Cartography and the Political Imagination

“MacArthur’s exploration of the historiography of ethnicity in Kenya combines theoretical sophistication with innovative and deftly interdisciplinary methodological work, along with a knack for personalized storytelling. In Cartography and the Political Imagination, MacArthur has knit together a diverse and complex array of actors, plot lines, and forms of evidence (archival, cartographic, oral), resulting in a fascinating and important piece of historical scholarship.”

“Three intertwined lines of argument are central to the study: ‘imagined communities’ constructed out of perceived concepts of ethnic, religious, linguistic, and genealogical links; the emergence of a particular form of ethnic patriotism consisting of the complex interplay of nativism and cosmopolitanism in African political thought; and how the mobilization of geographic identities rendered the development of ‘cartographic political imaginations.’ … Summing up: Recommended (upper-level undergraduates and above).” — CHOICE

“Cartography is really a fascinating and important study of how the Luyia successfully ‘imagined’ and then created a single ethnic constituency ... Cartography draws on the already rich literature on ethnogenesis … and takes it further in a case study that challenges much of the conventional wisdom about how ethnic identities are made.” — African Studies Review

“The Luyia defy assumptions about African ethnicity. With neither myth of common descent nor shared vernacular speech, this modern community is yet no colonial invention. These least ‘tribal’ of Kenya's peoples mapped their own territory of civic pluralism. In this new departure in ethnic studies, Julie MacArthur persuasively subverts our conventional wisdom.”

“Cartography and Political Imagination breaks new ground in Kenyan historiography with its focus on western Kenya. This detailed and sophisticated study argues that Luyia ethnic architects used cartography to create a demographically inclusive, politically pluralistic, and progressive cosmopolitan community. It is refreshing to read a book on Kenya that does not focus on Mau Mau or the Kikuyu. MacArthur's exemplary study of a regional history will be indispensable to scholars of ethnogenesis and cartography in Africa and elsewhere.”

“The Luyia have long represented a potential test case for the limits to the invention of ethnicity. MacArthur’s rich study does not disappoint. It reveals how a series of external influences—land pressures, gender panic, and the drawing of administrative boundaries—led the Luyia to define themselves through appeals to locality rather than shared ancestries. Its most fascinating contribution lies in its treatment of Luyia practices of counter-mapping.”