Discussions about colonial chieftaincy in Africa have tended to focus upon the ways in which indirect rule structured and framed traditional authority; for the majority of contemporary historians... Show moreDiscussions about colonial chieftaincy in Africa have tended to focus upon the ways in which indirect rule structured and framed traditional authority; for the majority of contemporary historians of British colonialism the question has been to what extent Lord Lugard’s blueprint for effective native administration, The Dual Mandate, invented, shaped, and restructured political and social identity. Whilst acknowledging the importance of these neo-traditional perspectives which focus much on the ways in which colonial frameworks ethnicised and tribalised African society, this thesis argues that indirect rule was as much a spatialising process as it was a tribalising one. Colonial tools of territoriality mapped politics in geographically bounded ways and as a result associating power with place began to assume new importance in the ways African leadership was defined, and given authority. By further exploring the spatial context of traditional power in colonial Malawi through the example of a Tumbuka chief named Timothy Chawinga, this thesis reveals new conclusions about the nature of chieftainship in Northern Malawi. It also provokes new questions about how we understand the role of African traditional authorities more generally, in both the past and the present. Show less
Tamale, the regional capital of Northern Ghana, has been strangely neglected by historians and anthropologists, despite being Ghana’s third largest city. Tamale’s neglect, like the city itself, has... Show moreTamale, the regional capital of Northern Ghana, has been strangely neglected by historians and anthropologists, despite being Ghana’s third largest city. Tamale’s neglect, like the city itself, has colonial origins. The book unpacks the implications for Tamale’s urban character of both its colonial origins, as well as its colonial neglect. It highlights the introduction of motorized transportation in 1920, and the two World Wars, as the decisive accidents of history that transformed Tamale into what it is today; a major urban centre, at the heart of the political and economic structure of northern Ghana Show less
