volunteers in Iraq.

The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) was created in 1917, re-formed in 1938 and maintained after 1945. This book determines for the first time the reasons for the expansion and contraction of the service and the impact key individuals had on it and in turn the influence it had on its members. Hannah Roberts offers new insights into a previously little studied British military institution, which celebrates its centenary in 2017. She shows how political and military decision-making within the fluctuating national security situation, coupled with a growing cultural acceptability of women taking on military roles, allowed for the growth of the service in World War II into realms never expected of women. Although it shared a similar pattern in its formation to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and had a similar ethos to its Air Force counterpart, the WAAF, the WRNS took on a wider-ranging role in the war, in part due to the latitude afforded to the service because of its uniquely independent origins. From 1941 onward the WRNS spread internationally and subverted the combat taboo by adopting semi-combatant roles. Using twenty-one new oral histories and a multitude of archived personal documents, this book demonstrates the pivotal importance of the Women's Royal Naval Service in both the world wars.

In October 1899, the twenty-four-year-old Winston Churchill set sail from Southampton Docks for South Africa, where he was to cover the Boer War for the London Morning Post. The young Churchill's exploits on the North-West Frontier of India and in the Sudan had already won him a considerable following as an intrepid war correspondent, but for sheer audacity and excitement, nothing would rival his exploits in South Africa. Scarcely two weeks after his arrival in Cape Town, Churchill found him- self on a train, carrying out a reconnaisance mission in enemy-held territory. The train was ambushed by a Boer patrol, and even though he was present only as an observer, Churchill took charge, helping many of his companions to escape before he was captured. Taken as a prisoner of war to Pretoria, he managed to escape, quickly becoming the object of a massive manhunt. Churchill hid from his pursuers in a coal mine and was subsequently spirited across the border. He returned to the fray, participating in the battle of Spion Kop and witnessing the relief of Ladysmith, while enthralling his readers with vivid first-hand accounts of the war's progress. Churchill's adventures in South Africa propelled him into the international arena, setting the stage for his political career; within three months of his return to Britain in 1900, he had become a Member of Parliament. Celia Sandys, Churchill's granddaughter, retraced his footsteps, visiting campsites and battlefields and interviewing the descendants of those who crossed her grandfather's path-both friends and foes. The fascinating new details she discovered combine with the thrilling events of her grandfather's life to make Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive both a gripping adventure story and a unique insight into the early years of a man who would go on to become one of the world's great leaders. CELIA SANDYS is a granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill. Her mother was Churchill's eldest daughter, Diana, and her father was Lord Duncan Sandys, the former Cabinet Minister and member of his father-in-law's wartime government. She is married, has four children, and lives in Wiltshire, United Kingdom.

The ignominious rout of a British force at the battle of Majuba on 27 February 1881 and the death of its commander, Major General Sir George Pomeroy-Colley, was the culminating British disaster in the humiliating Transvaal campaign of 1880-1881 in South Africa. For the victorious Boers who were rebelling against the British annexation of their republic in 1877, Majuba became the symbol of Afrikaner resistance against British imperialism. On the flip side, Majuba gave the late Victorian British army its first staggering experience of modern warfare and signalled the need for it to reassess its training and tactics. Based on both British and Boer archival and contemporary sources, this balanced and fresh appraisal of Majuba situates it in the closely interlocked operational and political contexts of the Transvaal campaign. It analyses the contrasting military organizations and cultures of the two sides and clarifies how a Boer citizen militia with no formal training, but that handled modern small arms with lethal effect and expertly employed fire and movement tactics, was able to defeat professional-but hidebound-British soldiers. The book explains how a British field commander, such as Colley, already subject to the factional politics of command, also found his conduct of military operations subject to the close supervision of his superiors in London at the other end of the telegraph wire. His strategic objective was to break through the Boer positions holding the passes between the colony of Natal and Transvaal and to relieve the scattered British garrisons blockaded by the Boers. However, his defeats at Laing's Nek on 28 January and at Ingogo on 8 February alarmed the British government already concerned that the war was stirring up dangerous anti-British Afrikaner nationalism across South Africa. It instructed Colley to cease operations and open peace negations with the Boers. But the general, a highly talented staff officer holding his first independent command, was determined to retrieve his tattered military reputation. He side-stepped his orders and, in an attempt to outflank the Boer positions and win the war at a stroke, seized Majuba with disastrous consequences. Although British reinforcements were now pouring in and the suppression of the Boer rebellion still seemed feasible, Majuba was the last straw for the British government. To the disgust of the military who burned to expunge the shame of Majuba with a resounding victory, the politicians insisted on restoring the Transvaal Boers their independence.

Edmund Allenby, Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe, as he became later, was the principal British military figure in the Middle East from 1917 to 1919. He fulfilled a similar proconsular role in Egypt from the latter year until 1925. In these two roles Allenby's eight years in the Middle East were of great impact, and in probing his life an especially revealing window can be found through which to observe closely and understand more fully the history that has resulted in the terminal roil afflicting the Middle East and international affairs today. In this biography Brad Faught explores the events and actions of Allenby's life, examining his thinking on both the British Empire and the post-World War I international order. Faught brings clarity to Allenby's decisive impact on British imperial policy in the making of the modern Middle East, and thereby on the long arc of the region's continuing and controversial place in world affairs.

This comprehensive military atlas covers every aspect of the Boer War in some 230 full-colour maps, diagrams and detailed ORBATs. Maps covering the conflict on a strategic, operational and tactical level guide the reader through each stage of the war, from Kruger's invasions of Natal and Griqualand West, through the famous battles of the conventional period, to the vast 'drives' of the Guerrilla War phase which broke the back of the Bittereinders and brought the war to an end. By showing where every operation and battle fitted into the bigger picture, the reader is able to understand how and why any given action was fought, and how the war was ultimately won by Lord Kitchener's men. Utilising standard NATO symbols to represent the various units involved, all the maps in this unique resource were drawn specially for the Atlas, and combine contemporary military maps with modern 1:50000 survey maps to ensure unprecedented levels of accuracy and detail. A detailed time line helps explain how the war unfolded, and the maps are organised into sections which cover the various fronts. The Atlas is also lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs and drawings, as well as modern-day photographs to show how the battlefields look today, and to illustrate some of the many monuments erected to commemorate the men who fought and died. Though some of the battles covered are well known, this work also provides detail on many others which - though major actions - are almost forgotten today. The operations and smaller battles of the long and bitter Guerrilla War are also exhaustively covered. Other maps depict the details of the vast lines of blockhouses which were constructed across hundreds of miles of South Africa, and the critical role these played in the latter stages of the conflict. Whether you are new to the war, or a well-read enthusiast, The Boer War Atlas is an indispensable guide to understanding how this highly mis-understood war was fought.

The horrors and tragedies of the First World War produced some of the finest literature of the century: including Memoirs of an Infantry Officer; Goodbye to All That; the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Edward Thomas; and the novels of Ford Madox Ford. Collectively detailing every campaign and action, together with the emotions and motives of the men on the ground, these 'war books' are the most important set of sources on the Great War that we have. Through looking at the war poems, memoirs and accounts published after the First World War, Ian Andrew Isherwood addresses the key issues of wartime historiography-patriotism, cowardice, publishers and their motives, readers and their motives, masculinity and propaganda. He also analyses the culture, society and politics of the world left behind. Remembering the Great War is a valuable, fascinating and stirring addition to our knowledge of the experiences of WWI.

As the South African War reached its grueling end in 1902, colonial interests at the highest levels of the British Empire hand-picked teachers from across the Commonwealth to teach the thousands of Boer children living in concentration camps. Highly educated, hard working, and often opinionated, E. Maud Graham joined the Canadian contingent of forty teachers. Her eyewitness account reveals the complexity of relations and tensions at a controversial period in the histories of both Britain and South Africa. Graham presents a lively historical travel memoir, and the editors have provided rich political and historical context to her narrative in the Introduction and generous annotations. This is a rare primary source for experts in Colonial Studies, Women's Studies, and Canadian, South African, and British Imperial History. Readers with an interest in the South African War will be intrigued by Graham's observations on South African society at the end of the Victorian era.

The Siege of Mafeking remains one of the most renowned actions of the Second Boer War, with the British Army defeating a Boer force of up to 8,000 men with barely 1,500 troops. In a siege that lasted 217 days, Robert Baden-Powell and his troops withheld attack from the Boers against all the odds and Mafeking was finally relieved on 17 May 1900. It caused much public excitement in Victorian Britain, with Baden-Powell emerging as a national hero. If you want to understand what happened and why - read Battle Story. One of the most famous, if controversial, battles of the Second Boer War - memorialised across South Africa, Canada and the United Kingdom The Siege of Mafeking was instrumental in turning Robert Baden-Powell (later founder of the Scouts) into a national hero Includes significant contribution from South African, Canadian and Australian troops.

The amazing life of Pieter Krueler (1885-1986) provides a window into a full century of conflict such as one man rarely experiences. Four-War Boer traces Krueler's highly colourful life from the Second Boer War, where he first served as a 14-year-old scout, through his service in World War I with the German army in East Africa, to the Spanish Civil War to World War II, this time with the Allies, and on into the latter part of the 20th century, when he served as a mercenary during the 1960s Congo Crisis. Later, by this time in his eighties, he became a civilian trainer for the original Selous Scouts of Rhodesia, and later still a trainer for South African commandos. This biography of a most remarkable man and warrior is based on six years of historical research through hard-to-find secondary and published primary sources as well as extensive interviews with Krueler himself. Interviews with German officers and others who knew and worked with Krueler amply document the biography, adding first-person testimony and giving the work the immediacy of a memoir. Following the Boer defeat by the British, sided with the Germans during the East African Campaign. He also operated in the Belgian Congo where he led native African soldiers on extremely dangerous missions. After WWI, Krueler's distrust of both the rising Fascist and Communist movements in Europe led him to volunteer as a mercenary during the Spanish Civil War, where he worked with the Pyrenees Basque movement. In World War II, he worked as a reserve officer instructor, and later as a coast watcher to guard the coast of South Africa from German incursion. Krueler later served as a mercenary with Michael Hoare during the 1960s Congo Crisis, before serving South Africa to train commandos. A chapter of this book is devoted to the formation of Rhodesia's highly elite Selous Scouts, along with highlights of several previously classified missions. This material includes a wealth of fascinating new information, and breaks the great secrecy surrounding Rhodesian and South African special operations, as unveiled through the experience of a man who was a founding father of counterinsurgency in Africa.

On October 11th, 1899 long-simmering tensions between Britain and the Boer Republics - the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic - finally erupted into the conflict that would become known as the Second Boer War. Two days after the first shots were fired, a young writer by the name of Winston Churchill set out for South Africa to cover the conflict for the Morning Post. The Boer War brings together the two collections of despatches that Churchill published on the conflict. London to Ladysmith recounts the future Prime Minister's arrival in South Africa and his subsequent capture by and dramatic escape from the Boers, the adventure that first brought the name of Winston Churchill to public attention. Ian Hamilton's March collects Churchill's later despatches as he marched alongside a column of the main British army from Bloemfontein to Pretoria. Published together, these books are a vivid eye-witness account of a landmark period in British Imperial History and an insightful chronicle of a formative experience by Britain's greatest war-time leader.

More than one third of the world's population lives in houses made of unfired earth bricks or stamped earth, materials also known as mud brick, adobe, "terre crue, pise, or rammed earth. Houses in the middle east have been made out this material for at least 10,000 years, but in many places this form of architecture is slowly being superceded by more recent building techniques using reinforced concrete and concrete blocks. This study contains a description of the remaining mud brick architecture in several villages in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt. It includes a brief history of mud brick, a discussion of the distinct local building techniques of the Oasis, and three architectural case studies of traditional mud brick houses in the Oasis, and it has many plans and photographs of local houses. The study was carried out as preparation for the design and construction of an archaeological working and training centre in the Dakhleh Oasis, which has been made according to the local traditions in mud brick vernacular. It is based on a field trip carried out in 1997 by Wolf Schijns (architect), Margriet Schijns (architect), Olaf E Kaper (Egyptologist) and Joris D Kila (art historian).

The Battle of Spion Kop was fought during the campaign to relieve Ladysmith, South Africa, after the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State had gotten a jump on the British Empire and besieged a British army in the town. It was the single bloodiest episode in the campaign, as well as a harbinger of the bitter and desperate fighting still to come in the Second Boer War.Spion Kop, just northeast of Ladysmith, was the largest hill in the region, being over 1,400 feet high, and it lay almost exactly at the center of the Boer line. If the British could capture this position and bring artillery to the hill they would then command the flanks of the surrounding Boer positions.On the night of 23 January 1900, a large British force under Major General Edward Woodgate was dispatched to secure the height, with Lt. Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft selected to lead the initial assault. However, the Boers refused to give up the position and a bitter two days of fighting ensued. In the initial darkness the British mistakenly entrenched at the center of the hill instead of the crest, and suffered horribly from Boer marksmen clinging to the periphery. Suffering badly themselves, the Boers were finally inclined to admit defeat when they discovered that the British had retreated, leaving behind their many dead. Yet, in light of the devastation wrought on both sides, the British were finally able to rally and relieve Ladysmith four weeks later. Ron Lock, esteemed author of many Zulu warfare histories, brings to life this bitter and previously overlooked campaign in vivid and complete detail, with supporting sources including then-journalist Winston Churchill s battle report, as well as many previously unpublished illustrations and 6 newly commissioned maps. His account will be valuable to both historians and strategists wanting to better understand this difficult and devastating conflict.REVIEWS a wonderful addition to the bookshelves not only of enthusiasts in the Anglo-Boer War but anybody with an interest in military history. Guild of Battlefield Guides Member Tony Scott Ron Lock s well-researched book brings to life this bitter and somewhat overlooked battle in vivid and complete detail This account will be valuable to both historians and armchair generals wanting a better understanding of this difficult and devastating conflict. Military Modelcraft International Ron Lock has done his homework in compiling this history nicely presented Highly recommended Miniature Wargames a boon to anyone seeking a better understanding of the Boer War s intricacies, follies, ironies and pathos Toy Soldier and Model Figure Magazine well written, easy to read, and focuses on the British perspective of the battles involved and included much about the action and leadership of the Boers. It provided good focused context for anyone with ancestors involved with this campaign. Paul Milner, FGS FORUM..".an excellent read, well researched and incisive in his handling of the various protagonists involved. He succeeds in offering a fresh perspective"Al Venter, Author of Barrel of a Gun, Iran's Nuclear Option, Gunship Ace, Mercaenaries, War Dog"

Scanty evidence has been the major obstacle for studying historical demography in Sub Saharan Africa. Our most certain knowledge of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century populations development is based on a retrospective view of the post Second World War censuses. In north Namibia the availability of continuous series of parish record data since the 1920s offer excellent possibilities to study population development on a regional level by primary sources. In this study fertility, mortality and internal migration in north Namibia among the Christian population since the mid 1920s to the 1990s is analyzed.

This work addresses a central but often ignored question in the history of modern France and modern colonialism: how did the Third Republic, highly regarded for its professed democratic values, allow itself to be seduced by the insidious and persistent appeal of a civilizing ideology with distinct racist overtones? By focusing on a particular group of colonial officials in a specific setting the governors general of French West Africa from 1895 to 1930 the author argues that the ideal of a special civilizing mission had a decisive impact on colonial policymaking and on the evolution of modern French republicanism generally. French ideas of civilization simultaneously republican, racist, and modern encouraged the governors general in the 1890 s to attack such feudal African institutions as aristocratic rule and slavery in ways that referred back to France s own experience of revolutionary change. Ironically, local administrators in the 1920 s also invoked these same ideas to justify such reactionary policies as the reintroduction of forced labor, arguing that coercion, which inculcated a work ethic in the lazy African, legitimized his loss of freedom. By constantly invoking the ideas of civilization, colonial policy makers in Dakar and Paris managed to obscure the fundamental contradictions between the rights of man guaranteed in a republican democracy and the forcible acquisition of an empire that violates those rights.