Nature conservation in southern Africa has always been characterised by an interplay between Capital, specific understandings of Morality, and forms of Militarism, that are all dependent upon the... Show moreNature conservation in southern Africa has always been characterised by an interplay between Capital, specific understandings of Morality, and forms of Militarism, that are all dependent upon the shared subservience and marginalization of animals and certain groups of people in society. Although the subjectivity of people has been rendered visible in earlier publications on histories of conservation in southern Africa, the subjectivity of animals is hardly ever seriously considered or explicitly dealt with. In this edited volume the subjectivity and sentience of animals is explicitly included. The contributors argue that the shared human and animal marginalisation and agency in nature conservation in southern Africa (and beyond) could and should be further explored under the label of `sentient conservation'. Contributors are Malcolm Draper, Vupenyu Dzingirai, Jan-Bart Gewald, Michael Glover, Paul Hebinck, Tarito Kamuti, Lindiwe Mangwanya, Albert Manhamo, Dhoya Snijders, Marja Spierenburg, Sandra Swart, Harry Wels. Show less
Magnifying Perspectives is a festschrift for Robert Ross, Emeritus Professor of African History at Leiden University. The contributions have been written by the students and colleagues of Robert... Show moreMagnifying Perspectives is a festschrift for Robert Ross, Emeritus Professor of African History at Leiden University. The contributions have been written by the students and colleagues of Robert Ross, reflecting his broad-ranging thematic and geographical research interests. Individual chapters cover topics such as slavery, gender and gossip, but also reflect an eye for detail in narrating about mosquitoes, semaphores and pineapples. Big themes such as race and imperialism are tackled by paying attention to language, material objects and the powerful role of individuals in shaping history. Contributions on all parts of the African continent, from Nigeria and Mali to Angola and South Africa, as well as Britain and Australia are included. This book attempts to do justice to the unique approach to African history which Robert Ross advocated, an approach which emphasises the complexity and dignity of human nature by placing it at the centre of historical writing. Show less
This book brings together in a comparative analysis the results of studies of the various cultural, social, economic and historical aspects that are formative in African societies' experiences of... Show moreThis book brings together in a comparative analysis the results of studies of the various cultural, social, economic and historical aspects that are formative in African societies' experiences of how people negotiated the spaces and times of being in transit on the road to prosperity. Show less
In this lecture I describe and expand upon a painting by Thomas Baines that depicts Amaxhosa migrant labourers leaving the Cape Colony in 1848. It is my belief that what is depicted in this... Show moreIn this lecture I describe and expand upon a painting by Thomas Baines that depicts Amaxhosa migrant labourers leaving the Cape Colony in 1848. It is my belief that what is depicted in this painting is representative of what happened in Southern Africa as a whole between 1650 and the present. I use the painting as a lens through which to look and think about the sub-continent's past and present. I do this by examining the painting in terms of what it tells us about the movement of people, goods and ideas in Southern Africa. In investigating the manner in which people have sought to acquire what they desire, often in the face of constraints - be they environmental, geographical or political - coupled with their ideas with regard to the manner in which the world functions, I seek to throw light on fundamental processes that determine Southern Africa's human history. What happened in the Eastern Cape was a precursor to events further afield. Focussing on the painting, the body of this lecture is divided into three parts that consider the movement and control of people, goods and ideas in Southern Africa's historical past. Bearing in mind the admonition not to be antiquarian in the pursuit of historical meaning, I seek to begin with the material objects of everyday life and then place them in a socio-cultural setting and study them through time. In keeping with this approach, I shy away from a belief in the number-crunching capacities of computers for although they may well throw up interesting anomalies with regard to the import of goods, they cannot tell us what the symbolic value and social or cultural context of these goods was, let alone the wide variety of meanings in terms of age, seniority, gender and race that people attached to such goods. The acquisition of material goods transformed the material cultures of the societies involved. Over time there has been a convergence of desires, consumption and the use of material objects within Southern Africa. These material objects only gain meaning when placed within the socio-cultural context in which they are used. In conclusion I argue that Southern Africa is a single whole, albeit with different accents. What ties Southern Africa together besides culturally informed deep structure is labour, economic institutions and the consumptive practises of its population. The economic institutions established in the past two centuries, be they mining companies, labour recruiting agencies, retail chains or trade and border agreements bind Southern Africa together. With slight regional variations and dependent on their class position, Southern Africans work for money, for the same employers, eat the same foods and aspire to the same material goods. In these terms, there is more that binds Southern Africans together than divides them. Show less
Building on the foundational work of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, the essays in this collective volume offer a picture of the late colonial period in Zambia. The volume is based on untapped... Show moreBuilding on the foundational work of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, the essays in this collective volume offer a picture of the late colonial period in Zambia. The volume is based on untapped archival material and sources that have emerged in recent years and throws new light on some of the historical trajectories that the teleological gaze of nationalist scholars tended to ignore. An introduction by the editors is followed by a background article on Northern Rhodesia's post-war period (1945-1953) by Andrew D. Roberts. The next four chapters deal with the polyphony of African nationalism in the country: Giacomo Macola on the formation of ZANC/UNIP, Walima T. Kalusa on traditional rulers and nationalists in the 1950s, Marja Hinfelaar on the realization of a Catholic social doctrine in the context of a rise in nationalism, and Kenneth P. Vickery on labour, politics and Dixon Konkola. The third part of the book deals with the unsettled world of settlers: Ian Phimister on white miners on the Copperbelt, Joanna Lewis on David Livingstone and the 1955 centenary commemorations, Jan-Bart Gewald on fears and fantasies in the 1950s, Friday Mufuzi on Indian political activism, and Joan M. Haig on Hindu life in 1950s Northern Rhodesia. The final two chapters deal with participating observers: Christopher M. Annear on Ian Cunnison's 'fishing area', Mweru-Luapula, and Andrew J. DeRoche on Frances Bolton, Margaret Tibbetts and US relations with the Rhodesian Federation. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Gewald, J.B.; Luning, S.W.J.; Walraven, K. van 2009
In the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motorcycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed... Show moreIn the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motorcycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet its impact extends across the totality of human existence; from ecological devastation to economic advancement, from cultural transformation to political change, through a myriad of other themes. This edited volume of eleven contributions by historians, anthropologists and social and political scientists explores aspects of the social history and anthropology of the motor-vehicle in Africa. Show less
This book takes an impartial look at the postcolonial history of Zambia, examining political unity and dissent, the public role of religion (Roman Catholicism, the Charismatic churches, and Islam),... Show moreThis book takes an impartial look at the postcolonial history of Zambia, examining political unity and dissent, the public role of religion (Roman Catholicism, the Charismatic churches, and Islam), the economy and the State, and new and old forms of politics in the Third Republic. It is the outcome of a conference organized by the network for Historical Research in Zambia, in Lusaka August 2005. There are contributions by Jan-Bart Gewald, Marja Hinfelaar, Giacomo Macola, David M. Gordon, Andrew J. DeRoche, Miles Larmer, Austin M. Cheyeka, Felix J. Phiri, Hugh Macmillan, Karen Tranberg Hansen, Friday E. Mulenga, Bizeck. J. Phiri, and Jeremy Gold. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Spanish influenza remains a touchstone for pandemics. Fear of a coming influenza pandemic has led a number of commentators to draw parallels with the Spanish flu of 1918-1920. However, the... Show moreSpanish influenza remains a touchstone for pandemics. Fear of a coming influenza pandemic has led a number of commentators to draw parallels with the Spanish flu of 1918-1920. However, the majority of observers have chosen to base their findings on data from comparatively accessible North American and Northern European sources, and have excluded African data. This absence of African data has not prevented them from making bold statements about Africa's future. In response to these statements, the present paper draws attention to the social impact of Spanish influenza in Africa, thereby emphasizing the importance of the pandemic for Africa's history in the first half of the 20th century and suggesting further research opportunities. The paper also shows that there is ample material available which would allow for the development of the arguments made by those who choose to exclude African data from their analyses. In particular, the paper uses a sample of material gleaned from the National Archives in Kew to illustrate the course of the Spanish influenza pandemic in three of Britain's West African colonies - Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Nigeria. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Focusing on the relationship between people and transport, this paper presents an overview of the manner in which transport was organized before and after the introduction of the motor vehicle in... Show moreFocusing on the relationship between people and transport, this paper presents an overview of the manner in which transport was organized before and after the introduction of the motor vehicle in what has become the central African State of Zambia. It describes the forms of human muscle powered transport that existed prior to the introduction of mechanized transport, such as portage and waterborne transport, as well as the use of animal traction outside the tsetse fly belts. It further deals with the use of steam (trains), bicycles, and motorcycles before discussing the implications of the introduction of motor vehicles for central African societies. The paper concludes that Zambian rural impoverishment in the course of the 1920s and 1930s was a consequence of a change in the modes of transport and the collapse of long-distance trading networks based on human labour power. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
The rich corpus of material produced by anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) in Lusaka has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI... Show moreThe rich corpus of material produced by anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) in Lusaka has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI was primarily concerned with the sociocultural effects of migrant labour. This paper argues that the anthropologists of the RLI worked from within a paradigm that was dominated by the experience of colonial conquest in South Africa. RLI anthropologists transferred their understanding of colonial conquest in South Africa to the Northern Rhodesian situation, without ever truly analysing the manner in which colonial rule had come to be established in Northern Rhodesia. As such the RLI anthropologists operated within a flawed understanding of the past. The paper argues that a historical paradigm of colonial conquest that was applicable to the South African situation came to be unquestioningly applied to the Northern Rhodesian situation. It concludes that current historiography dealing with the colonization of Zambia between 1890 and 1920 is seriously flawed and needs to be revised. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
This book explores the notion of agency in a range of empirical situations in Africa. It emphasizes the possibilities individuals and social groups perceive when faced with the constraints that... Show moreThis book explores the notion of agency in a range of empirical situations in Africa. It emphasizes the possibilities individuals and social groups perceive when faced with the constraints that tend to mark African social life. Contributions: Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa: an introduction (Rijk van Dijk, Mirjam de Bruijn and Jan-Bart Gewald); Manchester as the birth place of modern agency research: the Manchester School explained from the perspective of Evans-Pritchard's book 'The Nuer' (Wim van Binsbergen); Dreams and agency during Angola's war of independence (Inge Brinkman); Chief Hosea Kutako: a Herero royal and Namibian nationalist's life against confinement 1870-1970 (Jan-Bart Gewald); Agency in Kapsiki religion: a comparative approach (Wouter van Beek); Les enveloppes pour Papa Daniel: la transformation des relations domestiques dans les m nages des Congolais de la diaspora (Julie Ndaya); From individual act to social agency in San trance rituals (Thomas Widlok); The dynamics of families, their work and provisioning strategies in the changing economies in the urban townships of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Otrude N. Moyo); Images of Africa: agency and nature conservation in South Africa (Malcolm Draper, Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels); Solitary births in T ra, Niger: a local quest for safety (Gertie Janssen); Agency in and from the margins: street children and youth in N'Djam na, Chad (Mirjam de Bruijn); Negotiating the memory of Fulbe hierarchy among mobile elite women (Lotte Pelckmans); The safe and suffering body in transnational Ghanaian Pentecostalism: towards an anthropology of vulnerable agency (Rijk van Dijk); Epilogue: theorizing agency in and on Africa: the questions are key (Francis B. Nyamnjoh). [ASC Leiden abstract]. Show less
The central tenets of this paper are that genocide and crimes against humanity are learnt practice, and that the seeds of the genocides that occurred in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 were sown in... Show moreThe central tenets of this paper are that genocide and crimes against humanity are learnt practice, and that the seeds of the genocides that occurred in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 were sown in the Congo in the late 19th century. The paper argues that the violence perpetrated by German officers in the service of the Belgian King Leopold in the Congo Free State was formative for the manner in which German colonial forces came to wage war in Tanzania, Namibia and China. In addition it argues that this violence was qualitatively different there where it could be and was checked by the intervention of civil society. [Book abstract, edited] Show less
