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Books > History > African history > General
Although it is often simplified as an "ethnic conflict" in popular
media, the current crisis in Darfur can only be superficially
defined across ethnic lines. Any long-term solution to the conflict
must also address the underlying social and environmental
influences such as changing resource dynamics, expanding poverty,
lack of infrastructure, and political corruption, which have
brought the crisis to a head. This project diverges from previous
studies by examining how the dynamic interaction between the
environment, local governance, and national policy in Sudan has
resulted in the Darfur crisis. It demonstrates how ecological
degradation and the breakdown of community governance have
destabilized the region, and how corruption and incompetence at the
national level have culminated in the current crisis. Analyzing the
interplay of these factors will yield valuable insights as to how a
concerned international community can both end the tragic genocide
and address the underlying injustices that engendered it. The
analysis presented will be informative and accessible to a wide
readership of students, academics, and concerned citizens.
An examination of the role played by civil society in the
legitimization of South Africa's apartheid regime and its racial
policy. This book focuses on the interaction of dominant groups
within the Dutch Reformed Church and the South African state over
the development of race policy within the broader context of state
civil society relations. This allows a theoretical examination and
typology of the variety of state civil society relations.
Additionally, the particular case study demonstrates that civil
society's existence in and authoritarian situations can deter the
establishment of democracy when components of civil society
identify themselves with exclusive, ethnic interests.
Sudan, the largest country in Africa, gained independence in 1956.
Its population divided itself into Arab Muslim and Black African
camps and, almost immediately, a 16-year civil war began. A second
revolution broke in out 1983 when the governmant introduced Islamic
Sharia law. This book provides a thorough chronicle of events in
Sudan since Independance, drawing on first-hand interviews.
The 1880s were a critical time in Cameroon. A German warship
arrived in the Douala estuary and proclaimed Cameroon a
protectorate. At that time, two Swedes, Knutson and Waldau, were
living on the upper slopes of the Cameroon Mountain. Very little is
known about their activities. One, Knutson, wrote a long memoir of
his time in Cameroon (1883-1895) which is published here for the
first time. It gives fascinating insights into everyday life in
Cameroon and into the multifaceted relationships among the various
Europeans, and between them and the Africans, at the end of the
19th century; we learn about the Swedes' quarrels first with the
Germans and later with the British, over land purchases, thus
revealing the origins of long on-going disputes over Bakweri lands.
We are given vivid descriptions of Bakweri notables and their, and
the Europeans', cultural practices, a rare eye-witness account of
the sasswood witchcraft ordeal, and learn about Knutson's
friendships with slaves. Together with appended contemporary
correspondence, legal opinions, and early (translated) texts, this
memoir must be considered as a unique and invaluable primary source
for the pre-colonial history of Cameroon.
"A survey of South African history from the formation of early
human communities to the present. "" ""The Making of South Africa
"provides a detailed understanding of all the forces that have
shaped South Africa to date. It represents a valuable and unique
addition to the field by emphasizing African voices as well as
recent developments in South Africa, including analyses on the
post-transition political change, the World Cup of soccer, and
pubic health issues. The text incorporates important new
perspectives on South African geography and the spatial dimensions
of segregation and apartheid. It also covers environmental studies
and the dynamic literature on identities and ethnicity while
highlighting how Europeans and Africans shaped the environment,
politics, and the economy to develop a complex multi-ethnic nation.
Learning GoalsUpon completing this book readers will be able to:
- Understand how South Africa became the nation it is today
- View South African history from the point of view of Africans
as well as Europeans who have settled there
- Assess the impact of cultural, political, social, economic,
geographical, environmental, and health-related forces on South
African history
Note: MySearchLab does not come automatically packaged with this
text. To purchase MySearchLab, please visit: www.mysearchlab.com or
you can purchase a ValuePack of the text + MySearchLab (at no
additional cost): ValuePack ISBN-10: 0205168655 / ValuePack
ISBN-13: 9780205168651.
The 1880s were a critical time in Cameroon. A German warship
arrived in the Douala estuary and proclaimed Cameroon a
protectorate. At that time, two Swedes, Knutson and Waldau, were
living on the upper slopes of the Cameroon Mountain. Very little is
known about their activities. One, Knutson, wrote a long memoir of
his time in Cameroon (1883-1895) which is published here for the
first time. It gives fascinating insights into everyday life in
Cameroon and into the multifaceted relationships among the various
Europeans, and between them and the Africans, at the end of the
19th century; we learn about the Swedes' quarrels first with the
Germans and later with the British, over land purchases, thus
revealing the origins of long on-going disputes over Bakweri lands.
We are given vivid descriptions of Bakweri notables and their, and
the Europeans', cultural practices, a rare eye-witness account of
the sasswood witchcraft ordeal, and learn about Knutson's
friendships with slaves. Together with appended contemporary
correspondence, legal opinions, and early (translated) texts, this
memoir must be considered as a unique and invaluable primary source
for the pre-colonial history of Cameroon.
Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and
the African Diaspora recounts the life story of the pioneering
Henry Sylvester Williams, an unknown Trinidadian son of an
immigrant carpenter in the late-19th and early 20th century.
Williams, then a student in Britain, organized the African
Association in 1897, and the first-ever Pan-African Conference in
1900. He is thus the progenitor of the OAU/AU. Some of those who
attended went on to work in various pan-African organizations in
their homelands. He became not only a qualified barrister, but the
first Black man admitted to the Bar in Cape Town, and one of the
first two elected Black borough councilors in London. These are
remarkable achievements for anyone, especially for a Black man of
working-class origins in an era of gross racial discrimination and
social class hierarchies. Williams died in 1911, soon after his
return to his homeland, Trinidad. Through original research,
Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and
the African Diaspora is set in the social context of the times,
providing insight not only into a remarkable man who has been
heretofore virtually written out of history, but also into the
African Diaspora in the UK a century ago.
Max Esser was an adventurous young merchant banker, a Rhinelander,
who became the first managing director of the largest German
plantation company in Cameroon. This volume gives a vivid account
of the antecedents and early stages as experienced and described by
Esser. In 1896 he ventured, with the explorer Zintgraff, into the
hinterland to seek the agreement of Zintgraff's old ally, the ruler
of Bali, for the provision of laborers for his projected
enterprise. The consequences, many optimistically unforeseen, are
illustrated with the help of contemporary materials. Esser's
account is preceded by a look at his and his family's connections,
added to by an account of newspaper campaigns against him, and
completed by an examination of his Cameroon collection, which he
gave to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.
"A subtle, important, theoretically innovative, and elegantly
written study that centralizes feminist thinking and shows why it
matters." -Feminist Africa In Idi Amin's Shadow is a rich social
history examining Ugandan women's complex and sometimes paradoxical
relationship to Amin's military state. Based on more than one
hundred interviews with women who survived the regime, as well as a
wide range of primary sources, this book reveals how the violence
of Amin's militarism resulted in both opportunities and challenges
for women. Some assumed positions of political power or became
successful entrepreneurs, while others endured sexual assault or
experienced the trauma of watching their brothers, husbands, or
sons "disappeared" by the state's security forces. In Idi Amin's
Shadow considers the crucial ways that gender informed and was
informed by the ideology and practice of militarism in this period.
By exploring this relationship, Alicia C. Decker offers a nuanced
interpretation of Amin's Uganda and the lives of the women who
experienced and survived its violence. Each chapter begins with the
story of one woman whose experience illuminates some larger theme
of the book. In this way, it becomes clear that the politics of
military rule were highly relevant to women and gender relations,
just as the politics of gender were central to militarism. By
drawing upon critical security studies, feminist studies, and
violence studies, Decker demonstrates that Amin's dictatorship was
far more complex and his rule much more strategic than most
observers have ever imagined.
Dembour is to be warmly congratulated on her achievement, both
intellectually and in terms of memory retrieval content ...Its
anthropological skills and merits apart, for readers interested] in
colonial administrators this book] is at once a prime analysis and
a rich resource. - African Affairs An unusual achievement. Dr.
Dembour's book is a work of theory, which shows what a complex
business the production of knowledge is, but she writes with such
warmth, directness and honesty that fundamental epistemological
issues are made vivid for beginning students as well as experienced
scholars ...Anyone who conducts interviews, students of memory and
history, and those working in 'colonial studies' can all learn from
this study. - Elizabeth Tonkin I congratulate you on an
extraordinary work. I am sure it will be declared post-modern; I
think it modern in the best sense--up to the critical standards of
our day ...I see you engaged in ground-breaking work. - Johannes
Fabian Marie-Benedicte Dembour teaches at the University of Sussex,
School of Legal Studies.
Max Esser was an adventurous young merchant banker, a Rhinelander,
who became the first managing director of the largest German
plantation company in Cameroon. This volume gives a vivid account
of the antecedents and early stages as experienced and described by
Esser. In 1896 he ventured, with the explorer Zintgraff, into the
hinterland to seek the agreement of Zintgraff's old ally, the ruler
of Bali, for the provision of laborers for his projected
enterprise. The consequences, many optimistically unforeseen, are
illustrated with the help of contemporary materials. Esser's
account is preceded by a look at his and his family's connections,
added to by an account of newspaper campaigns against him, and
completed by an examination of his Cameroon collection, which he
gave to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.
This analysis of the historical development of racial segregation
in South Africa between the World War I and II casts light on the
period immediately before the advent of modern-day apartheid and
provides an account of the ideological, political and
administrative origins of apartheid. Segregation is seen here as a
complex combination of ideas and policies which aimed to entrench
and legitimize the basis of white domination in South Africa. The
authors feel that in essence, it represented an attempt to uphold
white supremacy by containing the powerful social forces unleashed
by South Africa's rapid process of industrialization. The work is
based on archival research in South Africa and aims to draw upon
some of the most recent scholarship.
This book provides an interpretation of sport in contemporary
South Africa through an historical account of the evolution and
social ramifications of sport in the twentieth century. It
comprises chapters which trace the growth of sports such as
football, cricket, surfing, boxing and rugby, and considers their
relationship to aspects of racial identity, masculinity,
femininity, political and social development in the country. The
book also draws out the wider geo-political significance of South
African sport, placing it in the context of the development of
sport both elsewhere on the African continent and internationally.
The history of sport has seen significant international growth over
the past few decades. For the most part, however, the history of
sport in Africa has remained largely untraced. By detailing the way
in which sport 's development in South Africa overlapped with major
socio-political processes on the wider African continent, this
volume seeks to narrow the gap.
This book was previously published as a special issue of the
International Journal of the History of Sport.
In the decades between the Berlin Conference that partitioned
Africa and the opening of the African Hall at the American Museum
of Natural History, Americans in several fields and from many
backgrounds argued that Africa had something to teach them.
Jeannette Eileen Jones traces the history of the idea of Africa
with an eye to recovering the emergence of a belief in "Brightest
Africa"--a tradition that runs through American cultural and
intellectual history with equal force to its "Dark Continent"
counterpart.
Jones skillfully weaves disparate strands of turn-of-the-century
society and culture to expose a vivid trend of cultural engagement
that involved both critique and activism. Filmmakers spoke out
against the depiction of "savage" Africa in the mass media while
also initiating a countertradition of ethnographic documentaries.
Early environmentalists celebrated Africa as a pristine continent
while lamenting that its unsullied landscape was "vanishing." New
Negro political thinkers also wanted to "save" Africa but saw its
fragility in terms of imperiled human promise. Jones illuminates
both the optimism about Africa underlying these concerns and the
racist and colonial interests these agents often nevertheless
served. The book contributes to a growing literature on the ongoing
role of global exchange in shaping the African American experience
as well as debates about the cultural place of Africa in American
thought.
When the author embarked on her study, her aim was to approach
former colonial officers with a view to analyzing processes of
domination in the ex-Belgian Congo. However, after establishing a
rapport with some of these officers, the author was soon forced to
revise her initial assumptions, widely held in present-day Belgium:
these officers were not the "baddies" she had expected to meet.
Exploring the colonial experience through the respondents' memories
resulted in a far more complex picture of the colonial situation
than she had anticipated, again forcing her to question her
original assumptions. This resulted not only in a more
differentiated perspective on Belgian colonialist rule, but is also
sensitized her as regards the question of anthropological
understanding and of what constitutes historical fact. These two
aspects of her work are reflected in this study that offers
specific material on the way Belgian colonialism is remembered and
reflects on its conditions of production, thus combining
ethnographic analysis with a theoretical essay.
Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and
the African Diaspora recounts the life story of the pioneering
Henry Sylvester Williams, an unknown Trinidadian son of an
immigrant carpenter in the late-19th and early 20th century.
Williams, then a student in Britain, organized the African
Association in 1897, and the first-ever Pan-African Conference in
1900. He is thus the progenitor of the OAU/AU. Some of those who
attended went on to work in various pan-African organizations in
their homelands. He became not only a qualified barrister, but the
first Black man admitted to the Bar in Cape Town, and one of the
first two elected Black borough councilors in London. These are
remarkable achievements for anyone, especially for a Black man of
working-class origins in an era of gross racial discrimination and
social class hierarchies. Williams died in 1911, soon after his
return to his homeland, Trinidad. Through original research,
Origins of Pan-Africanism: Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa, and
the African Diaspora is set in the social context of the times,
providing insight not only into a remarkable man who has been
heretofore virtually written out of history, but also into the
African Diaspora in the UK a century ago.
Boyhood in 'seventies Soweto, innocence and light-hearted charm,
and many insights into growing up in a South African township at a
time when family was more important than politics. On being metin
the street or at school, the inevitable question was: "Whose laetie
- brother - are you?" Chimeloane describes growing up in a loving
family, and with the affection and support of his best friend Levi.
Next to universal boyhood exploits - shooting rats with "ketis",
learning karate, stoning street lamps and running down mine dumps -
more sinister experiences had to be endured: dodging stones and
avoiding "enemies" when you had to cross territories, running the
gauntlet of dogs, bullies and thugs. And inexorably, the 1976
uprising also left its mark. Yet the world Chimeloane sketches so
endearingly also contained endless wonder: the Valiant Regal taxi
which produced money from its back seat, the magic of "seeing
bioscope" and emulating the "starrings", a world where you shared
sweets with your "chomis" and stuck up for each other in the face
of threats. Readable and affordable, this book should appeal to a
broad market as well as to readers with a more serious social
interest. Its release also coincides with the 25th anniversary of
the Soweto Uprising, which is documented in one chapter of the book
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