Revolution and Religion in Ethiopia
The Growth and Persecution of the Mekane Yesus Church, 1974–85
By Øyvind M. Eide
Studies of the 1974 Ethiopian revolution have hitherto almost completely ignored religion, in spite of the commitment of a great majority of Ethiopian people to one or another religious tradition. Eide traces the journey from support for the revolution by the church leaders and local members to their suspected alliance with opposition forces.
Religion | Religion, Politics & State · History | Africa | East · Ethiopia · African Studies
Property Rights & Political Development in Ethiopia & Eritrea
By Sandra Joireman
This book looks at the microfoundations of poverty in the developing world and in particular those present in property rights. The local institutions that govern land access are fundamental in affecting the distribution of wealth in a society. Property rights matter because they affect political development and economic growth. Development economists and policy makers often work on the assumption that property rights evolve from collective to more specified systems.
Public Policy · African History · Eritrea · Ethiopia · African Studies
The Poor Are Not Us
Poverty and Pastoralism in Eastern Africa
Edited by David M. Anderson and Vigdis Broch-Due
Eastern African pastoralists often present themselves as being egalitarian, equating cattle ownership with wealth. By this definition “the poor are not us”, poverty is confined to non-pastoralist, socially excluded persons and groups.Exploring this notion means discovering something about self-perceptions and community consciousness, how pastoralist identity has been made in opposition to other modes of production, how pastoralists want others to see them and how they see themselves.This
Anthropology · African History · Human Geography · Eastern Africa · African Studies
Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits
War in Northern Uganda, 1985–97
By Heike Behrend
In August 1986, Alice Auma, a young Acholi woman in northern Uganda, proclaiming herself under the orders of a Christian spirit named Lakwena, raised an army called the “Holy Spirit Mobile Forces.” With it she waged a war against perceived evil, not only an external enemy represented by the National Resistance Army of the government, but internal enemies in the form of “impure” soldiers, witches, and sorcerers.
Social Science | Sociology of Religion · African History · Violence in Society · Uganda · African Studies
African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950
By Tabitha Kanogo
This book explores the history of African womanhood in colonial Kenya. By focussing on key sociocultural institutions and practices around which the lives of women were organized, and on the protracted debates that surrounded these institutions and practices during the colonial period, it investigates the nature of indigenous, mission, and colonial control of African women.The
Women’s Studies · History | Africa | East · Colonialism and Decolonization · Customs, Traditions, and Everyday Life · Kenya · Eastern Africa · Africa · African Studies
East African Expressions of Christianity
Edited by Thomas Spear and Isaria N. Kimambo
Christianity has been spread in Africa by Africans. It is the story of peoples seizing control of their own spiritual destinies—rather than the commonplace notion that the continent’s Christian churches represent colonial and capitalist powers that helped subdue Africans to European domination. In short, once introduced, Christianity took on a powerful life of its own and spun out of the control of those who would retain ownership of doctrine and practice.
Religion | Religion, Politics & State · African History · Religion | Christianity · African Studies · Eastern Africa · Africa
Controlling Anger
The Anthropology of Gisu Violence
By Suzette Heald
Controlling Anger examines the dilemmas facing rural people who live within the broader context of political instability. Following Uganda’s independence from Britain in 1962, the Bagisu men of Southeastern Uganda developed a reputation for extreme violence.Drawing
Anthropology · African History · Violence in Society · Uganda · African Studies
Developing Uganda
Edited by Hölger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle
Uganda’s recovery since Museveni came to power in 1986 has been one of the heartening achievements in a continent where the media have given intense coverage to disasters. This book assesses the question of whether the reality lives up to the image that has so impressed the supporters of its recovery. What has actually happened? How successful have the reforms been thus far? What are the prospects for Uganda’s future?Essays
Political Science · African History · History · African Studies
Conflict, Age and Power in North East Africa
Age Systems in Transition
Edited by Eisei Kurimoto and Simon Simonse
Age systems are involved in the competition for power. They are part of an institutional complex that makes societies fit to wage war. This book argues that in postcolonial North East Africa, with its recent history of national political conflict and civil and regional wars, the time has come to reemphasize the military and political relevance of age systems. Herein is new information about age systems in North East Africa, setting them firmly in a wider spatial and temporal context.
Political Science · African History · History · Violence in Society · African Studies
Multi-Party Politics in Kenya
The Kenyatta and Moi States and the Triumph of the System in the 1992 Election
By David Throup and Charles Hornsby
This book uses the Kenyan political system to address issues relevant to recent political developments throughout Africa.The authors analyze the construction of the Moi state since 1978. They show the marginalization of Kikuyu interests as the political economy of Kenya has been reconstructed to benefit President Moi’s Kalenjin people and their allies. Mounting Kikuyu dissatisfaction led to the growth of demands for multi-party democracy.The
Political Science, Africa · Kenya · African Studies · Kikuyu
Mau Mau from Below
By Greet Kershaw
John Lonsdale says in his introduction:“This is the oral evidence of the Kikuyu villagers with whom Greet Kershaw lived as an aid worker during the Mau Mau ‘Emergency’ in the 1950s, and which is now totally irrecoverable in any form save in her own field notes.Professor
Anthropology · African History · Violence in Society · Kenya · African Studies · Kikuyu · Mau Mau
Kampala Women Getting By
Wellbeing in the Time of AIDS
By Sandra Wallman
What do ordinary women in an African city do in the face of “serious enough” infections in themselves and signs of acute illness in their young children? How do they manage? What does it take to get by? How do they maintain the wellbeing of the household in a setting without what would be considered as basic health provision in an American or European city?Professor Wallman focuses on women in a densely-populated part of Kampala called Kamwokya.
Women’s Studies · Medical | Health Policy · HIV-AIDS · Sociology · African Studies · Childhood · Uganda
Jua Kali Kenya
Change and Development in an Informal Economy, 1970–1995
By Kenneth King
Kenya was where the term “informal sector” was first used in 1971. During the 1980s the term “jua kali”—in Swahili “hot sun”—came to be used of the informal sector artisans, such as carworkers and metalworkers, who were working under the hot sun because of a lack of premises. Gradually it came to refer to anybody in self-employment. And in 1988 the government set up the Jua Kali Development Programme.In
African History · Business and Economics · Sociology · History · Kenya · Eastern Africa · Africa · African Studies
Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History
The Case of Tanganyika, 1850–1950
By Helge Kjekshus
This pioneering book was one of the first to place the history of East Africa within the context of the environment. It has been used continuously for student teaching. It is now reissued with an introduction placing it within the debate that has developed on the subject; there is also an updated bibliography.The book puts people at the centre of events. It thus serves as a modification to nationalist history with its emphasis on leaders.
Anthropology · Business and Economics · Environmental Policy · African History · History · Colonialism and Decolonization · African Studies
Custodians of the Land
Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania
Edited by Gregory H. Maddox, James L. Giblin, and Isaria N. Kimambo
Farming and pastoral societies inhabit ever-changing environments. This relationship between environment and rural culture, politics and economy in Tanzania is the subject of this volume which will be valuable in reopening debates on Tanzanian history.In
African History · Environmental Studies · History | Historical Geography · Tanzania · African Studies
The History and Conservation of Zanzibar Stone Town
By Abdul Sheriff
Zanzibar Stone Town presents the problems of conservation in its most acute forms. Should it be fossilized for the tourists? Or should it grow for the benefit of the inhabitants? Can ways be found to accommodate conflicting social and economic pressures?For its size, Zanzibar, like Venice, occupies a remarkably large romantic space in world imagination. Swahili civilization on these spice islands goes back to the earliest centuries of the Islamic era.
Anthropology · Architecture · African History · History · South Indian Ocean Islands · Tanzania · Eastern Africa · Africa · African Studies
Revealing Prophets
Prophecy In Eastern African History
Edited by David M. Anderson and Douglas H. Johnson
This book examines the richly textured histories of prophets and prophecies within East Africa. It gives an analytical account of the significantly different forms prophecy has taken over the past century across the country.Each of the chapters takes a new look at the active dialogue between prophets and the communities whom they addressed.
African History · History of Religion · African Studies · Eastern Africa
Religion and Politics in East Africa
The Period since Independence
Edited by Hölger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle
Religious activities have been of continuing importance in the rise of protest against postcolonial governments in Eastern Africa. Governments have attempted to “manage“ religious affairs in both Muslim and Christian areas. Religious denominations have acted as advocates of human rights and in opposition to one-party-state regimes. Islamic fundamentalism changed with the ending of the Cold War.
Political Science, Africa · Religion | Religion, Politics & State · African History · Eastern Africa · African Studies
Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940–1993
Edited by B. A. Ogot and W. R. Ochieng
This is a sharply observed assessment of the history of the last half century by a distinguished group of historians of Kenya. At the same time the book is a courageous reflection in the dilemmas of African nationhood.Professor B. A. Ogot says:“The main purpose of the book is to show that decolonization does not only mean the transfer of alien power to sovereign nationhood; it must also entail the liberation of the worlds of spirit and culture, as well as economics and politics.“The
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · African Studies · Kenya
Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940–1993
Edited by B. A. Ogot and W. R. Ochieng
This is a sharply observed assessment of the history of the last half century by a distinguished group of historians of Kenya. At the same time the book is a courageous reflection in the dilemmas of African nationhood.Professor B. A. Ogot says:“The main purpose of the book is to show that decolonization does not only mean the transfer of alien power to sovereign nationhood; it must also entail the liberation of the worlds of spirit and culture, as well as economics and politics.“The
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · African Studies · Kenya
Education in the Development of Tanzania, 1919–1990
By Lene Buchert
Deals with the realities of education in a debt-ridden African country trying to cope with the pressures of externally imposed educational budgets.
African History · Education · History | Modern | 20th Century · Tanzania · African Studies
Ethnicity and Conflict in the Horn of Africa
Edited by Katsuyoshi Fukui and John Markakis
Conflicts in the Horn have all too often dominated press coverage of Africa. This book exposes the subtle and ambiguous role ethnicity can plan in social conflict, a role that is nowhere as simple and direct as commonly assumed. Social conflict is routinely attributed to ethnic differentiation because dividing lines between rival groups often follow ethnic contours and cultural symbolism has proved a potent ideological weapon.
Violence in Society · Anthropology · African History · Kenya · Sudan · Ethiopia · Uganda · African Studies
Kakungulu and the Creation of Uganda, 1868–1928
By Michael Twaddle
This is a history of the early days of Uganda. The account has an African focus because it shows the British takeover through the experiences of an extraordinary leader.“At this spot in the year 1901 the British flag was first hoisted by Semei Kakanguru, emissary and loyal servant of His Majesty the King. He built here a boma which was for a short time the headquarters of the district.
Biography, Heads of State · African History · Uganda · African Studies
Swahili Origins
Swahili Culture and The Shungwaya Phenomenon
By James de Vere Allen
Kiswahili has become the lingua franca of eastern Africa. Yet there can be few historic peoples whose identity is as elusive as that of the Swahili. Some have described themselves as Arabs, as Persians or even, in one place, as Portuguese. It is doubtful whether, even today, most of the people about whom this book is written would unhesitatingly and in all contexts accept the name Swahili.This book was central to the thought and lifework of the late James de Vere Allen.
Foreign Language Study | Swahili · Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social · African History · African Studies · Swahili
Being Maasai
Ethnicity and Identity In East Africa
Edited by Thomas Spear and Richard Waller
Everyone “knows” the Maasai as proud pastoralists who once dominated the Rift Valley from northern Kenya to central Tanzania.But many people who identity themselves as Maasai, or who speak Maa, are not pastoralist at all, but farmers and hunters. Over time many different people have “become” something else. And what it means to be Maasai has changed radically over the past several centuries and is still changing today.This
African History · Race and Ethnicity · Anthropology · Eastern Africa · Kenya · Tanzania · African Studies · Maasai
Unhappy Valley
Conflict in Kenya and Africa - Book Two: Violence and Ethnicity
By Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale
This long-awaited book is a considerable revision in the understanding of the history of colonial Kenya and, more widely, colonialism in Africa. There is a substantial amount of new work and this is interlocked with shared areas of concern that the authors have been exploring since 1976.The authors investigate major themes.
Violence in Society · Sociology · African History · African Studies · Africa · Eastern Africa · Kenya · Mau Mau · Kikuyu · History
Unhappy Valley
Conflict in Kenya and Africa - Book One: State and Class
By Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale
This long-awaited book is a considerable revision in the understanding of the history of colonial Kenya and, more widely, colonialism in Africa. There is a substantial amount of new work and this is interlocked with shared areas of concern that the authors have been exploring since 1976.The authors investigate major themes.
Violence in Society · Sociology · African History · African Studies · Africa · Eastern Africa · Kenya · Mau Mau · Kikuyu · History
Unhappy Valley
Conflict in Kenya and Africa - Books One and Two
By Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale
This long-awaited book is a considerable revision in the understanding of the history of colonial Kenya and, more widely, colonialism in Africa. There is a substantial amount of new work and this is interlocked with shared areas of concern that the authors have been exploring since 1976.The authors investigate major themes.
African Studies · Kikuyu · Mau Mau · Africa · Eastern Africa · Kenya · History · African History · Sociology · Violence in Society
Changing Uganda
Dilemmas of Structural Adjustment
Edited by Hölger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle
Yoweri Museveni battled to power in 1986. His government has impressed many observers as Uganda’s most innovative since it gained independence from Britain in 1962. The Economist recommended it as a model for other African states struggling to develop their resources in the best interests of their peoples.But where was change to start? At the bottom in building resistance committees, or at the top in tough negotiations with the IMF? How was it to continue?
History | Africa | East · Political Science, Africa · Uganda · African Studies
Zanzibar under Colonial Rule
Edited by Abdul Sheriff and Ed Ferguson
Zanzibar stands at the center of the Indian Ocean system’s involvement in the history of Eastern Africa. This book follows on from the period covered in Abdul Sheriff’s acclaimed Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar.The first part of the book shows the transition of Zanzibar from the commercial economy of the nineteenth century to the colonial economy of the twentieth century.The authors begin with the abolition of the slave trade in 1873 that started the process of transformation.
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · South Indian Ocean Islands · Tanzania · African Studies
Penetration and Protest in Tanzania
Impact of World Economy on the Pare, 1860–1960
By Isaria N. Kimambo
The originality of this study of rural transformation stems from the way in which Professor Kimambo has used the oral tradition to reveal the history of the impact of the world economy in northeastern Tanzania. First under the pressures of commodity trade, and later under German and British imperialism, the peasant producers of this region were forced into participation in capitalist production.These partial changes destroyed the Pare’s balanced subsistence structure.
Second Economy in Tanzania
By T. L. Maliyamkono and Mboya S. D. Bagachwa
Every country has its second, underground, unofficial, irregular or parallel economy. By their nature they are hidden and defy accurate and formal measurement. They provoke conceptual and definitional arguments among analysts. There has recently been a surge of interest; anecdote, newspaper reports and ‘educated guesses’ have increasingly been replaced by serious analysis. However, most of the new generation of studies are of developed economies.This
Business & Economics | Development Studies · Tanzania · African Studies
Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya
The Dialectic of Domination
By Bruce Berman
This history of the political economy of Kenya is the first full length study of the development of the colonial state in Africa.Professor Berman argues that the colonial state was shaped by the contradictions between maintaining effective political control with limited coercive force and ensuring the profitable articulation of metropolitan and settler capitalism with African societies.This
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · Kenya · African Studies · Mau Mau
The Mau Mau War in Perspective
By Frank Furedi
The book breaks new ground in following the story of the participants of the rural movement during the decade after the defeat of the Mau Mau. New archival sources and interviews provide exciting material on the mechanics of the sociology of decolonization and on the containment of rural radicalism in Kenya. For the first time an account of decolonization in Kenya based on primary sources is offered to the reader.The
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · Violence in Society · Kenya · African Studies · Kikuyu · Mau Mau
Siaya
The Historical Anthropology of an African Landscape
By David William Cohen and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo
The authors of this highly original book set out to remove the persistent boundary between the authors and readers of ethnography on one hand and the subjects of ethnography on the other – those who observe and those who are observed.The authors use stories to reveal Siaya, the Luo-speaking area of Western Kenya down near the Lake but still surprisingly vulnerable to drought.
Uganda Now
Between Decay and Development
Edited by Hölger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle
Can the revolutionary government of Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement put Uganda back on the road from decay to development?These informed assessments put the present situation in context. The contributors assembled as Museveni’s guerrillas were launching their final bid for power. They have finalized their contributions in the light of the Museveni government’s initial period of power.Contributions
Political Science, Africa · African History · Uganda · African Studies · Business & Economics | Development Studies
Economic & Social Origins of Mau Mau, 1945–1953
By David Throup
This story of Kenya in the decade before the outbreak of the Mau Mau emergency presents an integrated view of imperial government as well as examining the social and economic causes of the Kikuyu revolt. Dr. Throup combines traditional Imperial History with its emphasis on the high politics of “The Official Mind” in the Colonial Office or in Government House with the new African historiography that concentrates on the people themselves.Sir
African History · Violence in Society · Kenya · Eastern Africa · Africa · African Studies
Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905–1963
By Tabitha Kanogo
This is a study of the genesis, evolution, adaptation and subordination of the Kikuyu squatter labourers, who comprised the majority of resident labourers on settler plantations and estates in the Rift Valley Province of the White Highlands. These squatters played a crucial role in the initial build-up of the events that led to the outbreak of the Mau Mau war.
African History · Colonialism and Decolonization · Sociology · African Studies · Kikuyu · Mau Mau · Africa · Eastern Africa · Kenya
Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar
Integration of an East African Commercial Empire into the World Economy, 1770–1873
By Abdul Sheriff
The rise of Zanzibar was based on two major economic transformations. Firstly slaves became used for producing cloves and grains for export. Previously the slaves themselves were exported.Secondly, there was an increased international demand for luxuries such as ivory. At the same time the price of imported manufactured gods was falling. Zanzibar took advantage of its strategic position to trade as far as the Great Lakes.However
African History · Slavery and Slave Trade · Eastern Africa · Tanzania · South Indian Ocean Islands · African Studies · Economic History
