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
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
The introduction of the motor vehicle into Africa during the course of the 20th century led to far-reaching and complex transformations of African economies, politics, societies and cultures.... Show moreThe introduction of the motor vehicle into Africa during the course of the 20th century led to far-reaching and complex transformations of African economies, politics, societies and cultures. Through African agency the motor vehicle transformed all aspects of African life. Until now no systematic historical research has been conducted on this topic. By researching the archival, oral and published source material available in Europe and Africa, the author of the present paper is currently writing a comparative social history documenting the transformation of Africa engendered by the introduction of the motor vehicle on the continent. The present paper provides an overview of the social historical material dealing with this topic and briefly discusses the economic, political and sociocultural impact of the motor vehicle on African societies in the 20th century. [Book abstract] Show less
