Naming Colonialism - History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960 (Paperback)

What's in a name? As Osumaka Likaka argues in this illuminating study, the names that Congolese villagers gave to European colonizers reveal much about how Africans experienced and reacted to colonialism. The arrival of explorers, missionaries, administrators, and company agents allowed Africans to observe Westerners' physical appearances, behavior, and cultural practices at close range--often resulting in subtle yet trenchant critiques. By naming Europeans, Africans turned a universal practice into a local mnemonic system, recording and preserving the village's understanding of colonialism in the form of pithy verbal expressions that were easy to remember and transmit across localities, regions, and generations.
Methodologically innovative, "Naming Colonialism" advances a new approach that shows how a cultural process--the naming of Europeans--can provide a point of entry into economic and social histories. Drawing on archival documents and oral interviews, Likaka encounters and analyzes a welter of coded fragments. The vivid epithets Congolese gave to rubber company agents--"the home burner," "Leopard," "Beat, beat," "The hippopotamus-hide whip"--clearly conveyed the violence that underpinned colonial extractive economies. Other names were subtler, hinting at derogatory meaning by way of riddles, metaphors, or symbols to which the Europeans were oblivious. Africans thus emerge from this study as autonomous actors whose capacity to observe, categorize, and evaluate reverses our usual optic, providing a critical window on Central African colonialism in its local and regional dimensions.

General

Imprint:	University of Wisconsin Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture
Release date:	October 2009
First published:	December 2009
Authors:	Osumaka Likaka
Series editors:	Thomas Spear • David Henige • Michael Schatzberg
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 14mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Unsewn / adhesive bound
Pages:	216
ISBN-13:	978-0-299-23364-8
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Imperialism Promotions
LSN:	0-299-23364-2
Barcode:	9780299233648

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!