African history Books

9387 products


  • An Intimate Rebuke

    Duke University Press An Intimate Rebuke

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this ethnography of female empowerment, Laura S. Grillo offers new perspectives on how elder West African women deploy an ancient ritual in which they dance naked and slap their genitals and bare breasts to protest abuses of state power, globalization, witchcraft, rape, and other social dangers.Trade Review"A detailed and thoughtful history of Côte d’Ivoire that gives due placement to civilian women who have largely been ignored in the definitive historical monographs. . . . Grillo’s scholarship has groundbreaking strengths. For those interested in religion, her detailed documentation of myth, ritual, secret societies, symbolism, witchcraft, and the appeal to the spiritual domain—and her defense of the inclusion of this knowledge as a requisite in understanding a country’s history—is utterly exquisite. . . . The work is inimitable—Grillo is sensitive, sensible, and devotes attention to detail." -- Dianna Bell * Reading Religion *“Ultimately, Grillo demonstrates how knowledge of the moral authority of women elders remained and remains embedded in West Africa and that women enact FGP to defend not only social equity and justice but also their own rights. An Intimate Rebuke will be required reading for all future analysis of women’s authority and mobilization.” -- Jill E. Kelly * African Studies Review *“Grillo’s work redefines our understanding of the use of ritual and moral values in the current postcolonial political order by focusing on the ignored phenomenon of Female Genital Power.... Grillo’s work is an important contribution to the study of gender, religion, history, and politics, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire but also in the whole West African subregion.” -- Carole Ammann * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I. Home and the Unhomely: The Foundational Nature of Female Genital Power 19 1. Genies, Witches, and Women: Locating Female Powers 21 2. Matrifocal Morality: FGP and the Foundations of "Home" 54 3. Gender and Resistance: The "Strategic Essentialism" of FGP 81 Part II. Worldliness: FGP in the Making of Ethnicity, Alliance, and the War in Côte D'Ivoire 117 4. Founding Knowledge/Binding Power: The Moral Foundations of Ethnicity and Alliance 121 5. Women at the Checkpoint: Challenging the Forces of Civil War 152 Part III. Timeliness: Urgent Situations and Emergent Critiques 171 6. Violation and Deployment: FGP in Politics in Côte D'Ivoire 175 7. Memory, Memorialization, and Morality 198 Conclusion. An Intimate Rebuke: A Local Critique in the Global Postcolony 228 Notes 239 References 255 Index 275

    4 in stock

    £25.19

  • The African Roots of Marijuana

    Duke University Press The African Roots of Marijuana

    Book SynopsisIn this authoritative history of cannabis in Africa, Chris S. Duvall challenges what readers thought they knew about cannabis by correcting widespread myths, outlining its relationship to slavery and colonialism, and highlighting Africa's centrality to knowledge about and the consumption of one of the world's most ubiquitous plants.Trade Review"Offers a great example of why geographers, historians, and other professionally trained humanists need to keep writing about cannabis: these are the only people who can explain and contextualize the racist and colonialist assumptions baked into much of the most widely read literature on the plant. . . . The academic literature on cannabis may never be the same after The African Roots of Marijuana." -- Nick Johnson * Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society *"This book will be a worthwhile addition to any university library and is especially useful for law schools and for programs in criminology, criminal justice, sociology, and history. . . . Highly recommended. All readership levels." -- D. R. Kavish * Choice *"Essential reading for anyone with interests in African ethnobotany or cannabis history, and more broadly, will be of value to those interested in the history of nineteenth-century Africa or of slavery." -- Wendy L. Applequist * Economic Botany *"The book is richly detailed and reflects years of sustained effort. . . . All in all, this is an excellent piece of scholarship. It should interest anyone with a curiosity about the history of cannabis, Africa, or the geography of drugs." -- Barney Warf * Journal of Historical Geography *"Rumors that become published facts in high-end publications and prestigious medical journals are the mainstay of histories of marijuana. Chris S. Duvall, in a magnificently researched and clearly written book, sets right this historiography. . . . Duvall does a brilliant job in consulting available archaeological evidence, carefully studying the spread of words, and, most of all, drawing on sometimes little-studied European observers, especially Portuguese expeditions into the Central African interior. His judicious combination of all of these sources, combined with critical judgement, is convincing and a pleasure to read." -- David M. Gordon * International Journal of African Historical Studies *"The African Roots of Marijuana is a path-breaking work of scholarship. . . . This work represents a singular scholarly achievement, both in the history of cannabis globally and in its history on the African continent." -- Charles Ambler * Bulletin of the History of Medicine *“As African history remains on the fringe of some studies, Chris Duvall’s The African Roots of Marijuana provides a solid foundation for the agency of African people and the central function that the continent plays in the expansion of global transactions.” -- Paul Hoelscher * World History Connected *Table of ContentsPart I. Introduction: Pay Attention to African Cannabis 1. Cannabis and Africa 3 2. Race and Plant Evolution 33 Part II. Evidence: How Cannabis Came to Africa, What Happened to it There, and How It Crossed the Atlantic 3. Roots of African Cannabis Cultures 53 4. Cannabis Colonizes the Continent 72 5. A Convenient Crop 95 6. Society Overturned: The Bena Riamba 112 7. Cannabis Crosses the Atlantic 125 Part III. Discussion and Conclusions: What Carried Cannabis? 8. Working under the Influence 159 9. Buying and Banning 184 10. Rethinking Marijuana 216 Acknowledgments 231 Notes 233 Index 341

    £75.65

  • The Licit Life of Capitalism

    Duke University Press The Licit Life of Capitalism

    Book SynopsisThe Licit Life of Capitalism is both an account of a specific capitalist projectU.S. oil companies working off the shores of Equatorial Guineaand a sweeping theorization of more general forms and processes that facilitate diverse capitalist projects around the world. Hannah Appel draws on extensive fieldwork with managers and rig workers, lawyers and bureaucrats, the expat wives of American oil executives and the Equatoguinean women who work in their homes, to turn conventional critiques of capitalism on their head, arguing that market practices do not merely exacerbate inequality; they are made by it. People and places differentially valued by gender, race, and colonial histories are the terrain on which the rules of capitalist economy are built. Appel shows how the corporate form and the contract, offshore rigs and economic theory are the assemblages of liberalism and race, expertise and gender, technology and domesticity that enable the licit life of capitalismpractices that are legTrade Review“A brilliant and deeply ethical rumination on the emancipatory potential and limitations of ethnographic critiques of capitalism, this searing ethnography delves into the very making of landscapes of exploitation and subordination. It is a theoretically and methodologically breathtaking investigation into the conditions of possibility that allow global capitalism to self-represent as ‘aboveboard’ and ‘transparent.’ By delving into the muck of what constitutes ‘the licit’ in the architecture of capitalism, Hannah Appel notices and refuses ‘comp-licit’ normative assumptions. The Licit Life of Capitalism thus achieves what few ethnographies have: it shows how capitalist abstractions are culturally deliberate and painstakingly reproduced.” -- Karen Ho, author of * Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street *“In this compelling and engaging work Hannah Appel ethnographically captures a big thing: capitalism as a project. Asking after the fulsomeness with which capitalism powerfully does all the things it is supposed to do, Appel sets out a new path for grappling with this dominant force in contemporary politics and economics. Her book exemplifies the best critical writing on the workings of capitalism in anthropology, geography, sociology, and allied fields.” -- Bill Maurer, author of * How Would You like to Pay?: How Technology is Changing the Future of Money *"This book deserves a very wide audience. Scholars and activists engaged with the impact of multinational corporations in African countries, neoliberal efforts to control the movement of bodies while endorsing unlimited flows of capital and uneven distributions of blame, and the limits of neoliberal calls for political reform really need to read The Licit Life of Capitalism." -- Jeremy Rich * African Studies Quarterly *"Appel’s study of US oil companies in Equatorial Guinea is revelatory for its theoretical contributions to the anthropology of capitalism (beyond the rather more niche anthropology of oil), with a critical recentring of attention on the role of industry in shaping the politics and economics of resource extraction. With enviable access to the internal operations of these transnational corporations, Appel provides key insights into the assumptions and worldmaking strategies of what has long been an ethnographic black box." -- Wen Zhou * LSE Review of Books *“The Licit Life of Capitalism is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of oil or the itinerant infrastructures of global capitalism. While Appel’s subject matter is complex, the book’s clear, compelling, and approachable prose make it an excellent addition to graduate-level geography courses focused on political economy, political ecology, infrastructure, or racial capitalism. Portions of the book, particularly ‘The Enclave’ and ‘The Economy,’ would also be appropriate for upper-division undergraduate courses on global development, postcolonial geography, and natural resource geographies.” -- Kendra Kintzi * Geographical Review *“The Licit Life of Capitalism is an outstanding work of scholarship that combines theoretical innovation with incisive ethnographic detail.... Appel’s text makes for essential reading for anyone concerned about the energy industry, multinational corporations, and the lopsided exchanges between the global South and North.” -- Tanmoy Sharma * Society for the Anthropology of Work *“The Licit Life of Capitalism is an energetic and polemical read. Appel’s account brings to life the seemingly yawn-worthy artefacts of the oil industry—contracts, budgets, corporate housing, conferences, sub-contracts—and reveals how these objects depend on and re-create the global, racialized inequality which itself doubles as one of this book’s central themes.” -- James Christopher Mizes * Society & Space *“Appel’s scholarship has helped define anthropology’s infrastructural turn. Here, she expands her portrayal of oil not through money alone—the narrow prerogative of resource curse theories—but as an industry dependent on material infrastructures, racialized labor regimes, technical expertise, and capitalist fantasies.” -- Geoffrey Aung * Focaal *“The Licit Life of Capitalism is above all a sophisticated study of capitalist world-making at different levels.... The book holds the tension between the ethnographic ‘particular’ and the ‘universal’ exceptionally well.” -- Gisa Weszkalnys * Anthropological Quarterly *“The Licit Life of Capitalism is incredibly informative. . . . The finely detailed ethnographic particulars in each chapter do an excellent job of illustrating contemporary life in Equatorial Guinea.” -- Jerry K. Jacka * Africa *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Offshore 37 2. The Enclave 79 3. The Contract 137 4. The Subcontract 172 5. The Economy 204 6. The Political 247 Afterword 279 Notes 285 References 295 Index 317

    £98.60

  • Unfixed

    Duke University Press Unfixed

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Unfixed Jennifer Bajorek traces the relationship between photography and decolonial political imagination in Francophone west Africa in the years immediately leading up to and following independence from French colonial rule in 1960. Focusing on images created by photographers based in Senegal and Benin, Bajorek draws on formal analyses of images and ethnographic fieldwork with photographers to show how photography not only reflected but also actively contributed to social and political change. The proliferation of photographic imagery—through studio portraiture, bureaucratic ID cards, political reportage and photojournalism, magazines, and more—provided the means for west Africans to express their experiences, shape public and political discourse, and reimagine their world. In delineating how west Africans'' embrace of photography was associated with and helped spur the democratization of political participation and the development of labor and liberation movemenTrade Review“With intimate ethnography, urgent activism, and an intriguing mix of methodological and theoretical tools, Jennifer Bajorek presents a compelling set of arguments about photography's critical role in producing new publics with their own forms of political imagination and civic consciousness. Her book is an absolute pleasure to read and leaves readers with tantalizing possibilities for future scholarship in other sites at the reaches of the French colonial sphere.” -- Elizabeth Harney, coeditor of * Mapping Modernisms: Art, Indigeneity, Colonialism *“Jennifer Bajorek offers a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the transformative power of photography all while telling a compelling story packed with detail and brio. Beautifully written, highly original, and built around a core of remarkable images, Unfixed is unquestionably a major contribution.” -- Christopher Pinney, author of * Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs *“Unfixed…moves beyond topics that are by now familiar, even canonical. Grounded in rigorous theoretical inquiry and years of in-depth research in the major cities of Senegal and Benin, the book deftly shifts the field toward new terrain. While past scholarship has been concerned with demarcating the Africanity of photography and has focused on issues of identity formation, portraiture, and the colonial gaze, Bajorek instead challenges us to pay attention to photography’s political significance to Africans.” -- Prita Meier * CAA Reviews *“Bajorek’s approach, observations, and suggestions make Unfixed an insightful and illuminating read—not only for researchers of Black or African Studies, but for anyone concerned with vernacular photography.” -- Daniela Yvonne Baumann * Camera Austria International *“[Unfixed] contributes to the dismantling of the notion of a monolithic canon of photography history.... Unfixed is a richly layered book that explores a wide variety of concepts, raising thought-provoking questions along the way.” -- Jane Darcovich * ARLIS/NA *“Jennifer Bajorek’s book is a remarkable achievement; the product of an inquiry that began in 1999 and grew through seven years of field work in Senegal and Benin, Unfixed unearths the extraordinary and largely uncharted territory of photography’s role in what she describes as the ‘decolonial imagination’ of Francophone West Africa.” -- Jordan Troeller * History of Photography *“Jennifer Bajorek’s Unfixed convincingly and eloquently discusses the role that photography played in fostering decolonial imagination among francophone west Africans. . . . [It is] an engaging and accessible read, a rich resource for scholars and students, and a welcome addition to scholarly works on African photography and decolonization.” -- Haythem Guesmi * Africa Today *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vii A Note on Geography, Spelling, and Language xiii Preface xvii Acknowledgments xix Introduction. At Least Two Histories of Liberation 1 Part I. What Makes a Popular Photography? 1. Ça bousculait! (It Was Happening!) 41 2. Wild Circulation: Photography as Urban Media 83 3. Decolonizing Print Culture: The Example of Bingo 117 Part II. Republic of Images 4. Africanizing Political Photography 163 5. The Pleasures of State-Sponsored Photography 203 6. African Futures, Lost and Found 240 Notes 265 Bibliography 307 Index 319

    1 in stock

    £140.25

  • Our Own Way in This Part of the World

    Duke University Press Our Own Way in This Part of the World

    Book SynopsisKwasi Konadu centers the life of Ghanaian healer, spiritual leader, and farmer Kofi D?nk? (19131995) to tell the biography of his community and how they navigated the changes from the late nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth.Trade Review"Konadu refers to his work as a 'communography' and offers a portrait of the community of which Kofi Dᴐnkᴐ was a hub. This approach creates a deeply grounded history... [in which] he tries to present the world as Dᴐnkᴐ might have seen it, offering a refreshing perspective. This innovative study is recommended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students." -- G. Mann * Choice *"A compelling history of people and their community in twentieth century Ghana. Konadu has gathered an impressive archive, based on which he succeeds to capture societal changes and dynamics in their lived refractions and complexities. ... Konadu makes an important contribution to an everyday and social history of twentieth century Ghana." -- Benedikt Pontzen * African Studies Quarterly *“Kwasi Konadu’s Our Own Way in This Part of the World...provides us with a powerful model for thinking within and thus beyond the boundaries of the nation-state, viewing the past through the lens of extraordinary individuals and communities. We all have lessons to learn here.” -- Jennifer Hart * American Historical Review *“By revealing Dɔnkɔ’s story, Konadu has accomplished something innovative, a book worth reading for anyone who wants to challenge themselves to rethink the field of African Studies.” -- Jonathan Roberts * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Libation: Matters Connected with Our Culture 17 2. Homelands: In Search of Past Events 44 3. Tools of the Trade: I was a Blacksmith . . . Before I Became [a Healer] 73 4. Medicine, Marriage, and Politics: Assist this State to have Progress 107 5. Independences: Never Mingled Himself in Local Politics 137 6. Anthropologies of Medicine and Africa: When the Whiteman First Came 166 7. Uncertain Moments and Memory: Our Ancestral Spirits, Come and Have Drink 195 Epilogue 228 Notes 239 Bibliography 287 Notes 307

    £98.60

  • Our Own Way in This Part of the World

    Duke University Press Our Own Way in This Part of the World

    Book SynopsisKwasi Konadu centers the life of Ghanaian healer, spiritual leader, and farmer Kofi Dᴐnkᴐ (1913–1995) to tell the biography of his community and how they navigated the changes from the late nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth.Trade Review"Konadu refers to his work as a 'communography' and offers a portrait of the community of which Kofi Dᴐnkᴐ was a hub. This approach creates a deeply grounded history... [in which] he tries to present the world as Dᴐnkᴐ might have seen it, offering a refreshing perspective. This innovative study is recommended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students." -- G. Mann * Choice *"A compelling history of people and their community in twentieth century Ghana. Konadu has gathered an impressive archive, based on which he succeeds to capture societal changes and dynamics in their lived refractions and complexities. ... Konadu makes an important contribution to an everyday and social history of twentieth century Ghana." -- Benedikt Pontzen * African Studies Quarterly *“Kwasi Konadu’s Our Own Way in This Part of the World...provides us with a powerful model for thinking within and thus beyond the boundaries of the nation-state, viewing the past through the lens of extraordinary individuals and communities. We all have lessons to learn here.” -- Jennifer Hart * American Historical Review *“By revealing Dɔnkɔ’s story, Konadu has accomplished something innovative, a book worth reading for anyone who wants to challenge themselves to rethink the field of African Studies.” -- Jonathan Roberts * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Libation: Matters Connected with Our Culture 17 2. Homelands: In Search of Past Events 44 3. Tools of the Trade: I was a Blacksmith . . . Before I Became [a Healer] 73 4. Medicine, Marriage, and Politics: Assist this State to have Progress 107 5. Independences: Never Mingled Himself in Local Politics 137 6. Anthropologies of Medicine and Africa: When the Whiteman First Came 166 7. Uncertain Moments and Memory: Our Ancestral Spirits, Come and Have Drink 195 Epilogue 228 Notes 239 Bibliography 287 Notes 307

    £25.19

  • SelfDevouring Growth

    Duke University Press SelfDevouring Growth

    Book SynopsisUnder capitalism, economic growth is seen as the key to collective well-being. In Self-Devouring Growth Julie Livingston upends this notion, showing that while consumption-driven growth may seem to benefit a particular locale, it produces a number of unacknowledged, negative consequences that ripple throughout the wider world. Structuring the book as a parable in which the example of Botswana has lessons for the rest of the globe, Livingston shows how fundamental needs for water, food, and transportation become harnessed to what she calls self-devouring growth: an unchecked and unsustainable global pursuit of economic growth that threatens catastrophic environmental destruction. As Livingston notes, improved technology alone cannot stave off such destruction; what is required is a greater accounting of the web of relationships between humans, nonhuman beings, plants, and minerals that growth entails. Livingston contends that by failing to understand these relationships and the cTrade Review“Highly engaging, deeply thoughtful, and beautifully written, Self-Devouring Growth helps us to understand the environmental dangers the planet faces not as something to be avoided or prevented, but as something to expect and to live through. Julie Livingston's thinking about environmental and other futures is a breath of fresh air and cuts across stale debates around economic development and environmental sustainability in a very original way.” -- James Ferguson, author of * Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution *“Julie Livingston's concept of ‘self-devouring growth’ will become an essential tool across many forms of scholarship—and for concerned earth dwellers across the planet. As Livingston puts it, “GROW! is a mantra so powerful that it obscures the destruction it portends.” Self-Devouring Growth tells of the failure of Botswana's public water system, strained by failing rains and pumped dry by mining and commercial beef rearing for export. Regarded as a success of development, Botswana is the ideal site for a parable of the Anthropocene.” -- Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, coeditor of * Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene *"Livingston has written a beautiful book, which speaks from Tswana cosmology towards the complexities of global problems, and that points towards forms of activism that we can all take forward." -- Shannon Morreira * Africa Is a Country *"An imaginative parable about human society and life on Earth. . . . The author notes that everyone cries foul when poorer countries achieve a standard of living enjoyed elsewhere, yet the global inequality reflected in this complaint suggests the need for collective creative thinking about new forms of growth for life on Earth to survive. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." -- E. P. Renne * Choice *"I find self-devouring growth a powerful and clarifying concept. I’m more accustomed to thinking about the climate change emergency through numbers, like the temperature beyond which the earth must not warm, or the number of tons of carbon we can safely put into the atmosphere. Instead, Livingston illuminates our way of life. She is asking a lot of the reader: she is asking us to understand that many of the things that make us feel well, prosperous, and secure are the very things that are killing us. . . . It is deeply unsettling to live with." -- Emily Callaci * Dissent *"Livingston has forged a path into an anthropology of futures, one responsive to and reflective of the Anthropocene and the threats to human survival we witness daily on our ever-more vulnerable planet. She offers methodological and conceptual tools that will enable other scholars to grapple with futures, those that are unfolding now because of self-devouring growth, and those we want to imagine differently. This book is for everyone." -- Sharon R. Kaufman * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *“I like reading Julie Livingston’s Self-Devouring Growth as a push against the consumption of modernist time—that is, against the suspension of historical flux, imaginative possibility, and alter-social development.... The book so convincingly dispels efforts to reduce the planetary condition to a matrix problem begging for technological solutions....” -- Alex Blanchette * Somatosphere *“It is a testament to the distilled clarity and prescience of Julie Livingston’s parable of a book that its title, Self-Devouring Growth, can strike one immediately as both so true and suddenly so evident....” -- Abou Farman * Somatosphere *“[Self-Devouring Growth is] a book that offers an elegant and important argument about industrial capitalism and growth that is devouring the world in which we live.... It is a book firmly grounded in critical medical anthropology, which has for a long time dug into the political economy of health and the structural violence of capitalism....” -- Fanny Chabrol * Somatosphere *Only Julie Livingston could write this book because of the sources, sensibilities, and experiences from which she draws.... [She] leads us to think about the biggest burning question of our common era: What kind of future is possible when our ways of living are literally invested in our collective destruction?” -- Juno Salazar Parreñas * Somatosphere *“Through the realist genre of the parable, this marvelous little book discusses an interconnected world organized by ‘self-devouring growth’.... This immensely readable book will appeal to a broad audience of academics, policymakers and practitioners in international development....” -- Tanya Matthan * Progress in Development Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue: A Planetary Parable 1 1. Rainmaking and Other Forgotten Things 11 2. In the Time of Beef 35 Cattle to Beef: A Photo Essay of Abstraction 61 3. Roads, Sand, and the Motorized Cow 85 4. Power and Possibility, or Did You Know Aesop Was Once a Slave? 121 Notes 129 Index 153

    £67.15

  • Beneath the Surface

    Duke University Press Beneath the Surface

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor more than a century, skin lighteners have been a ubiquitous feature of global popular culture-embraced by consumers even as they were fiercely opposed by medical professionals, consumer health advocates, and antiracist thinkers and activists. In Beneath the Surface, Lynn M. Thomas constructs a transnational history of skin lighteners in South Africa and beyond. Analyzing a wide range of archival, popular culture, and oral history sources, Thomas traces the changing meanings of skin color from precolonial times to the postcolonial present. From indigenous skin-brightening practices and the rapid spread of lighteners in South African consumer culture during the 1940s and 1950s to the growth of a billion-dollar global lightener industry, Thomas shows how the use of skin lighteners and experiences of skin color have been shaped by slavery, colonialism, and segregation as well as by consumer capitalism, visual media, notions of beauty, and protest politics. In teasing out lighteners' layered history, Thomas theorizes skin as a site for antiracist struggle and lighteners as a technology of visibility that both challenges and entrenches racial and gender hierarchies.Trade Review“Beneath the Surface is nothing short of a tour de force. Lynn M. Thomas's ‘layered history’ does justice to the immensely difficult subject of skin lighteners. Carefully attending to the complex politics of race and color that are grounded in skin, Thomas at once provides a vibrant history of South Africa and a global history of commodity, beauty, and the body. This landmark study sets a new standard in the field.” -- Julie Livingston, author of * Self-Devouring Growth: A Planetary Parable as Told from Southern Africa *“Allowing for a comparative analysis over a period of time when the global relationships and meanings of skin color became tied to class, race, and racism, Beneath the Surface helps us understand the intense and long-standing interest whites and blacks have had in lightening the color of their skin despite the potential for severe health risks. There is simply no other book like it.” -- Noliwe M. Rooks, author of * Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women *"Beneath the Surface makes a necessary contribution to [a] small pool of work on beauty and geography as Thomas' analysis integrates these subjects in considering the (trans)national politics and racial inequalities that uphold skin lightening.… This book would appeal to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars interested in beauty, geopolitics, race, and colonialism." -- Meena Pyatt * Gender, Place & Culture *“Thomas resourcefully assembles and interweaves sources connecting popular, business, medical and political culture. …. Beneath the Surface would be an engaging key text for students to study a history of race and gender within everyday global beauty cultures.” -- Fabiola Creed * Metascience *"Beneath the Surface is the most comprehensive book regarding skin lighteners available to date and it is both interesting and innovative.… The book has value as a postgraduate textbook relevant to the fields of history, social science, geopolitics, gender studies, geography, psychology, dermatology, and others. The layered, integrated history presented by Thomas in Beneath the Surface is indeed 'a landmark study' of skin colour and skin lighteners that interrogates every influencing factor from slavery and segregation to consumer capitalism, political protests and reinforced social inequities, and beyond." -- Caradee White * South African Journal of Science *"Lynn Thomas’s Beneath the Surface constructs a history of skin lighteners that is simultaneously rigorous in its historical evidence base and virtuosic in its lucid articulation of the technologies as they are mobilised in complex contexts in and beyond South Africa. . . . Its biopolitical argument is convincingly made and compelling." -- Vivette Garcia-Deister * BioSocieties *"This is an impressive book that will surely be a classic for scholars interested in aesthetics, beauty politics, and gender. It is an especially welcome addition to the literature as it centers on African history from a transnational perspective. It also has much to offer those with specialization in the history of science, medicine, and technology." -- Oluwakemi M. Balogun * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix A Layered History 1 1. Cosmetic Practices and Colonial Crucibles 22 2. Modern Girls and Racial Respectability 47 3. Local Manufacturing and Color Consciousness 75 4. Beauty Queens and Consumer Capitalism 98 5. Active Ingredients and Growing Criticism 150 6. Black Consciousness and Biomedical Opposition 190 Sedimented Meanings and Compounded Politics 221 Notes 237 Bibliography 293 Index

    1 in stock

    £140.25

  • Histories of Dirt

    Duke University Press Histories of Dirt

    Book SynopsisFocusing on colonial and postcolonial Lagos, Stephanie Newell traces the ways in which urban spaces come to be regarded as dirty by showing how colonial perceptions of dirt and cleanliness structured colonial governance, urban planning, public health policies, and relationships between colonists and native Lagosians.Trade Review"Stephanie Newell's Histories of Dirt does for this generation what Mary Douglas did with Purity and Danger several decades ago. Focusing on what seems ubiquitous and thus utterly banal—dirt—Newell shows how the phenomenon of dirt is interpretable from a variety of sometimes contradictory perspectives both by local Africans and by the team of researchers that set about investigating the phenomenon. This is a high-order interdisciplinary work, full of fresh insights and with a turn toward what Africans think about themselves that will provide salutary methodological and conceptual lessons for scholars in African Studies and well beyond." -- Ato Quayson, Stanford University“Brilliantly reading imperial discourse against the grain, Stephanie Newell offers compelling dissections of the perspectives, assumptions, privileged subject positions, and framings that characterize imperial thought. At the same time, she gives close attention and consideration to the range of voices of the people of Lagos, producing powerful arguments about the popular, cultural, and social structures that express urban values. With great ingenuity, Newell has constituted an archive of the present that provides local voices and views on subjects initially warped by colonial discourse. Histories of Dirt is an important and major contribution.” -- Kenneth W. Harrow, author of * Trash: African Cinema from Below *"Histories of Dirt is a work of great creativity and nuance, and its message is especially urgent today. 'Èkó ò ní bàjé,' goes a political slogan turned popular now—Lagos will not spoil." -- Samuel Fury Childs Daly * International Journal of African Historical Studies *"The book is noteworthy for its contribution to our knowledge of how modernity has evolved in African cities, in a period over a century, a process illustrated through the histories of dirt in the city of Lagos. It is certainly useful to all those interested in the political and social history of cities and urban planning in Africa." -- Carlos Nunes Silva * Planning Perspectives *"Newell's prose is lucid and not belabored with theoretical jargons.… The book is also a huge contribution to postcolonial studies and public health. The most recent example through which we can come to terms with Newell on this cutting-edge scholarship is in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which different world leaders and citizens invoke dirt rhetoric against Asian bodies." -- Olájídé Salawu * Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry *“Histories of Dirt is a helpful manual for how dirt, as a word, an object, and a discourse, can be used to constitute archives, influence public opinion, and spark imagination.” -- Ainehi Edoro-Glines * Journal of African History *"Histories of Dirt is a formidable accomplishment of interdisciplinary scholarship and storytelling. . . . The book is exemplary for the fluidity of its narrative arc, for its methodological reflexivity, for its detailed attention to vernacular language, and for its richly textured, polyphonic portrait of Lago as a (post)colonial metropolis." -- Fabien Cante * Africa *Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations vii Author's Note ix Preface. The Cultural Politics of Dirt in Africa (Dirtpol) Project xi Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1. European Insanitary Nuisances 16 2. Malaria: Lines in the Dirt 32 3. African Newspapers, the "Great Unofficial Public," and Plague in Colonial Lagos 43 4. Screening Dirt: Public Health Movies in Colonial Nigeria and Rural Spectatorship in the 1930s and 1940s 58 5. Methods, Unsound Methods, No Methods at All? 79 6. Popular Perceptions of "Dirty" in Multicultural Lagos 90 7. Remembering Waste 115 8. City Sexualities: Negotiating Homophobia 142 Conclusion. Mediated Publics, Uncontrollable Audiences 158 Appendix. Words, Phrases, and Sayings Related to Dirt in Lagos 169 Notes 175 References 215 Index 241

    £98.60

  • Affective Trajectories

    Duke University Press Affective Trajectories

    Book SynopsisThe contributors to Affective Trajectories examine the mutual and highly complex entwinements between religion and affect in urban Africa in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on ethnographic research throughout the continent and in African diasporic communities abroad, they trace the myriad ways religious ideas, practices, and materialities interact with affect to configure life in urban spaces. Whether examining the affective force of the built urban environment or how religious practices contribute to new forms of attachment, identification, and place-making, they illustrate the force of affect as it is shaped by temporality and spatiality in the religious lives of individuals and communities. Among other topics, they explore Masowe Apostolic Christianity in relation to experiences of displacement in Harare, Zimbabwe; Muslim identity, belonging, and the global ummah in Ghana; crime, emotions, and conversion to neo-Pentecostalism in Cape Town; and spiritual cleansing in aTrade Review“This amazing collection of highly evocative and sophisticated essays makes a cutting-edge intervention into current debates on the role of emotions and affect in religious practice as well as the study of urbanity in African studies and beyond. There is no doubt that Affective Trajectories will be of keen interest to those researching African urbanities and religion and urban studies more broadly.” -- Birgit Meyer, author of * Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana *“Providing a diverse range of case studies of how religious experience plays out and is expressed affectively, this unique and timely volume pushes forward the study of affect and emotion in religious contexts. An innovative and original contribution.” -- Kai Kresse, author of * Swahili Muslim Publics and Postcolonial Experience *"Linking affect, emotion, and religion in urban African settings, this volume contributes to studying how new modes of existence may emerge in Africa. Published before the emergence of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Affective Trajectories is particularly useful for considering its consequences on the continent." -- E. P. Renne * Choice *“Affective Trajectories is a clarion call for more systematic engagement by scholars of religion with affect and the importance and vitality of such efforts in the African context.... Affective Trajectories and its many unique contributions provide an impressive point of departure for such work.” -- Nathanael J. Homewood * Journal of Africana Religions *“This collective work offers very rich and original reflections and case studies embracing diverse theoretical and conceptual challenges.... This book leaves a very inspiring mark for further research in other big or small African cities and beyond—revealing the potentialities of the intertwinement of emotion, (im)materiality and spirituality to see and navigate cities.” -- Édith Nabos * Connections *“... [A]n intriguing image emerges out of the diversity of the case studies and contributions, leaving the reader with original insights but also exciting new questions about the changing nature of, and relationship between, religious practices, personhood, and urban life. This makes Affective Trajectories a valuable contribution to the study of religion in Africa.” -- Yotam Gidron * Reading Religion *“Clearly written, with a feast of new concepts and insights of broader relevance to anthropological theory, Affective Trajectories does scholars in religion, affect and urban studies an invaluable service by richly mediating these three terrains.” -- Ray Qu * Social Anthropology *“The strength of [Affective Trajectories] resides in the rich ethnographic descriptions, and these have led to a number of novel concepts, which are likely to generate new analytical discussions.... This volume will speak to anyone interested in religious subjectivities or in urban African mobilities.” -- Katrien Pype * Journal of Southern African Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Affective Trajectories in Religious African Cityscapes / Hansjörg Dilger, Marian Burchardt, Mathew Wilhelm-Solomon, and Astrid Bochow 1 Part I. Affective Infrastructures 1. Affective Regenerations: Intimacy, Cleansing, and Mourning in and around Johannesburg's Dark Buildings / Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon 29 2. Emotions as Affective Trajectories of Belief in Mwari (God) among Masowe Apostles in Urban Zimbabwe / Isabel Mukonyora 52 3. The Sites of Divine Encounter: Affective Religious Spaces and Sensational Practices in Christ Embassy and NASFAT in the City of Abuja / Murtala Ibrahim 77 4. Religious Sophistication in African Pentecostalism: An Urban Spirit? Rijk Van Dijk 98 Part II. Emotions on the Move 5. Affective Routes of Healing: Navigating Paths of Recovery in Urban and Rural West Africa / Isabelle L. Lange 119 6. The Cleansing Touch: Spirits, Atmospheres, and Attouchment in a "Japanese" Spiritual Movement in Kinshasa / Peter Lambertz 138 7. Learning How to Feel: Emotional Repertoires of Nigerian and Congolese Pentecostal Pastors in the Diaspora / Rafael Cazarin and Marian Burchardt 160 Part III. Embodiment, Subjectivity, and Belonging 8. "Those Who Pray Together": Religious Practice, Affect, and Dissent among Muslims in Asante (Ghana) / Benedikt Pontzen 185 9. Longing for Connection: Christian Education and Emerging Urban Lifestyles in Botswana / Astrid Bochow 202 10. "Here, Here Is a Place Where I Can Cry": Religion in a Context of Displacement: Congolese Churches in Kampala / Alessandro Gusman 222 11. Men of Love? Affective Conversions on Township Streets / Hans Reihling 243 Bibliography 263 Contributors 299 Index 303

    £98.60

  • Affective Justice

    Duke University Press Affective Justice

    Book SynopsisKamari Maxine Clarke explores the African Union's pushback against the International Criminal Court in order to theorize affect's role in shaping forms of justice.Trade Review“At its creation, many African countries embraced the International Criminal Court, but subsequent events produced substantial African opposition. This important and insightful book, based on extensive ethnographic research, explores the court and how Africans feel about it. Some see the International Criminal Court as a beacon of hope while others see it as a legacy of colonialism. The book focuses on how affects such as a desire for justice through law and the anger at the plunder of resources shape international justice itself.” -- Sally Engle Merry, Silver Professor, New York University“Affective Justice is set against the background of worldwide disappointments in the performance of the International Criminal Court arising from its prosecutorial incongruences. Kamari Maxine Clarke offers a phenomenology of justice and an anthropology of judicial practices as negotiated assemblages of sentiments of participants of unequal power, judicial competence, and material means as foundations of the institutions of justice. The book captures the complexity of evolving African attitudes toward the ICC like no book before it. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of international justice!” -- Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui, Cornell University"Kamari Maxine Clarke’s superb ethnographic and critical study of the place of the International Criminal Court (ICC) within African history and politics demands a fundamental reevaluation of the meaning of “justice” against a background of colonial and neocolonial violence, postcolonial critique, and enduring inequalities of international power." -- Mark Goodale * Opinio Juris *“In Affective Justice, Clarke innovatively explores the making of international criminal justice from the standpoint of affects and emotions and, in doing so, offers an unprecedented and indispensable theorization of international criminal justice which—after reading this book—can simply not be ignored any longer.” -- Caroline Fournet * Law & Society Review *“Through an ethnographic interrogation of the predicament of identifying and reacting to acts of injustice in Africa (at different levels) and the politics of law, Clarke has provided a compelling read…. This book is strongly recommended to technocrats in the ICC itself and to academics and policy makers in Africa and the rest of the world.” -- Tapiwa Victor Warikandwa * Anthropology Southern Africa *“Affective Justice is a signifi­cant achievement in the anthropology of international law and a welcome addition to human rights and African studies. It should be, and I expect it to be, widely read and debated.” -- Niklas Hultin * Anthropological Quarterly *“Clarke’s groundbreaking new book comes out in the context of renewed debate about the International Criminal Court (ICC) and prospects for the global anti-impunity movement.... Affective Justice is a must read for those following these events and for anyone interested in international justice more broadly.” -- Casey McNeill * Law, Culture and the Humanities *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Preface. Assemblages of Interconnection xvii Introduction. Formation, Dislocations, and Unravelings 1 Part I. Component Parks of the International Criminal Law Assemblage 47 1. Genealogies of Anti-impunity: Encapsulating Victims and Perpetrators 49 2. Founding Moments? Shaping Publics through Sentimental Narratives 91 3. Biomediation and the #BringBackOurGirls Campaign: Making Suffering Visible 116 4. From "Perpetrator" to Hero: Renarrating Culpability through Reattribution 140 Part II. Affects, Emotional Regimes, and the Reattribution of International Law 175 5. Reattribution through the Making of an African Criminal Court 177 6. Reattributing the Irrelevance of the Official Capacity Movement as an Affective Practice 217 Epilogue. Toward an Anthropology of International Justice 257 Notes 267 Bibliography 309 Index 337

    £112.20

  • Embodying Relation

    Duke University Press Embodying Relation

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisAllison Moore examines the tensions between the local and the global in the art photography movement that blossomed in Bamako, Mali, in the 1990s, showing contemporary Malian photography to be a rich example of Western notions of art meeting traditional cultural precepts to forge new artistic forms, practices, and communities.Trade Review“Allison Moore's Embodying Relation examines the history of the Bamako art photography movement through its institutions and its aesthetics and the profound effect of transnational encounters on the agency of art photographers in Mali. She provides art historians with a comprehensive analysis of the most important site of photography discourse in Africa, thus bridging the disciplinary boundaries that usually narrate African cultural production outside the pale of art history. Research in photography in Africa provides a great platform for linking African art history to global art history by locating both in a coeval contemporaneity. As such, the importance of Moore's orientation for art history cannot be overemphasized.” -- Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, author of * Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: A Poetics of Relation 1 1. Unknown Photographer (Bamako, Mali) 27 2. Malian Portraiture Glamorized and Globalized 62 3. Biennale Effects: The African Photography Encounters 98 4. Bamako Becoming Photographic: An Archipelagic Art World 145 5. Creolizing the Archive: Photographers at the National Museum 171 6. Promoting Women Photographers 210 7. Errantry, the Social Body, and Photography as the Écho-monde 249 Conclusion 276 Notes 281 Bibliography 325 Index

    4 in stock

    £140.25

  • Naked Agency

    Duke University Press Naked Agency

    Book SynopsisAcross Africa, mature women have for decades mobilized the power of their nakedness in political protest to shame and punish male adversaries. This insurrectionary nakedness, often called genital cursing, owes its cultural potency to the religious belief that spirits residing in women's bodies can be unleashed to cause misfortune in their targets, including impotence, disease, and death. In Naked Agency, Naminata Diabate analyzes these collective female naked protests in Africa and beyond to broaden understandings of agency and vulnerability. Drawing on myriad cultural texts from social media and film to journalism and fiction, Diabate uncovers how women create spaces of resistance during socio-political duress, including such events as the 2011 protests by Ivoirian women in Côte d'Ivoire and Paris as well as women's disrobing in Soweto to prevent the destruction of their homes. Through the concept of naked agency, Diabate explores fluctuating narratives of power and victimhood to challenge simplistic accounts of African women's helplessness and to show how they exercise political power in the biopolitical era.Trade Review“This is an expansive but nuanced and thought-provoking study of female nakedness as political intervention around Africa. Naked Agency offers a rich analysis of the many potential meanings of defiant disrobing as a signifying shorthand in relation to questions of agency within, but also potentially outside of an African context.” -- Moradewun Adejunmobi, coeditor of * Routledge Handbook of African Literature *“Bringing new insights to discussions of biopolitics and subjectivity, Naminata Diabate explores African women's naked protests to illuminate the contradictory nature of women's agency and the paradox of aggressive disrobing as a counter to globalization that depends on the globalized meaning of state power. She also makes a strong case for avoiding the problems found in most writings on African women of seeing women as either victims or heroic agents while doing an especially great job of exposing the double-edged nature of secularization in the postcolonial world.” -- E. Frances White, author of * Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability *“Bold and erudite, Naked Agency analyses strategic skirt-lifting to shame, take revenge on or punish offensive men by exposing the vulva.... Naked Agency has made a profound impression on me.” -- Tobe Levin Von Gleichen * Canadian Journal of African Studies *“With a mixed method of textual analysis validated by ethnography, Naked Agency stands out among most scholarships that employ either one or the other, to arrive at a contextually nuanced epistemology. . . . I hope this book helps reconstruct and decolonize the mind of the West about the cultural practices of the other.” -- Oladoyin Abiona * Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry *“Naked Agency is a book that challenges censorship and manipulations of African modes of being, knowing, thinking, and theorizing about itself. . . . Naked Agency is what happens when scholars theorize and write from an Africa centered perspective.” -- Marame Gueye, Kenneth Harrow, Adélékè Adé?`k?´ * Journal of the African Literature Association *“The strengths of Diabate’s work rest not merely rest in her extensive review of theories of power but also in her ability to interweave multiple narratives. . . . Thought-provoking for students at any level.” -- Cathy Skidmore-Hess * Journal of Global South Studies *“[Naked Agency] is flawless, in its arguments, its language, and its clarity. . . . Although [Diabate’s] book may seem to be targeted at academics, her conceptualization of agency is relevant to anyone trying to understand the dynamic aspect of agency and resistance in complex bio-political arenas in the world.” -- Supriya Joshi * Rural Sociology *“Naked Agency [is] extraordinarily capacious in its geographical, cultural, and generic scope. . . . By reading openly, the author is able to read across actors, sites, languages, cultures, genres, etc.” -- Chijioke K. Onah * Research in African Literature *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Exceptional Nakedness 1 Section I. Restriction Scene 1. Exceptional Conditions and Darker Shades of Biopolitics 29 Scene 2. Dobsonville and the Question of Autonomy 43 Section II. Co-operation Scene 3. Africanizing Nakedness as (Self-)Instrumentalization 65 Scene 4. In the Name of National Interest 89 Scene 5. Film as Instrumental and Interpretive Lens 107 Section III. Repression Scene 6. Secularizing Genital Cursing and Rhetorical Backlash 131 Scene 7. Epistemic Ignorance and Menstrual Rags in Paris 149 Scene 8. Mis(Reading) Murderous Reactions 175 Epilogue: Defiant Disrobing Going Viral 191 Notes 197 References 219 Index 251

    £98.60

  • Affective Trajectories

    Duke University Press Affective Trajectories

    Book SynopsisThe contributors to Affective Trajectories examine the mutual and highly complex entwinements between religion and affect in urban Africa in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on ethnographic research throughout the continent and in African diasporic communities abroad, they trace the myriad ways religious ideas, practices, and materialities interact with affect to configure life in urban spaces. Whether examining the affective force of the built urban environment or how religious practices contribute to new forms of attachment, identification, and place-making, they illustrate the force of affect as it is shaped by temporality and spatiality in the religious lives of individuals and communities. Among other topics, they explore Masowe Apostolic Christianity in relation to experiences of displacement in Harare, Zimbabwe; Muslim identity, belonging, and the global ummah in Ghana; crime, emotions, and conversion to neo-Pentecostalism in Cape Town; and spiritual cleansing in aTrade Review“This amazing collection of highly evocative and sophisticated essays makes a cutting-edge intervention into current debates on the role of emotions and affect in religious practice as well as the study of urbanity in African studies and beyond. There is no doubt that Affective Trajectories will be of keen interest to those researching African urbanities and religion and urban studies more broadly.” -- Birgit Meyer, author of * Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana *“Providing a diverse range of case studies of how religious experience plays out and is expressed affectively, this unique and timely volume pushes forward the study of affect and emotion in religious contexts. An innovative and original contribution.” -- Kai Kresse, author of * Swahili Muslim Publics and Postcolonial Experience *"Linking affect, emotion, and religion in urban African settings, this volume contributes to studying how new modes of existence may emerge in Africa. Published before the emergence of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Affective Trajectories is particularly useful for considering its consequences on the continent." -- E. P. Renne * Choice *“Affective Trajectories is a clarion call for more systematic engagement by scholars of religion with affect and the importance and vitality of such efforts in the African context.... Affective Trajectories and its many unique contributions provide an impressive point of departure for such work.” -- Nathanael J. Homewood * Journal of Africana Religions *“This collective work offers very rich and original reflections and case studies embracing diverse theoretical and conceptual challenges.... This book leaves a very inspiring mark for further research in other big or small African cities and beyond—revealing the potentialities of the intertwinement of emotion, (im)materiality and spirituality to see and navigate cities.” -- Édith Nabos * Connections *“... [A]n intriguing image emerges out of the diversity of the case studies and contributions, leaving the reader with original insights but also exciting new questions about the changing nature of, and relationship between, religious practices, personhood, and urban life. This makes Affective Trajectories a valuable contribution to the study of religion in Africa.” -- Yotam Gidron * Reading Religion *“Clearly written, with a feast of new concepts and insights of broader relevance to anthropological theory, Affective Trajectories does scholars in religion, affect and urban studies an invaluable service by richly mediating these three terrains.” -- Ray Qu * Social Anthropology *“The strength of [Affective Trajectories] resides in the rich ethnographic descriptions, and these have led to a number of novel concepts, which are likely to generate new analytical discussions.... This volume will speak to anyone interested in religious subjectivities or in urban African mobilities.” -- Katrien Pype * Journal of Southern African Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Affective Trajectories in Religious African Cityscapes / Hansjörg Dilger, Marian Burchardt, Mathew Wilhelm-Solomon, and Astrid Bochow 1 Part I. Affective Infrastructures 1. Affective Regenerations: Intimacy, Cleansing, and Mourning in and around Johannesburg's Dark Buildings / Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon 29 2. Emotions as Affective Trajectories of Belief in Mwari (God) among Masowe Apostles in Urban Zimbabwe / Isabel Mukonyora 52 3. The Sites of Divine Encounter: Affective Religious Spaces and Sensational Practices in Christ Embassy and NASFAT in the City of Abuja / Murtala Ibrahim 77 4. Religious Sophistication in African Pentecostalism: An Urban Spirit? Rijk Van Dijk 98 Part II. Emotions on the Move 5. Affective Routes of Healing: Navigating Paths of Recovery in Urban and Rural West Africa / Isabelle L. Lange 119 6. The Cleansing Touch: Spirits, Atmospheres, and Attouchment in a "Japanese" Spiritual Movement in Kinshasa / Peter Lambertz 138 7. Learning How to Feel: Emotional Repertoires of Nigerian and Congolese Pentecostal Pastors in the Diaspora / Rafael Cazarin and Marian Burchardt 160 Part III. Embodiment, Subjectivity, and Belonging 8. "Those Who Pray Together": Religious Practice, Affect, and Dissent among Muslims in Asante (Ghana) / Benedikt Pontzen 185 9. Longing for Connection: Christian Education and Emerging Urban Lifestyles in Botswana / Astrid Bochow 202 10. "Here, Here Is a Place Where I Can Cry": Religion in a Context of Displacement: Congolese Churches in Kampala / Alessandro Gusman 222 11. Men of Love? Affective Conversions on Township Streets / Hans Reihling 243 Bibliography 263 Contributors 299 Index 303

    £25.19

  • Embodying Relation

    Duke University Press Embodying Relation

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Embodying Relation Allison Moore examines the tensions between the local and the global in the art photography movement in Bamako, Mali, which blossomed in the 1990s after Malian photographers Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé became internationally famous and the Bamako Photography Biennale was founded. Moore traces the trajectory of Malian photography from the 1880s—when photography first arrived as an apparatus of French colonialism—to the first African studio practitioners of the 1930s and the establishment in 1994 of the Bamako Biennale, Africa''s most important continent-wide photographic exhibition. In her detailed discussion of Bamakois artistic aesthetics and institutions, Moore examines the post-fame careers of Keïta and Sidibé, the biennale''s structure, the rise of women photographers, cultural preservation through photography, and how Mali''s shift to democracy in the early 1990s enabled Bamako''s art scene to flourish. Moore showTrade Review“Allison Moore's Embodying Relation examines the history of the Bamako art photography movement through its institutions and its aesthetics and the profound effect of transnational encounters on the agency of art photographers in Mali. She provides art historians with a comprehensive analysis of the most important site of photography discourse in Africa, thus bridging the disciplinary boundaries that usually narrate African cultural production outside the pale of art history. Research in photography in Africa provides a great platform for linking African art history to global art history by locating both in a coeval contemporaneity. As such, the importance of Moore's orientation for art history cannot be overemphasized.” -- Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, author of * Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: A Poetics of Relation 1 1. Unknown Photographer (Bamako, Mali) 27 2. Malian Portraiture Glamorized and Globalized 62 3. Biennale Effects: The African Photography Encounters 98 4. Bamako Becoming Photographic: An Archipelagic Art World 145 5. Creolizing the Archive: Photographers at the National Museum 171 6. Promoting Women Photographers 210 7. Errantry, the Social Body, and Photography as the Écho-monde 249 Conclusion 276 Notes 281 Bibliography 325 Index

    15 in stock

    £35.10

  • Naked Agency

    Duke University Press Naked Agency

    Book SynopsisAcross Africa, mature women have for decades mobilized the power of their nakedness in political protest to shame and punish male adversaries. This insurrectionary nakedness, often called genital cursing, owes its cultural potency to the religious belief that spirits residing in women''s bodies can be unleashed to cause misfortune in their targets, including impotence, disease, and death. In Naked Agency, Naminata Diabate analyzes these collective female naked protests in Africa and beyond to broaden understandings of agency and vulnerability. Drawing on myriad cultural texts from social media and film to journalism and fiction, Diabate uncovers how women create spaces of resistance during socio-political duress, including such events as the 2011 protests by Ivoirian women in Côte d’Ivoire and Paris as well as women''s disrobing in Soweto to prevent the destruction of their homes. Through the concept of naked agency, Diabate explores fluctuating narratives of power aTrade Review“This is an expansive but nuanced and thought-provoking study of female nakedness as political intervention around Africa. Naked Agency offers a rich analysis of the many potential meanings of defiant disrobing as a signifying shorthand in relation to questions of agency within, but also potentially outside of an African context.” -- Moradewun Adejunmobi, coeditor of * Routledge Handbook of African Literature *“Bringing new insights to discussions of biopolitics and subjectivity, Naminata Diabate explores African women's naked protests to illuminate the contradictory nature of women's agency and the paradox of aggressive disrobing as a counter to globalization that depends on the globalized meaning of state power. She also makes a strong case for avoiding the problems found in most writings on African women of seeing women as either victims or heroic agents while doing an especially great job of exposing the double-edged nature of secularization in the postcolonial world.” -- E. Frances White, author of * Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability *“Bold and erudite, Naked Agency analyses strategic skirt-lifting to shame, take revenge on or punish offensive men by exposing the vulva.... Naked Agency has made a profound impression on me.” -- Tobe Levin Von Gleichen * Canadian Journal of African Studies *“With a mixed method of textual analysis validated by ethnography, Naked Agency stands out among most scholarships that employ either one or the other, to arrive at a contextually nuanced epistemology. . . . I hope this book helps reconstruct and decolonize the mind of the West about the cultural practices of the other.” -- Oladoyin Abiona * Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry *“Naked Agency is a book that challenges censorship and manipulations of African modes of being, knowing, thinking, and theorizing about itself. . . . Naked Agency is what happens when scholars theorize and write from an Africa centered perspective.” -- Marame Gueye, Kenneth Harrow, Adélékè Adé?`k?´ * Journal of the African Literature Association *“The strengths of Diabate’s work rest not merely rest in her extensive review of theories of power but also in her ability to interweave multiple narratives. . . . Thought-provoking for students at any level.” -- Cathy Skidmore-Hess * Journal of Global South Studies *“[Naked Agency] is flawless, in its arguments, its language, and its clarity. . . . Although [Diabate’s] book may seem to be targeted at academics, her conceptualization of agency is relevant to anyone trying to understand the dynamic aspect of agency and resistance in complex bio-political arenas in the world.” -- Supriya Joshi * Rural Sociology *“Naked Agency [is] extraordinarily capacious in its geographical, cultural, and generic scope. . . . By reading openly, the author is able to read across actors, sites, languages, cultures, genres, etc.” -- Chijioke K. Onah * Research in African Literature *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Exceptional Nakedness 1 Section I. Restriction Scene 1. Exceptional Conditions and Darker Shades of Biopolitics 29 Scene 2. Dobsonville and the Question of Autonomy 43 Section II. Co-operation Scene 3. Africanizing Nakedness as (Self-)Instrumentalization 65 Scene 4. In the Name of National Interest 89 Scene 5. Film as Instrumental and Interpretive Lens 107 Section III. Repression Scene 6. Secularizing Genital Cursing and Rhetorical Backlash 131 Scene 7. Epistemic Ignorance and Menstrual Rags in Paris 149 Scene 8. Mis(Reading) Murderous Reactions 175 Epilogue: Defiant Disrobing Going Viral 191 Notes 197 References 219 Index 251

    £25.19

  • The Wombs of Women

    Duke University Press The Wombs of Women

    Book SynopsisFrançoise Vergès examines the scandal of white doctors forcefully terminating the pregnancies of thousands of poor women of color on the French island of Réunion during the 1960s, showing how they resulted from the legacies of the racialized violence of slavery and colonialism.Trade Review“In her wonderful book, Françoise Vergès creates a methodology for teasing out the various strands within which French Republican thought has sustained gender, class, and racial inequality. In doing so, she conceptualizes a new lexicon for postcolonial critique. From the scandal in Reunion to the forms of sovereignty that work within this logic, feminism needs to reconfigure itself if it is to be a force adequate to the future in the face of its previous ignorance. Vergès’s book takes us there.” -- Ranjana Khanna, author of * Algeria Cuts: Women and Representation, 1830 to the Present *"Verges' book… sets itself as an example of what kind of work is necessary to reveal the coloniality of power which persisted after the formal end of colonization. In other words, this book teaches us the kind of work needed to practice a decolonial feminism, a 'killjoy politics', a counterhegemonic strategy which appears fundamental to understand the genesis of femonationalism. There is a particularly valuable contribution made by the book which promises to become one of the most relevant new acquisitions in decolonial and feminist studies." -- Erika Bernacchi * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“It is precisely the stories that do not get told in the grand narrative of French republicanism—and, more pointedly, the why of their non-telling—that animates Françoise Vergès’s decolonial, antiracist feminist work, The Wombs of Women (seamlessly translated from the French by Kaiama Glover in supremely engrossing prose).” -- Chelsea Stieber * Public Books *"Vergès's ability to make us focus specifically on colonial and post-colonial France is a feat worthy unto itself and makes this an important contribution to French feminist theory and post-colonial historiography.… An important book for any nation unpacking the not quite extinguished remnants of colonial paternalism.… It should be read alongside more so-called traditional histories of France, to act as a corrective to ongoing narratives of French self-identity." -- Robin Mitchell * H-France *"One of the ambitious aims of this book is to spark the development of a decolonial feminism which Vergès asserts requires delving into the past and rescuing ‘entire periods of history’ (p 115) from oblivion. This book achieves this so well, depicting the urgent need to rethink feminism through a decolonial lens and offers a significant contribution to postcolonial studies." -- Natasha Lila Rooney * Postcolonial Studies *"Vergès makes a powerful case for the geography closest in—here, the womb and its capacity for reproductive futures—as the grounds of any decolonial feminist history worthy of the name." -- Antoinette Burton * French Politics, Culture & Society *Table of ContentsPreface ix Translator's Introduction xiii Introduction 1 1. The Island of Doctor Moreau 1 2. The Rhetoric of "Impossible Development": Dependency, Repression, and Anticolonial Struggle 29 3. The Wombs of Black Women, Capitalism, and the International Division of Labor 49 4. "The Future Is Elsewhere" 63 5. French Feminist Blindness: Race, Coloniality, Capitalism 89 Conclusion: Repoliticizing Feminism 115 Notes 125 Index 157

    £67.15

  • Genetic Afterlives

    Duke University Press Genetic Afterlives

    Book SynopsisNoah Tamarkin illustrates how Lemba people in South Africa give their own meanings to the results of DNA tests that substantiated their ancestral connections to Jews and employ them to manage competing claims of Jewish ethnic and religious identity, African indigeneity, and South African citizenship.Trade Review“Genetic Afterlives is a prescient examination of the Lemba community in southern Africa, a group that has long fought for public recognition of their claims to Jewishness over and against the identities imposed upon them as the price of admission into the political landscape of contemporary South Africa and beyond. Using careful ethnographic and archival research, Noah Tamarkin crafts an expansive portrait of the sparks that fly when contested oral histories, state-sanctioned social policies, and cutting-edge genetic research are held in critical and productive tension. This is a significant contribution to Jewish studies, African studies, anthropology, and science studies all at the same time. A very powerful read!” -- John L. Jackson Jr., author of * Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem *“In this major contribution to critical global Indigenous studies, Noah Tamarkin takes up a unique case study at the intersection of race, nation, and indigeneity while also explaining complex genome science and theoretical insights in accessible language that will resonate with diverse audiences.” -- Kim TallBear, author of * Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science *"Tamarkin's book will be of great interest to those interested in contemporary expressions of Jewish identity, in the ethnic dynamics of South Africa, in the ramifications of genetic testing, and, especially, in the ultimate 'ownership' of DNA." -- Ira Robinson * Nova Religio *"Tamarkin pushes us to continue to find new ways to ask how DNA gains power in the world today. Hopefully, others will use it as an opportunity to take Africa seriously as a space from which to think through genetic ancestry." -- Victoria M. Massie * Transforming Anthropology *"This book is recommended reading for anthropologists and scholars in STS, African studies, or Jewish studies. It would also likely appeal to curious laypeople as it revolves around the meaning of belonging in the religious, ethnic, state, family, and biological-genetic contexts. By dealing with the ways human beings create and express this belonging and affiliation, Genetic Afterlives calls on the reader to reconsider several accepted Western conventions." -- Nurit Kirsh * Isis *"Genetic Afterlives is an instructive, interesting, and important addition to the humanities. It sheds light on a group of people that most laypersons are not familiar with, and provides detailed descriptions of the social, scientific, and cultural implications that face not just the Lemba, but all persons interested in DNA data research." -- Kimberley Burns * African Studies Quarterly *"[A] fascinating exploration of why and how the Lemba of South Africa became interested in and engaged with genetic studies of Jewishness. . . . [A] masterful ethnographic exploration of the way scale and context matter in the production of genetic meaning." -- Kimberly A. Arkin * Anthropological Quarterly *"This highly nuanced and important book contributes to many debates: as well as Black Jewish Studies, it challenges our understanding of identity more generally, showing that ingrained western notions of religion are more supple in other places. Tamarkin’s book also contributes to the study of African religions, apartheid studies, and to South African history. Perhaps most importantly, however, it contributes to contemporary debates on the nature of Judaism and Jewishness by arguing that such cannot be defined simply according to any single criteria." -- Michael T. Miller * Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Diaspora, Indigeneity, and Citizenship after DNA 1 1. Producing Lemba Archives, Becoming Genetic Jews 29 2. Genetic Diaspora 57 3. Postapartheid Citizenship and the Limits of Genetic Evidence 88 4. Ancestry, Ancestors, and Contested Kinship after DNA 120 5. Locating Lemba Heritage, Imagining Indigenous Futures 153 Epilogue. Afterlives of Research Subjects 187 Notes 197 References 223

    £98.60

  • The Wombs of Women

    Duke University Press The Wombs of Women

    Book SynopsisIn the 1960s thousands of poor women of color on the (post)colonial French island of Reunion had their pregnancies forcefully terminated by white doctors; the doctors operated under the pretext of performing benign surgeries, for which they sought government compensation. When the scandal broke in 1970, the doctors claimed to have been encouraged to perform these abortions by French politicians who sought to curtail reproduction on the island, even though abortion was illegal in France. In The Wombs of Women—first published in French and appearing here in English for the first time—Françoise Vergès traces the long history of colonial state intervention in black women’s wombs during the slave trade and postslavery imperialism as well as in current birth control politics. She examines the women’s liberation movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s, showing that by choosing to ignore the history of the racialization of women’s wombs, FreTrade Review“In her wonderful book, Françoise Vergès creates a methodology for teasing out the various strands within which French Republican thought has sustained gender, class, and racial inequality. In doing so, she conceptualizes a new lexicon for postcolonial critique. From the scandal in Reunion to the forms of sovereignty that work within this logic, feminism needs to reconfigure itself if it is to be a force adequate to the future in the face of its previous ignorance. Vergès’s book takes us there.” -- Ranjana Khanna, author of * Algeria Cuts: Women and Representation, 1830 to the Present *"Verges' book… sets itself as an example of what kind of work is necessary to reveal the coloniality of power which persisted after the formal end of colonization. In other words, this book teaches us the kind of work needed to practice a decolonial feminism, a 'killjoy politics', a counterhegemonic strategy which appears fundamental to understand the genesis of femonationalism. There is a particularly valuable contribution made by the book which promises to become one of the most relevant new acquisitions in decolonial and feminist studies." -- Erika Bernacchi * Ethnic and Racial Studies *“It is precisely the stories that do not get told in the grand narrative of French republicanism—and, more pointedly, the why of their non-telling—that animates Françoise Vergès’s decolonial, antiracist feminist work, The Wombs of Women (seamlessly translated from the French by Kaiama Glover in supremely engrossing prose).” -- Chelsea Stieber * Public Books *"Vergès's ability to make us focus specifically on colonial and post-colonial France is a feat worthy unto itself and makes this an important contribution to French feminist theory and post-colonial historiography.… An important book for any nation unpacking the not quite extinguished remnants of colonial paternalism.… It should be read alongside more so-called traditional histories of France, to act as a corrective to ongoing narratives of French self-identity." -- Robin Mitchell * H-France *"One of the ambitious aims of this book is to spark the development of a decolonial feminism which Vergès asserts requires delving into the past and rescuing ‘entire periods of history’ (p 115) from oblivion. This book achieves this so well, depicting the urgent need to rethink feminism through a decolonial lens and offers a significant contribution to postcolonial studies." -- Natasha Lila Rooney * Postcolonial Studies *"Vergès makes a powerful case for the geography closest in—here, the womb and its capacity for reproductive futures—as the grounds of any decolonial feminist history worthy of the name." -- Antoinette Burton * French Politics, Culture & Society *Table of ContentsPreface ix Translator's Introduction xiii Introduction 1 1. The Island of Doctor Moreau 1 2. The Rhetoric of "Impossible Development": Dependency, Repression, and Anticolonial Struggle 29 3. The Wombs of Black Women, Capitalism, and the International Division of Labor 49 4. "The Future Is Elsewhere" 63 5. French Feminist Blindness: Race, Coloniality, Capitalism 89 Conclusion: Repoliticizing Feminism 115 Notes 125 Index 157

    £17.99

  • Genetic Afterlives

    Duke University Press Genetic Afterlives

    Book SynopsisNoah Tamarkin illustrates how Lemba people in South Africa give their own meanings to the results of DNA tests that substantiated their ancestral connections to Jews and employ them to manage competing claims of Jewish ethnic and religious identity, African indigeneity, and South African citizenship.Trade Review“Genetic Afterlives is a prescient examination of the Lemba community in southern Africa, a group that has long fought for public recognition of their claims to Jewishness over and against the identities imposed upon them as the price of admission into the political landscape of contemporary South Africa and beyond. Using careful ethnographic and archival research, Noah Tamarkin crafts an expansive portrait of the sparks that fly when contested oral histories, state-sanctioned social policies, and cutting-edge genetic research are held in critical and productive tension. This is a significant contribution to Jewish studies, African studies, anthropology, and science studies all at the same time. A very powerful read!” -- John L. Jackson Jr., author of * Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem *“In this major contribution to critical global Indigenous studies, Noah Tamarkin takes up a unique case study at the intersection of race, nation, and indigeneity while also explaining complex genome science and theoretical insights in accessible language that will resonate with diverse audiences.” -- Kim TallBear, author of * Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science *"Tamarkin's book will be of great interest to those interested in contemporary expressions of Jewish identity, in the ethnic dynamics of South Africa, in the ramifications of genetic testing, and, especially, in the ultimate 'ownership' of DNA." -- Ira Robinson * Nova Religio *"Tamarkin pushes us to continue to find new ways to ask how DNA gains power in the world today. Hopefully, others will use it as an opportunity to take Africa seriously as a space from which to think through genetic ancestry." -- Victoria M. Massie * Transforming Anthropology *"This book is recommended reading for anthropologists and scholars in STS, African studies, or Jewish studies. It would also likely appeal to curious laypeople as it revolves around the meaning of belonging in the religious, ethnic, state, family, and biological-genetic contexts. By dealing with the ways human beings create and express this belonging and affiliation, Genetic Afterlives calls on the reader to reconsider several accepted Western conventions." -- Nurit Kirsh * Isis *"Genetic Afterlives is an instructive, interesting, and important addition to the humanities. It sheds light on a group of people that most laypersons are not familiar with, and provides detailed descriptions of the social, scientific, and cultural implications that face not just the Lemba, but all persons interested in DNA data research." -- Kimberley Burns * African Studies Quarterly *"[A] fascinating exploration of why and how the Lemba of South Africa became interested in and engaged with genetic studies of Jewishness. . . . [A] masterful ethnographic exploration of the way scale and context matter in the production of genetic meaning." -- Kimberly A. Arkin * Anthropological Quarterly *"This highly nuanced and important book contributes to many debates: as well as Black Jewish Studies, it challenges our understanding of identity more generally, showing that ingrained western notions of religion are more supple in other places. Tamarkin’s book also contributes to the study of African religions, apartheid studies, and to South African history. Perhaps most importantly, however, it contributes to contemporary debates on the nature of Judaism and Jewishness by arguing that such cannot be defined simply according to any single criteria." -- Michael T. Miller * Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Diaspora, Indigeneity, and Citizenship after DNA 1 1. Producing Lemba Archives, Becoming Genetic Jews 29 2. Genetic Diaspora 57 3. Postapartheid Citizenship and the Limits of Genetic Evidence 88 4. Ancestry, Ancestors, and Contested Kinship after DNA 120 5. Locating Lemba Heritage, Imagining Indigenous Futures 153 Epilogue. Afterlives of Research Subjects 187 Notes 197 References 223

    £25.19

  • African Motors

    Duke University Press African Motors

    Book SynopsisIn African Motors, Joshua Grace examines how everyday Tanzanian drivers, mechanics, and passengers reconstituted the automobile into a uniquely African form between the late 1800s to the early 2000s.Trade Review“African Motors is an exhilarating contribution to recent African-centric histories of development shedding new light on the significance of automobility—meaning the entire ‘machinic complex’ of driving, roads, garage work, urban transport, and oil trading. Joshua Grace emphasizes the creativity and agency involved in vernacular invention, maintenance, and repair as part of urban mobility and ‘technological citizenship’ in Tanzania. This book is a welcome addition to the growing field of postcolonial mobility studies, decolonial mobility history, and African studies of technology and innovation.” -- Mimi Sheller, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, Drexel University“In vivid prose, African Motors shows how motor vehicles became African technologies. Joshua Grace sets new standards for research and engagement, weaving tales of African technological expertise into an analysis whose import extends well beyond Tanzania. You will never see cars and drivers the same way again.” -- Gabrielle Hecht, author of * Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade *“African Motors stands as an excellent contribution to both the history of science and African history fields. . . . AfricanMotors handily illustrates the effects that the automobile has had on both Tanzanian states and societies, as well as the technological agency Tanzanians have sought to work through the car in turn.” -- Kyle Harmse * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *“Tanzania’s automobility takes center stage in this scholarly work by Grace. . . . The book's five main chapters cover mobility in the region and infrastructure from the 1860s to 1960, masculinity, gender relations, and notions of citizenship tied to technological objects. Recommended.” -- G. Emeagwali * Choice *“African Motors is wide-ranging in its scope, taking the reader on a journey that provides needed insight into the layered and overlapping social and technological systems that have produced modern African systems of motor transport. . . . While set in Tanzania, this text provides insights that will doubtless resonate with scholars of other African and world regions.” -- Jonathan T. Reynolds * International Journal of African Historical Studies *“Joshua Grace’s African Motors offers a fascinating, wide-ranging historical account of automobility in what is now Tanzania. . . . Grace is an intrepid researcher, not only plumbing novel archives but also conducting extensive oral histories and even getting his hands dirty at local garages. The result is a welcome emphasis on the way automobility coevolved with local concepts and logics.” -- Michael Degani * Journal of African History *“Put simply, African Motors is a testament to how historians should practice their craft. … [It] constitutes a foundational study that should, in this reviewer’s opinion, remain a mainstay in methodological postgraduate history seminars for years to come.” -- Marcus Filippello * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Africa, Motors, and a History of Development 1 1. Walking to the Car: A Popular History of Mobility and Infrastructure in Tanganyika, 1860s to 1960 33 2. Overhaul: Making Men and Cars in Repair Garages 82 3. The People's Car of Dar es Salaam: Buses, Socialism, and Technological Citizenship 143 4. Oily Ujamaa: Petroleum, Rural Modernization, and "Effective Freedom" before and after the "OPEC Bombshell" 185 5. Motorized Domesticities: Care, Road, and Home in Independent Tanzania 233 Conclusion. Motoring Out of Time: Tanzanian Automobility in Unsustainable Times 275 Notes 301 Bibliography 371 Index 401

    £84.15

  • Fighting and Writing

    Duke University Press Fighting and Writing

    Book SynopsisLuise White examines the contentious war memoirs published after the Zimbabwean liberation struggle (19641979) by white soldiers who fought for Rhodesia.Trade Review“Fighting and Writing offers an often-harrowing look into the hearts and minds of the men who fought in the struggle for Rhodesia. With her unique combination of fearlessness and provocation, Luise White asks whether war is always about killing and whether killing is the most significant thing about war. She asks us to stare hard at these discomfiting questions, giving a whole new meaning to the history of war stories.” -- Antoinette Burton, author of * The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism *“Luise White is that scholar of rare analytic and literary ability who can tell history's most sensational stories differently: prostitution, vampire rumors, and now, in Fighting and Writing, the memoirs of white soldiers in a racist war. These are the unlikely starting points from which White leads her readers through histories that become more rich and more relevant with every page.” -- Danny Hoffman, author of * The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia *"Luise White has produced a powerful, provocative, novel work that contains enthralling literary and historiographical analysis. This book is not only original but is also very interesting. . . . It will appeal to those interested in the history of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation, and I think it would also function very well as a set text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those working on contested histories, warfare in post-Second World War Africa, and literary representations of modern conflict." -- M.T. Howard * Journal of Southern African Studies *"Fighting and Writing offers a new angle on the complexity of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean war through the memoirs of white soldiers. The book is a great resource for those interested in Rhodesian and Zimbabwean history and for military historians." -- Amina Marzouk Chouchene * African Studies Quarterly *"This book should rattle comfortable stories of race in Rhodesia, and that is to the good." -- Allison K. Shutt * American Historical Review *"Fighting and Writing is a powerfully and uniquely written piece of work that successfully and practically helps to answer old questions about the writing and study of history. Both broadly and in very concrete ways it helps us rethink the production and purpose of history. The book explores seemingly disparate but neatly woven themes about the so-called bush war, production of historical knowledge, authorship in history, and perceptions about war." -- Ushehwedu Kufakurinani * Journal of African History *"White provides a highly stimulating analysis and given the nature of its source material and subject matter, her work will be useful for those studying Rhodesia’s civil war specifically, and counterinsurgency more generally, as well those researching in the field of memory studies and in the use of memoirs in historical research." -- Ryan Clarke * Journal of African Military History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Place-Names, Currency, and Acronyms xi 1. Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle and Rhodesia's Bush War: Locating Its History 1 2. "Blood and Ink": Memoirs, Authors, Histories 31 3. "Your Shona Is Better Than Mine!" Pseudo Gangs, Blacking Up, and the Pleasures of Counterinsurgency 59 4. "Each Footprint Tells a Story": Tracking and Poaching in the Rhodesian Army 83 5. "There Is No Copyright on Facts": Ron Reid-Daly, Authorship, and the Transkei Defence Force 109 6. "Every Self-Respecting Terrorist Has an AK-47": Guerrilla Weapons and Rhodesian Imaginations 121 7. "A Plastic Bag full of Cholera": Rhodesia and Chemical and Biological Weapons 141 8. "Will Travel Worldwide. You Pay Expenses": Foreign Soldiers in the Rhodesian Army 167 9. "What Interests Do You Have?": Security Force Auxiliaries and the Limits of Counterinsurgency 197 Conclusions 222 Notes 227 Bibliography 261 Index 281

    £75.65

  • Chosen Peoples

    Duke University Press Chosen Peoples

    Book SynopsisOn July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world''s newest nation, an occasion that the country''s Christian leaders claimed had been foretold in the Book of Isaiah. The Bible provided a foundation through which the South Sudanese could distinguish themselves from the Arab and Muslim Sudanese to the north and understand themselves as a spiritual community now freed from their oppressors. Less than three years later, however, new conflicts emerged along ethnic lines within South Sudan, belying the liberation theology that had supposedly reached its climactic conclusion with independence. In Chosen Peoples, Christopher Tounsel investigates the centrality of Christian worldviews to the ideological construction of South Sudan and the inability of shared religion to prevent conflict. Exploring the creation of a colonial-era mission school to halt Islam''s spread up the Nile, the centrality of biblical language in South Sudanese propaganda during the Second Civil Trade Review“Christopher Tounsel makes a major contribution to the study of South Sudanese political thought. He has drawn on the literature of Black liberation theology in Africa as well as the Americas, giving the South Sudanese a place in the theoretical literature that has excluded them up to now. Chosen Peoples presents unique material that has the potential to shift the way we understand the history of Sudan and South Sudan and the role of religion in politics more generally.” -- Douglas H. Johnson, author of * South Sudan: A New History for a New Nation *“Chosen Peoples is a remarkable achievement, revealing unexplored chapters of South Sudanese history and placing them into a novel analytic frame that will impact how we think about postcolonial liberation for many years to come. In this brave book, Christopher Tounsel does not shy away from asking difficult questions of his material, the reward being that he opens considerable space for thinking anew about the mutual construction of race and religion in the two Sudans and beyond.” -- Noah Salomon, author of * For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan’s Islamic State *"In a study that will resonate with anyone familiar with the political language of medieval Christian Europe or the 19th-century United States, Tounsel shows how biblical and religious language utterly permeated political rhetoric and self-fashioning in South Sudan. . . . Chosen Peoples is richly instructive for understanding the influence of the Bible in societies where it represents a powerful and challenging new presence." -- Philip Jenkins * Christian Century *"Tounsel helps to draw new attention to South Sudan. He unpacks the influence of Christianity on the politics of identity in the country. Rather than providing a comprehensive history of the political and social influences of Christian churches in South Sudan, Tounsel focuses on specific institutions at different points in history that highlight the diverse ways in which Christianity shaped South Sudanese identities." -- Timothy Longman * Sociology of Religion *"[Chosen Peoples] is an important text that touches on a new moment in the development of African Christian political thought—a moment when Black Africans drew from discourses of liberation theology to fight for liberation from other Black Africans." -- David Ngong * Reading Religion *"An important contribution to scholarship . . . Chosen Peoples offers critical insight into the complex ways in which categories of religion, race and ethnicity work in different contexts, and also raises serious questions about the limitations of Christianity - and possibly religion more generally - as a basis of nation building and as a means of promoting national cohesion and collective identity." -- Adriaan van Klinken * Religion *"Chosen Peoples offers novel insights into South Sudan’s religious and political history. By prioritizing political theologies as a question of historical inquiry, it makes an important intervention in both South Sudan’s emerging historiography and in the broader trajectories of African intellectual history." -- Jonathon L. Earle * Journal of African History *"This book provides a vivid history of South Sudan. It gives a very clear and concise account of events from the beginning of the civil wars to the aftermath of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and the efforts by the people of South Sudan to liberate itself from the North." -- Lawrencia Baaba Okai * African Studies Quarterly *"Chosen Peoples is essential reading for all those seeking to understand Sudan’s and South Sudan’s traumatic journey over the last 100 years in its social, political, and spiritual dimensions." -- Andrew Wheeler * Sudan Studies *"Christopher Tounsel’s new book is a creative, substantive, and important look at the role of religion in the creation of the world’s youngest nation-state, South Sudan. . . . Tounsel’s prose is beautiful, but its sources really set the book apart." -- Nathaniel Homewood * Religious Studies Review *"The crisp style of writing, the arguments, and the engaging discussions in the various chapters make this book a must-read for scholars, students, and individuals interested not only in African studies and history but also in the application of religious thought in political situations." -- Kwaku Nti * Journal of Global South Studies *"Chosen Peoples is a fascinating and engaging book. . . . The book is excellent reading for scholars of Sudan, and of religion, politics, and race regardless of context." -- Henni Alava * Journal of Religion in Africa *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Winds of Change 1 1. The Nugent School and the Ethno-Religious Politics of Mission Education 23 2. The Equatorial Corps and the Torit Mutiny 44 3. Liberation War 67 4. Khartoum Goliath: The Martial Theology of SPLM/SPLA Update 88 5. The Troubled Promised Land 113 Conclusion: Inheriting the Wind 135 Sources and Methodology 145 Notes 151 Bibliography 177 Index 199

    £72.25

  • African Motors

    Duke University Press African Motors

    Book SynopsisIn African Motors, Joshua Grace examines how everyday Tanzanian drivers, mechanics, and passengers reconstituted the automobile into a uniquely African form between the late 1800s to the early 2000s.Trade Review“African Motors is an exhilarating contribution to recent African-centric histories of development shedding new light on the significance of automobility—meaning the entire ‘machinic complex’ of driving, roads, garage work, urban transport, and oil trading. Joshua Grace emphasizes the creativity and agency involved in vernacular invention, maintenance, and repair as part of urban mobility and ‘technological citizenship’ in Tanzania. This book is a welcome addition to the growing field of postcolonial mobility studies, decolonial mobility history, and African studies of technology and innovation.” -- Mimi Sheller, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, Drexel University“In vivid prose, African Motors shows how motor vehicles became African technologies. Joshua Grace sets new standards for research and engagement, weaving tales of African technological expertise into an analysis whose import extends well beyond Tanzania. You will never see cars and drivers the same way again.” -- Gabrielle Hecht, author of * Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade *“African Motors stands as an excellent contribution to both the history of science and African history fields. . . . AfricanMotors handily illustrates the effects that the automobile has had on both Tanzanian states and societies, as well as the technological agency Tanzanians have sought to work through the car in turn.” -- Kyle Harmse * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *“Tanzania’s automobility takes center stage in this scholarly work by Grace. . . . The book's five main chapters cover mobility in the region and infrastructure from the 1860s to 1960, masculinity, gender relations, and notions of citizenship tied to technological objects. Recommended.” -- G. Emeagwali * Choice *“African Motors is wide-ranging in its scope, taking the reader on a journey that provides needed insight into the layered and overlapping social and technological systems that have produced modern African systems of motor transport. . . . While set in Tanzania, this text provides insights that will doubtless resonate with scholars of other African and world regions.” -- Jonathan T. Reynolds * International Journal of African Historical Studies *“Joshua Grace’s African Motors offers a fascinating, wide-ranging historical account of automobility in what is now Tanzania. . . . Grace is an intrepid researcher, not only plumbing novel archives but also conducting extensive oral histories and even getting his hands dirty at local garages. The result is a welcome emphasis on the way automobility coevolved with local concepts and logics.” -- Michael Degani * Journal of African History *“Put simply, African Motors is a testament to how historians should practice their craft. … [It] constitutes a foundational study that should, in this reviewer’s opinion, remain a mainstay in methodological postgraduate history seminars for years to come.” -- Marcus Filippello * Technology and Culture *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction. Africa, Motors, and a History of Development 1 1. Walking to the Car: A Popular History of Mobility and Infrastructure in Tanganyika, 1860s to 1960 33 2. Overhaul: Making Men and Cars in Repair Garages 82 3. The People's Car of Dar es Salaam: Buses, Socialism, and Technological Citizenship 143 4. Oily Ujamaa: Petroleum, Rural Modernization, and "Effective Freedom" before and after the "OPEC Bombshell" 185 5. Motorized Domesticities: Care, Road, and Home in Independent Tanzania 233 Conclusion. Motoring Out of Time: Tanzanian Automobility in Unsustainable Times 275 Notes 301 Bibliography 371 Index 401

    £22.49

  • Fighting and Writing

    Duke University Press Fighting and Writing

    Book SynopsisIn Fighting and Writing Luise White brings the force of her historical insight to bear on the many war memoirs published by white soldiers who fought for Rhodesia during the 1964–1979 Zimbabwean liberation struggle. In the memoirs of white soldiers fighting to defend white minority rule in Africa long after other countries were independent, White finds a robust and contentious conversation about race, difference, and the war itself. These are writings by men who were ambivalent conscripts, generally aware of the futility of their fight—not brutal pawns flawlessly executing the orders and parroting the rhetoric of a racist regime. Moreover, most of these men insisted that the most important aspects of fighting a guerrilla war—tracking and hunting, knowledge of the land and of the ways of African society—were learned from black playmates in idealized rural childhoods. In these memoirs, African guerrillas never lost their association with the wild, even as wTrade Review“Fighting and Writing offers an often-harrowing look into the hearts and minds of the men who fought in the struggle for Rhodesia. With her unique combination of fearlessness and provocation, Luise White asks whether war is always about killing and whether killing is the most significant thing about war. She asks us to stare hard at these discomfiting questions, giving a whole new meaning to the history of war stories.” -- Antoinette Burton, author of * The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism *“Luise White is that scholar of rare analytic and literary ability who can tell history's most sensational stories differently: prostitution, vampire rumors, and now, in Fighting and Writing, the memoirs of white soldiers in a racist war. These are the unlikely starting points from which White leads her readers through histories that become more rich and more relevant with every page.” -- Danny Hoffman, author of * The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia *"Luise White has produced a powerful, provocative, novel work that contains enthralling literary and historiographical analysis. This book is not only original but is also very interesting. . . . It will appeal to those interested in the history of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation, and I think it would also function very well as a set text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those working on contested histories, warfare in post-Second World War Africa, and literary representations of modern conflict." -- M.T. Howard * Journal of Southern African Studies *"Fighting and Writing offers a new angle on the complexity of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean war through the memoirs of white soldiers. The book is a great resource for those interested in Rhodesian and Zimbabwean history and for military historians." -- Amina Marzouk Chouchene * African Studies Quarterly *"This book should rattle comfortable stories of race in Rhodesia, and that is to the good." -- Allison K. Shutt * American Historical Review *"Fighting and Writing is a powerfully and uniquely written piece of work that successfully and practically helps to answer old questions about the writing and study of history. Both broadly and in very concrete ways it helps us rethink the production and purpose of history. The book explores seemingly disparate but neatly woven themes about the so-called bush war, production of historical knowledge, authorship in history, and perceptions about war." -- Ushehwedu Kufakurinani * Journal of African History *"White provides a highly stimulating analysis and given the nature of its source material and subject matter, her work will be useful for those studying Rhodesia’s civil war specifically, and counterinsurgency more generally, as well those researching in the field of memory studies and in the use of memoirs in historical research." -- Ryan Clarke * Journal of African Military History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Place-Names, Currency, and Acronyms xi 1. Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle and Rhodesia's Bush War: Locating Its History 1 2. "Blood and Ink": Memoirs, Authors, Histories 31 3. "Your Shona Is Better Than Mine!" Pseudo Gangs, Blacking Up, and the Pleasures of Counterinsurgency 59 4. "Each Footprint Tells a Story": Tracking and Poaching in the Rhodesian Army 83 5. "There Is No Copyright on Facts": Ron Reid-Daly, Authorship, and the Transkei Defence Force 109 6. "Every Self-Respecting Terrorist Has an AK-47": Guerrilla Weapons and Rhodesian Imaginations 121 7. "A Plastic Bag full of Cholera": Rhodesia and Chemical and Biological Weapons 141 8. "Will Travel Worldwide. You Pay Expenses": Foreign Soldiers in the Rhodesian Army 167 9. "What Interests Do You Have?": Security Force Auxiliaries and the Limits of Counterinsurgency 197 Conclusions 222 Notes 227 Bibliography 261 Index 281

    £20.69

  • Chosen Peoples

    Duke University Press Chosen Peoples

    Book SynopsisOn July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world''s newest nation, an occasion that the country''s Christian leaders claimed had been foretold in the Book of Isaiah. The Bible provided a foundation through which the South Sudanese could distinguish themselves from the Arab and Muslim Sudanese to the north and understand themselves as a spiritual community now freed from their oppressors. Less than three years later, however, new conflicts emerged along ethnic lines within South Sudan, belying the liberation theology that had supposedly reached its climactic conclusion with independence. In Chosen Peoples, Christopher Tounsel investigates the centrality of Christian worldviews to the ideological construction of South Sudan and the inability of shared religion to prevent conflict. Exploring the creation of a colonial-era mission school to halt Islam''s spread up the Nile, the centrality of biblical language in South Sudanese propaganda during the Second Civil Trade Review“Christopher Tounsel makes a major contribution to the study of South Sudanese political thought. He has drawn on the literature of Black liberation theology in Africa as well as the Americas, giving the South Sudanese a place in the theoretical literature that has excluded them up to now. Chosen Peoples presents unique material that has the potential to shift the way we understand the history of Sudan and South Sudan and the role of religion in politics more generally.” -- Douglas H. Johnson, author of * South Sudan: A New History for a New Nation *“Chosen Peoples is a remarkable achievement, revealing unexplored chapters of South Sudanese history and placing them into a novel analytic frame that will impact how we think about postcolonial liberation for many years to come. In this brave book, Christopher Tounsel does not shy away from asking difficult questions of his material, the reward being that he opens considerable space for thinking anew about the mutual construction of race and religion in the two Sudans and beyond.” -- Noah Salomon, author of * For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan’s Islamic State *"In a study that will resonate with anyone familiar with the political language of medieval Christian Europe or the 19th-century United States, Tounsel shows how biblical and religious language utterly permeated political rhetoric and self-fashioning in South Sudan. . . . Chosen Peoples is richly instructive for understanding the influence of the Bible in societies where it represents a powerful and challenging new presence." -- Philip Jenkins * Christian Century *"Tounsel helps to draw new attention to South Sudan. He unpacks the influence of Christianity on the politics of identity in the country. Rather than providing a comprehensive history of the political and social influences of Christian churches in South Sudan, Tounsel focuses on specific institutions at different points in history that highlight the diverse ways in which Christianity shaped South Sudanese identities." -- Timothy Longman * Sociology of Religion *"[Chosen Peoples] is an important text that touches on a new moment in the development of African Christian political thought—a moment when Black Africans drew from discourses of liberation theology to fight for liberation from other Black Africans." -- David Ngong * Reading Religion *"An important contribution to scholarship . . . Chosen Peoples offers critical insight into the complex ways in which categories of religion, race and ethnicity work in different contexts, and also raises serious questions about the limitations of Christianity - and possibly religion more generally - as a basis of nation building and as a means of promoting national cohesion and collective identity." -- Adriaan van Klinken * Religion *"Chosen Peoples offers novel insights into South Sudan’s religious and political history. By prioritizing political theologies as a question of historical inquiry, it makes an important intervention in both South Sudan’s emerging historiography and in the broader trajectories of African intellectual history." -- Jonathon L. Earle * Journal of African History *"This book provides a vivid history of South Sudan. It gives a very clear and concise account of events from the beginning of the civil wars to the aftermath of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and the efforts by the people of South Sudan to liberate itself from the North." -- Lawrencia Baaba Okai * African Studies Quarterly *"Chosen Peoples is essential reading for all those seeking to understand Sudan’s and South Sudan’s traumatic journey over the last 100 years in its social, political, and spiritual dimensions." -- Andrew Wheeler * Sudan Studies *"Christopher Tounsel’s new book is a creative, substantive, and important look at the role of religion in the creation of the world’s youngest nation-state, South Sudan. . . . Tounsel’s prose is beautiful, but its sources really set the book apart." -- Nathaniel Homewood * Religious Studies Review *"The crisp style of writing, the arguments, and the engaging discussions in the various chapters make this book a must-read for scholars, students, and individuals interested not only in African studies and history but also in the application of religious thought in political situations." -- Kwaku Nti * Journal of Global South Studies *"Chosen Peoples is a fascinating and engaging book. . . . The book is excellent reading for scholars of Sudan, and of religion, politics, and race regardless of context." -- Henni Alava * Journal of Religion in Africa *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Winds of Change 1 1. The Nugent School and the Ethno-Religious Politics of Mission Education 23 2. The Equatorial Corps and the Torit Mutiny 44 3. Liberation War 67 4. Khartoum Goliath: The Martial Theology of SPLM/SPLA Update 88 5. The Troubled Promised Land 113 Conclusion: Inheriting the Wind 135 Sources and Methodology 145 Notes 151 Bibliography 177 Index 199

    £18.89

  • Amkoullel the Fula Boy

    Duke University Press Amkoullel the Fula Boy

    Book SynopsisIn Amkoullel, the Fula Boy, Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ—one of the towering figures in the literature of twentieth-century Francophone Africa—tells in striking detail the story of his youth, which was set against inter-ethnic conflict and the arrival and installation of French colonialism.Trade Review“This book provides an intimate glimpse of all the transactions involved in the various political and social (dis)loyalties, kinship relations, and religious affiliations in a changing colonial landscape. The narrative locates Amadou Hampâté Bâ in the environment that armed him with a unique character and a set of ideas drawn from secular, animist, Islamic, and Western resources---an education that turned him into a shrewd colonial clerk and archivist of the ‘colonial library.’ Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an insightful and significant autobiography, an ethnography of communities in transition, and a biography of Francophone colonial West Africa.” -- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University“Amadou Hampâté Bâ has long been recognized as one of the most authoritative voices about Mali, Islamic West Africa, Fulani culture, orality, and the dialogue between religions. Jeanne Garane’s masterful translation of Bâ’s rich and captivating memoir presents a vivid picture of the mechanisms of social change in Mali and many neighboring countries. The publication of Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is truly a blessing.” -- Chérif Keïta, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts, Carleton College“The work of a great storyteller . . . filled with humor and drama alike, tracing the author’s everyday life in Bandiagara and later in the colonial Mali, while showcasing his preoccupation with oral history, tradition, anthropology, initiation, religion, fate etc.” -- Clara Burghelea * Ezra *"Penned by a renowned Malian writer, ethnographer, and historian whose life spanned the 20th century, this gem of a book recounts the life and times of the author and his ancestors in precolonial and colonial West Africa. Marked by the strong oral storytelling tradition of the Fula ethnic group, Bâ’s elegantly written tale is historically informative and expertly translated by Garane. . . . A powerful agent for deeper understanding and a significant contribution to the literature, this is a must-have volume for scholars, students, and academic libraries. Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." * Choice *“Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is a tale that talks of the age-old wisdom of the griots and the mode of living in African societies. It pushes the boundaries of colonial education to make it coexist with spiritual and religious learning in a child's mind.” -- Riti Sharma * African Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsForeword to the Translation / Ralph A. Austen ix Introduction: Between Memory and Memorial / Jeanne Garane xv Amkoullel, The Fula Boy Preface to the Original Edition / Théodore Monod 3 Author's Foreword / Amadou Hampâté Bâ 7 1. Roots 1 My Dual Heritage 11 Pâté Poullo, My Maternal Grandfather 15 The Story of My Father Hampâté, the Lamb in the Lion's Den 20 2. Kadidja, My Mother 39 Kadidja's Dream 39 Kadidja and Hampâté: A Rocky Marriage 42 Kadidja and Tidjani 45 The Toïni Revolt 49 Kadidja's Quest 64 The Trial 79 3. Exile 83 Tidjani's Long March 85 Kadidja's Village 87 On the Road to Bougouni with My Mother 98 Kadidja Battle the Boss of the Laptot Boatmen 100 Birth of My Little Brother 105 My Father in Chains 111 An Ember That Does Not Burn 115 Death of My Early Childhood 121 Danfo Siné the Dan Player 124 Death of My Old Master 127 In the Shade of Great Trees 136 Freedom at Last! 137 4. Return to Bandiagara 142 A Day in the Life of a Child 145 The White Man's Excrement and the Town Made of Trash 149 I Establish My First Association 153 A Handful of Rice 156 At School with the Masters of the World 159 Sinali's Garden 161 Boy and Girl Valentines 168 Kadidja and Tidjani in Crisis 173 Circumcision of My Brother Hammadoun 176 The Great Battle 185 5. At the White Man's School 194 Requisitioned by Force 194 The Commandant and the Five-Franc Coin 202 Primary School 209 My First Encounter with Wangrin 218 The Death of My Older Brother 220 The School at Djenné: My Primary Studies Certificate 223 The Great Famine of 1914: A Vision of Horror 234 Declaration of War 241 Flight 251 On The Trail of the War Dogs 256 The Three Colors of France 259 The Land-Roving Pirogue of Metal 264 The Abysmal Lair of the Great Black Hyena 266 6. In the Military of Town of Kati 270 My New Waaldé Association 274 A Hasty Circumcision 278 Return to School 281 The Warrant Officer and the King's Son 282 7. Final Studies in Bamako 296 My Second Primary Studies Certificate 296 In Vain Pursuit of the Wind 299 Boarding School in Bamako 311 The Consequences of a Refusal: Exile in Ouagadougou 317 I Bid Farewell on the Riverbank 326 Translator's Acknowledgments 329 Notes 331 Bibliography 345 Biographies 351 Index 353

    £85.50

  • Reimagining Social Medicine from the South

    Duke University Press Reimagining Social Medicine from the South

    Book SynopsisAbigail H. Neely explores social medicine's possibilities and limitations at one of its most important origin sites: the Pholela Community Health Centre (PCHC) in South Africa.Trade Review“Compelling and original, Reimagining Social Medicine from the South rethinks core concepts in historical and anthropological discussions of health and healing in Africa through the lenses of political ecology and relational ontologies. Drawing on rich ethnographic and archival examples, Abigail H. Neely illuminates how robust conceptions of the ‘social’ at the heart of a pioneering social medicine project in rural South Africa nonetheless struggled to incorporate more-than-human understandings of life and well-being. The book's insistence that health and illness are entanglements that exceed the confines of the individual body and academic renderings of the ‘social’ alike is a call for place-based models for improving health that challenge global health's narrow frames of measurability and efficacy.” -- Cal Biruk, author of * Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World *“It is not easy to develop an analysis that incorporates both racial capitalism and witchcraft, but through her deeply respectful ethnographic examination of the work of a groundbreaking and highly influential health clinic in South Africa, Abigail H. Neely manages to do just that. Her penultimate chapter is a phenomenal rendition of the multiple ontologies of health.” -- Julie Guthman, author of * Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry *"... Interested readers at all levels will gain important insights into the challenges posed by global initiatives in social medicine. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. General readers." -- S. W. Moss * Choice *“Neely’s theorizing is smart, sophisticated, and intriguing.” -- Daniel Jordan Smith * International Journal of African Historical Studies *“Neely’s book will be especially useful for graduate students and professionals working with the large body of existing literature on health interventions . . . and need a strong model for how to rework this literature in exciting critical and theoretical frames.” -- Casey Golomski * Medical Anthropology Quarterly *"Reimagining Social Medicine from the South is bound to intrigue any family physician. . . . Abigail H. Neely has successfully highlighted the conceptual framework of the practice of social medicine in South Africa, its uniqueness, the strengths of the PCHC model, and its weaknesses. She has emphasized the importance of social elements in the practice of social medicine. Her personal narrative makes the book an easy read, more humane and appealing." -- Rashmi Rode * Family Medicine *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Introduction. Telling the Story of Social Medicine from Pholela 1 1. Seeing Like a Health Center 17 2. Relationships and Social Medicine 41 3. Nutrition, Science, and Racial Capitalism 58 4. Witchcraft and the Limits of Social Medicine 79 Conclusion. Social Medicine in the Age of Global Health 99 Glossary 105 Notes 107 Bibliography 147 Index 163

    £70.55

  • Duke University Press African Ecomedia

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisCajetan Iheka examines the ecological footprint of media in Africa alongside the representation of environmental issues in visual culture, showing how African visual media such as film, photography, and sculpture deliver a unique perspective on the socio-ecological costs of media production.Trade Review“Cajetan Iheka writes of the most pressing and complicated issues with clear-sightedness. This major contribution will undoubtedly reach beyond the academy to become a stirring call to anyone interested in the interconnectedness engendered by globalization and the attendant toxicity and suffering that have been unleashed on various populations across Africa and elsewhere. This is truly a joy to read.” -- Ato Quayson, author of * Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature *“This outstanding book powerfully reorients ecocritical studies. Cajetan Iheka has taken on three of the most pressing issues of our times: the aftermath of colonialism and globalization; the social intensification of communications media; and the environmental impact of human societies. His scholarship is impressive in its scope and depth, his thinking original and significant. African Ecomedia will reverberate with students and researchers in media and communications, environmental humanities, ecocritical studies, anthropology, and social sciences.” -- Sean Cubitt, author of * Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technologies *"A provocative account of how contemporary works of African visual culture embody the 'infinite resourcefulness' needed to survive an anthropogenic planet defined by the 'limitedness of resources.'" -- Michael Dango * ASAP/Journal *“Iheka provides piercing analyses of the ecological footprints of media technologies in Africa and the representation in media of ecological issues affecting Africa. [He] challenges all media forms to remind humanity of the environmental crisis and climate change, African lessons on sustainable ways of consuming energy, and the opportunities to improve quality of life. Recommended. All readers.” -- Z. N. Nchinda * Choice *“[Iheka] makes a resounding case for the centrality of African ecomedia in confronting the most critical issues of our time, which makes this book equally as indispensable.” -- Dustin Crowley * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment *"Iheka’s work demonstrates the centrality of pollution to media infrastructure, foregrounding the toxicity that is produced both at the point of extraction of resources and at the end point of disposal, following the planned obsolescence of media devices. . . . African Ecomedia’s analysis of diverse African contexts carries out vital work to counteract the dynamics of invisibility that they depend upon." -- Rebecca Macklin * Year's Work in Ecocriticism *“The arguments in Cajetan Iheka’s [African Ecomedia] are clever and exciting, and the book as artefact is a thing of great beauty.” -- Carli Coetzee * Journal of the African Literature Association *“Iheka offers a meticulous historical contextualization of Africa’s present economic demise while beautifully answering the question, ‘Why can’t we be seen?’ . . . A recuperative postcolonial project, African Ecomedia centralizes Africa ‘as the ground zero of the energy humanities.’” -- Gugu Hlongwane * Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry *“Cajetan Iheka’s outstanding book on environmental issues in African visual culture and screen media paves the way for scholarship in African ecocritical studies. . . . The main strength of African Ecomedia lies in how Iheka builds on previous Anthropocene scholarship by focusing on the Global South, specifically the dependence and complicity in the ecological footprint of visual media in Africa. The volume essentially advocates for media practices arising from the African continent that are innovatively and ecologically framed.” -- Sheila Petty * Journal of Cinema and Media Studies *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Waste Reconsidered: Afrofuturism, Technologies of the Past, and the History of the Future 25 2. Spatial Networks, Toxic Ecoscapes, and (In)visible Labor 64 3. Ecologies of Oil and Uranium: Extractive Energy and the Trauma of the Future 108 4. Human Meets Animal, Africa Meets Diaspora: The Conjunctions of Cecil the Lion and Black Lives Matter 152 5. African Urban Ecologies: Transcriptions of Precarity, Creativity, and Futurity 186 Epilogue. Toward Imperfect Media 221 Notes 231 Bibliography 273 Index 305

    1 in stock

    £75.65

  • Amkoullel the Fula Boy

    Duke University Press Amkoullel the Fula Boy

    Book SynopsisBorn in 1900 in French West Africa, Malian writer Amadou Hampate Ba was one of the towering figures in the literature of twentieth-century Francophone Africa. In Amkoullel, the Fula Boy, Ba tells in striking detail the story of his youth, which was set against the aftermath of war between the Fula and Toucouleur peoples and the installation of French colonialism. A master storyteller, Ba recounts pivotal moments of his life, and the lives of his powerful and large family, from his first encounter with the white commandant through the torturous imprisonment of his stepfather and to his forced attendance at French school. He also charts a larger story of life prior to and at the height of French colonialism: interethnic conflicts, the clash between colonial schools and Islamic education, and the central role indigenous African intermediaries and interpreters played in the functioning of the colonial administration. Engrossing and novelistic, Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an unparalleled rendering of an individual and society under transition as they face the upheavals of colonialism.Trade Review“This book provides an intimate glimpse of all the transactions involved in the various political and social (dis)loyalties, kinship relations, and religious affiliations in a changing colonial landscape. The narrative locates Amadou Hampâté Bâ in the environment that armed him with a unique character and a set of ideas drawn from secular, animist, Islamic, and Western resources---an education that turned him into a shrewd colonial clerk and archivist of the ‘colonial library.’ Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an insightful and significant autobiography, an ethnography of communities in transition, and a biography of Francophone colonial West Africa.” -- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University“Amadou Hampâté Bâ has long been recognized as one of the most authoritative voices about Mali, Islamic West Africa, Fulani culture, orality, and the dialogue between religions. Jeanne Garane’s masterful translation of Bâ’s rich and captivating memoir presents a vivid picture of the mechanisms of social change in Mali and many neighboring countries. The publication of Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is truly a blessing.” -- Chérif Keïta, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts, Carleton College“The work of a great storyteller . . . filled with humor and drama alike, tracing the author’s everyday life in Bandiagara and later in the colonial Mali, while showcasing his preoccupation with oral history, tradition, anthropology, initiation, religion, fate etc.” -- Clara Burghelea * Ezra *"Penned by a renowned Malian writer, ethnographer, and historian whose life spanned the 20th century, this gem of a book recounts the life and times of the author and his ancestors in precolonial and colonial West Africa. Marked by the strong oral storytelling tradition of the Fula ethnic group, Bâ’s elegantly written tale is historically informative and expertly translated by Garane. . . . A powerful agent for deeper understanding and a significant contribution to the literature, this is a must-have volume for scholars, students, and academic libraries. Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." * Choice *“Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is a tale that talks of the age-old wisdom of the griots and the mode of living in African societies. It pushes the boundaries of colonial education to make it coexist with spiritual and religious learning in a child's mind.” -- Riti Sharma * African Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsForeword to the Translation / Ralph A. Austen ix Introduction: Between Memory and Memorial / Jeanne Garane xv Amkoullel, The Fula Boy Preface to the Original Edition / Théodore Monod 3 Author's Foreword / Amadou Hampâté Bâ 7 1. Roots 1 My Dual Heritage 11 Pâté Poullo, My Maternal Grandfather 15 The Story of My Father Hampâté, the Lamb in the Lion's Den 20 2. Kadidja, My Mother 39 Kadidja's Dream 39 Kadidja and Hampâté: A Rocky Marriage 42 Kadidja and Tidjani 45 The Toïni Revolt 49 Kadidja's Quest 64 The Trial 79 3. Exile 83 Tidjani's Long March 85 Kadidja's Village 87 On the Road to Bougouni with My Mother 98 Kadidja Battle the Boss of the Laptot Boatmen 100 Birth of My Little Brother 105 My Father in Chains 111 An Ember That Does Not Burn 115 Death of My Early Childhood 121 Danfo Siné the Dan Player 124 Death of My Old Master 127 In the Shade of Great Trees 136 Freedom at Last! 137 4. Return to Bandiagara 142 A Day in the Life of a Child 145 The White Man's Excrement and the Town Made of Trash 149 I Establish My First Association 153 A Handful of Rice 156 At School with the Masters of the World 159 Sinali's Garden 161 Boy and Girl Valentines 168 Kadidja and Tidjani in Crisis 173 Circumcision of My Brother Hammadoun 176 The Great Battle 185 5. At the White Man's School 194 Requisitioned by Force 194 The Commandant and the Five-Franc Coin 202 Primary School 209 My First Encounter with Wangrin 218 The Death of My Older Brother 220 The School at Djenné: My Primary Studies Certificate 223 The Great Famine of 1914: A Vision of Horror 234 Declaration of War 241 Flight 251 On The Trail of the War Dogs 256 The Three Colors of France 259 The Land-Roving Pirogue of Metal 264 The Abysmal Lair of the Great Black Hyena 266 6. In the Military of Town of Kati 270 My New Waaldé Association 274 A Hasty Circumcision 278 Return to School 281 The Warrant Officer and the King's Son 282 7. Final Studies in Bamako 296 My Second Primary Studies Certificate 296 In Vain Pursuit of the Wind 299 Boarding School in Bamako 311 The Consequences of a Refusal: Exile in Ouagadougou 317 I Bid Farewell on the Riverbank 326 Translator's Acknowledgments 329 Notes 331 Bibliography 345 Biographies 351 Index 353

    £22.79

  • Indirect Subjects

    Duke University Press Indirect Subjects

    Book SynopsisMatthew H. Brown explores the connections between Nigeria's booming film industry, state television, and colonial legacies that together involve spectators in global capitalism while denying them its privileges.Trade Review“Indirect Subjects is an ambitious work providing an overview of film in Nigeria from its earliest days, through the height of state television to the rise of Nollywood. It also offers a rethinking of this history by examining the political, economic, and aesthetic logics that tie this history together. This is an insightful work for both scholars and students analyzing iconic films and television series in a new way. Doing so, it offers a new understanding of political aesthetics in Nigeria.” -- Brian Larkin, author of * Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria *“Matthew H. Brown's Indirect Subjects applies acuity and sophistication to Nollywood in ways that push the terms of debate beyond anything currently conceived. This is at once theoretically nuanced and historically informed, attentive to the dynamics of the industry as well as to the specific subject matter of the movies. In a word, a real gift offering to a field already dotted with sparkling scholarly gems.” -- Ato Quayson, author of * Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism *"[Indirect Subjects] provides a valuable and generative contribution to African media studies. ... Brown’s access to rare archival materials allows him to offer what is, perhaps, the most sustained investigation of the links between state television and video films to date." -- Connor Ryan * African Studies Review *"[Indirect Subjects] adeptly explores the conjunctures and ruptures in the modalities of addressing the audience through different times and spaces in screen media history. ... This book makes a rich contribution to studies of the political economy of culture broadly and, more specifically, to the study of screen media in Nigeria by exposing the rifts and shifts in the neoliberal matrix that undergird it." -- Rosemary Oyinlola Popoola * Canadian Journal of African Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Indirect Subjectivities and Periliberalism 1 Part I. 1. Subjects of Indirect Rule: Nigeria, Cinema, and Liberal Empire 33 2. Emergency of the State: Television, Pedagogical Imperatives, and The Village Headmaster 66 Part II. 3. "No Romance without Finance": Feminine Melodrama, Soap Opera, and the Male Breadwinner Ideal 99 4. Breadlosers: Masculine Melodrama, Money Magic, and the Moral Occult Economy 150 5. Specters of Sovereignty: Epic, Gothic, and the Ruins of a Past That Never Was 185 6. "What's Wrong with 419"?: Comedy, Corruption, and Conspiratorial Mirrors 221 Conclusion: Fantasies of Integration or Fantasies of Sovereignty 263 Notes 271 Filmography 285 Bibliography 289 Index 303

    £21.84

  • Dockside Reading

    Duke University Press Dockside Reading

    Book SynopsisIsabel Hofmeyr traces the relationship between print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British colonial custom houses, which acted as censors and pronounced on copyright and checked imported printed matter for piracy, sedition, or obscenity.Trade Review“As we have come to expect from Isabel Hofmeyr, Dockside Reading is dazzlingly creative, intellectually playful, and immaculately crafted. This is a brilliant history of the ideas and textual forms that emerged from the damp crates that customs officials scoured at the water’s edge for signs of contamination. Setting sail from South Africa, ranging across the world’s oceans, this is a quietly revolutionary, fully aquatic literary history for our times.” -- Sunil Amrith, Dhawan Professor of History, Yale University“What happens to books when they cross borders? Isabel Hofmeyr sets her radically new history of literature not in the library but at the dock. In pages where authors and scholars are upstaged by censors, customs officers, and even dockhands, she challenges literary critics to think beyond the text as a static entity tied to a single nation or a single landmass. This is that rare book that will make it impossible to continue doing business as usual—for literary critics, for legal scholars, and for book historians.” -- Leah Price, author of * What We Talk about When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading *“Hofmeyr addresses themes that acknowledge but transcend the particularities of place, revealing instead the connecting threads that bind disparate parts of the world together.” -- Dane Kennedy * International Journal of African Historical Studies *“Hofmeyr’s scholarship is exemplary in its marriage of evocative detail with magisterial overview. She gives a compelling account of how customs procedure developed and changed over the course of almost a century. . . . She teaches us a new way to read.” -- Matthew P.M. Kerr * Modern Language Review *"[Hofmeyr's] work sheds important light on the interdependency between reading practices and the book as object. . . . Hofmeyr deftly interweaves her research into customs documents with environmental and postcolonial theory, animating what is usually perceived as a dull or colorless archive through semantic resignification." -- Neelam Srivastava * Journal of Postcolonial Inquiry *"In her stimulating investigation, Dockside Reading, Isabel Hofmeyr offers a fresh perspective on book history in the British Empire." -- Katharine Anderson * Journal of British Studies *"Hofmeyr has produced a remarkable volume combining elements of both historical and 'literary' scholarship. It is a must read for those who study English Literature, the British Empire, the history of material culture, and international trade transactions of both human and non-human 'cargo.'” -- Paul Chiudiza Banda * African Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Hydrocolonialism: The View from the Dockside 1 1. The Custom House and Hydrocolonial Governance 27 2. Customs and Objects on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 39 3. Copyright on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 49 4. Censorship on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 63 Conclusion. Dockside Genres and Postcolonial Literature 77 Notes 85 Bibliography 103 Index 117

    £62.90

  • Rainforest Capitalism

    Duke University Press Rainforest Capitalism

    Book SynopsisThomas Hendriks examines the rowdy environment of industrial timber production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to theorize the social, racial, and gender power dynamics of capitalist extraction.Trade Review“Offering a rare look at the everyday lives of the people who live in and around Congolese timber labor camps, Thomas Hendriks draws out the continuities and discontinuities of racialized colonial extraction. Artfully written, Rainforest Capitalism will make a major contribution to theories of capitalism, race, and sexuality.” -- Jessica M. Smith, author of * Mining Coal and Undermining Gender: Rhythms of Work and Family in the American West *“In this fresh and captivating book, Thomas Hendriks offers precious insights into the precarity of logging in the Congolese rainforest. His lively ethnography demonstrates that the analysis of neoliberal capitalist extraction should address not only labor and political economy but also memory, affect, sexual desire, and racial fetishism. His sophisticated theoretical framework allows him to capture the fleeting character of logging and brings together forestry, anthropology, and queer studies in visionary ways that will inspire many scholars.” -- Peter Geschiere, author of * Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust: Africa in Comparison *"Based on a lengthy period of ethnographic research, this book is a lively, readable account of life in a logging camp, and the author makes a useful, thought-provoking contribution to the literature on power, capitalism, gender, sexuality, and race/racism in anthropology, African studies, and related fields. . . . Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." -- E. E. Stiles * Choice *“Thomas Hendriks’ compelling book is an intricate tale of felled trees and their capitalist value, of the inhabitants of logging camps such as Congolese labourers and expat managers, but also of jobseekers, traders, prostitutes, farmers, and smugglers. Rainforest Capitalism is eloquent and captivating.” -- Rachel Spronk * African Studies Review *Table of ContentsNote on Anonymity ix Note on Photography xi Prologue xv Acknowledgments xxi Introduction. Thinking with Loggers 1 1. Awkward Beginnings 29 2. Forest Work 48 3. Remembering Labor 75 4. Sharing the Company 98 5. Out of Here 120 6. A Darker Shade of White 143 7. Cannibals and Corned Beef 161 8. Men and Trees 187 9. Women and Chainsaws 207 Conclusion. Capitalism and Ecstasis 230 Epilogue 249 Notes 253 References 263 Index 285

    £75.65

  • The Doctor Who Would Be King

    Duke University Press The Doctor Who Would Be King

    Book SynopsisGuillaume Lachenal tells the extraordinary story of Dr. Jean Joseph David—a French colonial army doctor who governed an entire region of French Cameroon during World War II—whose failed attempt to create a medical utopia continues to be felt in Cameroon.Trade Review“In this riveting account, Guillaume Lachenal discovers that French doctors seeking police powers and administrative control in colonial Cameroon did not lead to a health utopia, nor did these arrangements reverse decades of demographic decline in the battered colony. What they got was their own transformation into colonial governors. A superb translation of a gifted scholar and stylist, The Doctor Who Would Be King is as alive as any ethnography to social life in poorly known but much roiled parts of the French empire that once circled the globe.” -- Paul Farmer, author of * Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History *"An absorbing . . . account of a French colonial doctor who was handed absolute political control of an African territory the size of Switzerland in the years 1939-44. . . . It is impossible not to feel the presence of Joseph Conrad’s tale of lordly isolation and madness. It is as if, by assembling this story from archival fragments and the oral accounts of present-day residents, Mr. Lachenal is seeking to bring Dr. David back to our metropolitan gaze in much the way Conrad’s Marlow sought to bring Kurtz back from the jungle." -- Tunku Varadarajan * Wall Street Journal *“[Lachenal] leaves us at a crossroads, torn as we are today between the WHO’s proclamations about the advent of global health and the disenchantment caused by emerging microbes and the worsening of inequalities. Depending on whether one reads The Doctor Who Would Be King as a novel . . . or as an essay on contemporary biopolitics, the reader will come out of it reinvigorated or shaken, but not unscathed.” -- Anne Marie Moulin * L’Histoire *“[The Doctor Who Would Be King] is an expansive and masterful project whose major contributions are to the history of French colonialism and to historical research methodologies more broadly. . . . Readers . . . will enjoy the ride.” -- Caitlin Barker * H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews *“[Lachenal’s] investigation, in which dreams of grandeur, violence, and the tragedy of power are intertwined, is as fascinating as it is disturbing.” -- Laurent Lemire * L’Obs *"The Doctor Who Would Be King is a beautifully written, engrossing book that analyzes the career of a French colonial doctor in both Central Africa and Polynesia but also reflects on the thrills and pitfalls of historical research, the instability of historical narratives, and how traces of the past live on in the present. ... This superb book will be of interest to wide-ranging audiences, including historians of medicine, Africa, Polynesia, European empire, and beyond." -- Sarah Runcie * Isis *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Part I. The Mandated Territory of Cameroon, 1939–1944 1. A Showcase for Colonial Humanism 17 2. An Archipelago of Camps 22 3. Madame Ateba 26 4. Advocating for a Regime of Exception 31 5. A French Dream 36 6. Haut-Nyong Must Be Saved 40 7. Lessons in Medical Administration 45 8. Paradise: A Guided Tour (December 2013) 52 9. A Real-Life Experiment 58 10. The Invisible Men 63 11. Social Medicine, French-Style 69 12. Life Has Returned 75 13. Colonel David Will Become a General 84 14. The Missionaries' Nightmare 92 15. The Dark Waters of the Haut-Nyong 95 16. Rubber for the Emperor 100 17. "Here We Are the Masters" 106 18. Koch! Koch! 111 Part II. The French Protectorate of Wallis and Futuna, 1933–1938 19. King David 125 20. Uvea, Desert Island 129 21. Chronicles of the Golden Age 140 22. I te Temi o Tavite (In the Time of David) 153 23. Doctor Machete 160 24. Becoming King, Part I: Coup d'état at the Dispensary 165 25. Becoming King, Part II: The Wallisian Art of Governing 172 26. Becoming King, Part III: Kicking Custom to the Curb 178 27. Te Hau Tavite 183 28. Tavite Lea Tahi (David-Only-Speaks-Once) 190 29. Doctor Disaster 198 Part III. Epilogues 30. Afelika (Africa) 215 31. Dachau, Indochina 223 32. The Light Riots 232 Afterword: Global Health Utopias from David to COVID-19 238 Acknowledgments 245 Notes 249 Index 293

    £75.65

  • Architecture and Development

    Duke University Press Architecture and Development

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisAyala Levin charts the settler colonial imagination and practices that undergirded Israeli architectural development aid in Africa.Trade Review“A remarkable addition to the growing literature on the intrinsic plurality of global development experiences. Placing architectural expertise at the center of knowledge transfer between the newly-formed nation-states of Israel and on the African continent, Ayala Levin depicts state building as a parallel activity being undertaken by both provider and receiver of expertise, undoing received notions about ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ contexts. The sections comparing Israeli approaches toward kibbutzim at home and rural-urban migration patterns in Sierra Leone and Nigeria are nothing short of spectacular.” -- Arindam Dutta, author of * The Bureaucracy of Beauty: Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducibility *“In this rich and wonderfully detailed study, Ayala Levin provides a careful, learned, and multidisciplinary assessment of Israel’s architectural and developmental impact in Africa in which the characters and mindsets of Israeli architects and planners come alive. Scholars of Israeli-African relations, African development studies, African and Israeli architecture, and urban planning in the global South will find Levin’s exposé of Israeli-African geopolitics to be a valuable contribution.” -- Garth Myers, author of * Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South *“Levin takes the reader on a well-detailed and multifaceted journey.” -- Gabriel Schwake * Connections *"Architecture and Development provides far more than the sum of its case studies: this volume presents excellent scholarship. ... It significantly enriches our knowledge of Israeli and African planning and architecture. It critically reveals fascinating connections between national ideologies and international relations and provides new perspectives on global junctions of architecture culture and knowledge production." -- Inbal Ben Asher Gitler * Israel Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Settler Colonial Expertise in the Theater of Development 1 1. Fast-Tracking the Nation-State: The Design and Construction of the Sierra Leone Parliament 25 2. Rootedness and Open-Ended Planning: The Sierra Leone National Urbanization Plan 68 3. Planning a Postcolonial University Campus: The University of Ife, Nigeria 97 4. Designing the University of Ife: Climate, Regeneration, and Ornament 125 5. Israeli Aid, Private Entrepreneurship, and Architectural Education in Addis Ababa 165 Postscript. Ghosts of Modernity 195 Notes 219 Bibliography 269 Index 295

    3 in stock

    £75.65

  • Students of the World

    Duke University Press Students of the World

    Book SynopsisOn June 30, 1960—the day of the Congo’s independence—Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a fiery speech in which he conjured a definitive shift away from a past of colonial oppression toward a future of sovereignty, dignity, and justice. His assassination a few months later showed how much neocolonial forces and the Cold War jeopardized African movements for liberation. In Students of the World, Pedro Monaville traces a generation of Congolese student activists who refused to accept the foreclosure of the future Lumumba envisioned. These students sought to decolonize university campuses, but the projects of emancipation they articulated went well beyond transforming higher education. Monaville explores the modes of being and thinking that shaped their politics. He outlines a trajectory of radicalization in which gender constructions, cosmopolitan dispositions, and the influence of a dissident popular culture mattered as much as access to various networks of actTrade Review"Students of the World is richly referenced in the endnotes and stands as an example of the creative possibilities of scholarly monographs. Students of the World will prove an enduring reference point for global histories of Cold War-era activism." -- Ismay Milford * H-Soz-Kult *"With his well-researched and meticulously wrought study, Monaville has conjured up a bygone world of possibilities that clashed with the realities of Africa’s postcolonial hubris, a world that ended up crushed in the vortex of global politics. Students of the World possesses all the trappings of the kind of seminal works that pave the way for a historiographical renewal." -- Didier Gondola * The Global Sixties *"This study is a significant, well-written contribution to the history of youth movements in the late 20th century. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- J. M. Rich * Choice *"The beauty of this book lies in both its content and form. . . . . Monaville’s book exemplifies an approach that integrates ‘theory and form’, thereby offering a valuable contribution to the historiography of student activism, decolonization, the Cold War, and the Global Sixties." -- Emery Kalema * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsPreface. Memory Work in the Age of Cinq Chantiers ix Note on Toponyms xvii Acknowledgments xix Introduction. The School of the World 1 Interlude I. Postal Musings 20 1. Distance Learning and the Production of Politics 23 2. Friendly Correspondence with the Whole World 42 Interlude II. To Live Forever Among Books 63 3. Paths to School 65 4. Dancing the Rumba at Lovanium 84 Interlude III. To the Left 103 5. Cold War Transcripts 109 6. Revolution in the (Counter)revolution 129 7. A Student Front 144 Interlude IV. The Dictator and the Students 161 8. (Un)natural Alliances 166 9. A Postcolonial Massacre and Caporalisation in Mobutu's Congo 179 Epilogue. The Gaze of the Dead 201 Notes 213 Bibliography 287 Index 323

    £75.65

  • Markets of Civilization

    Duke University Press Markets of Civilization

    Book SynopsisIn Markets of Civilization Muriam Haleh Davis provides a history of racial capitalism, showing how Islam became a racial category that shaped economic development in colonial and postcolonial Algeria. French officials in Paris and Algiers introduced what Davis terms “a racial regime of religion” that subjected Algerian Muslims to discriminatory political and economic structures. These experts believed that introducing a market economy would modernize society and discourage anticolonial nationalism. Planners, politicians, and economists implemented reforms that both sought to transform Algerians into modern economic subjects and drew on racial assumptions despite the formally color-blind policies of the French state. Following independence, convictions about the inherent link between religious beliefs and economic behavior continued to influence development policies. Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella embraced a specifically Algerian socialism founded on Islamic princTrade Review“Markets of Civilization makes for a fascinating addition both to the literature on Algeria and also to the broader literature on racial formations and racialization. . . . Well worth the read.” -- Marc Lynch * Marc Lynch *“Markets of Civilization is a much needed scholarly intervention into the connections between race, capital and economics, and enables us to think about racial capitalism outside of, but very much connected to, a Euro-American framework. An essential read for anyone interested in the story of capitalism as others experienced it.” -- Usman Butt * Middle East Monitor *“Davis’s intervention brings our attention to an underappreciated historiographical domain of racial capitalism’s inception, evolution and contestation (i.e., the late French empire). . . . Davis subtly adds the dimension of religion to a conversation that has been dominated by ethnic- and colour-based understandings of racial capitalism’s historical origins and contemporary realities.” -- Jacob Mundy * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Markets of Civilization makes a significant contribution to the field of Algerian history through its explication of the entanglements of racial, economic, and colonial imperatives. . . . I recommend the book to scholars and students interested in the study’s widely-ranging themes, including racial capitalism in the Middle East, the connections between economic and intellectual histories, the enduring nature of colonial, racial thinking, and how post-independence Arab regimes negotiated and remade older colonial ideas and policies." -- Sara Rahnama * International Journal of Middle East Studies *"A grounded and challenging effort to revive an older Third-Worldist scholarly tradition on Algeria. ... Davis’s Markets of Civilization is a must-read for those interested in Algerian history, colonialism, and contemporary debates on Islam and Islamophobia, as well as scholars examining the twin social theories of race and political economy." -- Mohammed Salih * SAW Reviews *Table of ContentsAcronyms ix Transliteration Note xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. Settling the Colony 19 2. A New Algeria Rising 43 3. Decolonization and the Constantine Plan 69 4. Fellahs into Peasants 96 5. Communism in a White Burnous 119 6. Today's Utopia Is Tomorrow's Reality 144 Epilogue 167 Notes 177 Bibliography 227 Index 259

    £70.55

  • Wake Up This Is Joburg

    Duke University Press Wake Up This Is Joburg

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisA single image taken from a high-rise building in inner-city Johannesburg uncovers layers of history—from its premise and promise of gold to its current improvisations. It reveals the city as carcass and as crucible, where informal agents and processes spearhead its rapid reshaping and transformation. In Wake Up, This Is Joburg, writer Tanya Zack and photographer Mark Lewis offer a stunning portrait of Johannesburg and personal stories of some of the city’s ordinary, odd, and outrageous residents. Their photos and essays take readers into meat markets where butchers chop cow heads; the eclectic home of an outsider artist that features turrets and full of manikins; long-abandoned gold pits beneath the city, where people continue to mine informally; and lively markets, taxi depots, and residential high-rises. Sharing people’s private and work lives and the extraordinary spaces of the metropolis, Zack and Lewis show that Johannesburg’s urban transformation oTrade Review"These pieces are sometimes sad, sometimes inspiring, and add up to a complicated picture of a city of contradictions. . . . Wake Up, This Is Joburg tells its range of interesting stories well, through on-the-ground reporting, with ample interviews and context, letting a variety of people around Johannesburg talk about both the struggles and successes of everyday life in the inner city." -- Jeff Fleischer * Foreword *"Wake Up, This Is Joburg effectively frames Johannesburg as one of the continent’s most important entrepôts where people journey from various nodes of the country and continent to earn a decent living. Rather than criminalise their activities, these stories provoke readers to ‘wake up’ and pay attention to those who make this city a fascinating but enigmatic place to live." -- Denise L. Lim * Urban Studies *"There is rich nuance in Tanya Zack’s flowing, sensitive narrative and Mark Lewis’s striking photography. The stories they tell are deeply human and individualised, yet cleverly interwoven within Johannesburg’s broader racial, social and economic anomalies. . . . This is an extraordinary book, with beautiful, powerful photographs and a sensitive, robust and accessible narrative. It provides a fresh perspective on life, struggle, survival, creativity and uniqueness in one of Africa’s major cities." -- Chris Heymans * litnet *"As a collection of salient imagery and anecdotes, the book is a poignant refutation of the cultural anger gripping White South African communities, and a visually arresting plea to recognise the city as an important cosmopolitan hub. As South Africa’s metropoles continue to undergo major political change, Wake Up, This Is Joburg is a critical reminder that it is the barriers to integration constructed by the white political class that have created the country’s political woes." -- Joe Konieczny * Visual Studies *Table of ContentsForeword. True Places / Achal Prabhala ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 1. S’kop 27 2. Tony Dreams in Yellow and Blue 53 3. Inside Out 81 4. Zola 115 5. Good Riddance 143 6. Tea at Anstey’s 175 7. Bedroom 211 8. Master Mansions 241 9. Johannesburg. Made in China 271 10. Undercity 305 References 337 Index 339

    5 in stock

    £73.95

  • The City Electric

    Duke University Press The City Electric

    Book SynopsisMichael Degani explores how electricity and its piracy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has become a key site for urban Tanzanians to enact, experience, and debate their social contract with the state.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Ethnography of(f) the Grid 1 1. Emergency Power: A Brief History of the Tanzanian Energy Sector 31 2. The Flickering Torch: Power and Loss after Socialism 71 3. Of Meters and Modals: Patrolling the Grid 109 4. Becoming Infrastructure: Vishoka and Self-Realization 150 Conclusion. The Ingenuity of Infrastructure 187 Notes 207 Works Cited 223 Index 247

    £70.55

  • The Briny South

    Duke University Press The Briny South

    Book SynopsisIn The Briny South Nienke Boer examines the legal and literary narratives of enslaved, indentured, and imprisoned individuals crossing the Indian Ocean to analyze the formation of racialized identities in the imperial world. Drawing on court records, ledgers, pamphlets, censors’ reports, newsletters, folk songs, memoirs, and South African and South Asian works of fiction and autobiography, Boer theorizes the role of sentiment and the depiction of emotions in the construction of identities of displaced peoples across the Indian Ocean. From Dutch East India Company rule in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to early apartheid South Africa, Boer shows how colonial powers and settler states mediated and manipulated subaltern expressions of emotion as a way to silence racialized subjects and portray them as inarticulately suffering. In this way, sentiment operated in favor of the powerful rather than as an oppositional weapon of the subaltern. By tracing the entwinement oTrade Review"One of the work’s great strengths is its ability to articulate how the context and sources for the Indian Ocean differ from those of the Atlantic world, especially for enslavement and indenture. Enslavement in the Indian Ocean world produced a legal archive unlike that of the Atlantic Ocean, allowing Boer to ask and answer questions about enslaved life that could not be posed in the Atlantic. This has the dual effect of bringing into relief what is unique about each while simultaneously helping to bring Atlantic world scholars into the world of the Indian Ocean." -- Jared Asser * Emotions: History, Culture, Society *"A keen sense of form enables [Boer] to plot a course through a vast array of legal and literary texts that span centuries and include court rulings, legal complaints, testimonies, and political pamphlets alongside poetry, folk songs, fiction, and memoirs. It is no small feat to weave together an archive as expansive and complex as the Indian Ocean itself, and Boer manages to do so with striking clarity and precision. ... The Briny South offers a new paradigm for scholars and readers of Indian Ocean literature, histories of enslavement, indenture, internment, inter-imperialism, or South African apartheid." -- Tyler Scott Ball * ISLE *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Enslaved, Indentured, Interned 1 1. Representing Speech in Bondage in the Court Records of the Dutch Cabo de Goede Hoop, 1652–1795 17 2. Silencing the Enslaved: The Aesthetics of Abolitionism in the British Cape Colony, 1795–1834 48 3. “Grievances More Sentimental than Material”: Representing Indentured Labor in Natal, 1860–1915 82 4. A Sentimental Education in Boer War Imprisonment Camps in South Asia, 1899–1902 109 5. Sentiment and the Law in Early South African Indian Writing, 1893–1960 132 Coda. No Human Footprints 154 Notes 161 Bibliography 187 Index 205

    £70.55

  • Waste Works

    Duke University Press Waste Works

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Waste Works, Brenda Chalfin examines Ghana’s planned city of Tema, theorizing about the formative role of waste infrastructure in urban politics and public life. Chalfin argues that at Tema’s midcentury founding, a prime objective of governing authorities was to cultivate self-contained citizens by means of tightly orchestrated domestic infrastructure and centralized control of bodily excrement to both develop and depoliticize the new nation. Comparing infrastructural innovations across the city, Chalfin excavates how Tema residents pursue novel approaches to urban waste and sanitation built on the ruins of the inherited order, profoundly altering the urban public sphere. Once decreed a private matter to be guaranteed by state authorities, excrement becomes a public issue, collectively managed by private persons. Pushing self-care into public space and extending domestic responsibility for public well-being and bodily outputs, popularly devised waste infrastructurTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Preface xi Acknowledgments xix Introduction. Infrastructural Intimacies: The Vital Politics of Waste in Urban Ghana 1 1. Assembling the New City: From Infrastructure to Vital Politics 45 2. Tema Proper: Infrastructures and Intimacies of Disrepair 96 3. The Right(s) to Remains: Excremental Infrastructure and Exception in Tema Manhean 133 4. Ziginshore: Infrastructure and the Commonwealth of Waste 181 5. Dwelling on Toilets: Tema's Breakaway Republic of Ashaiman 212 Conclusion. From Vital Politics to Deep Domesticity: Infrastructure as Political Experiment 268 Notes 295 References 315 Index 339

    2 in stock

    £77.35

  • Riotous Deathscapes

    Duke University Press Riotous Deathscapes

    Book SynopsisHugo ka Canham examines the practices of amaMpondo people of South Africa to theorize their strategies of resilience and survival in the face of centuries of abandonment, trauma, antiblackness, and death.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: Mpondo Orientations 1 1. Watchful Ocean, Observant Mountain 37 2. Fortifying Rivers 68 3. Riotous Spirits—Ukukhuphuka Izizwe 104 4. Levitating Graves and Ancestral Frequencies 139 5. Rioting Hills and Occult Insurrections 173 Fitful Dreamscapes: An Afterword 208 Notes 213 References 231 Index 259

    £70.55

  • Envisioning African Intersex

    Duke University Press Envisioning African Intersex

    Book SynopsisSince the 1600s, travelers, scientists, and doctors have claimed that “hermaphroditism” and intersex are disproportionately common among black South Africans. In Envisioning African Intersex Amanda Lock Swarr debunks this claim by interrogating contemporary intersex medicine and demonstrating its indivisibility from colonial ideologies and scientific racism. Tracing the history of racialized research that underpins medical and scientific premises of gendered bodies, Swarr analyzes decolonial actions by intersex South Africans from the 1990s to the present, centering the work of organizers such as Sally Gross, the first openly intersex activist in Africa and a global pioneer of intersex legislation. Swarr also explores African social media activism that advocates for intersex justice and challenges the mistreatment of South African Olympian Caster Semenya. Throughout, Swarr shows how activists displace doctors’ impositions to fashion self-representation. By unseTrade Review"Envisioning African Intersex is a compelling and provocative analysis of how medical and scientific authorities have imagined intersex (atypical sex development) in Africa and, just as important, how contemporary South African intersex activists have resisted these racist interpretations." -- Elizabeth Reis * Journal of Medical Humanities *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Pathologizing Gender Binaries: Intersex Images and Citational Chains 1 Part I. Uncovering: Colonial and Apartheid Legacies 1. Colonial Observations and Fallacies: “Hermaphroditism” in Histories of South Africa 23 2. “Intersex in Four South African Racial Groups in Durban”: Visualizing Scientific Racism and Gendered Medicine 49 Part II. Recovering: Decolonial Intersex Interventions 3. Defying Medical Violence and Social Death: Sally Gross and the Inception of South African Intersex Activism 73 4. #HandsOffCaster: Caster Semenya’s Refusals and the Decolonization of Gender Testing 102 5. Toward an “African Intersex Reference of Intelligence”: Directions in Intersex Organizing 132 Epilogue. Reframing Visions of South African Intersex 156 Acknowledgments 161 Appendix One: Compilation of Works by and Featuring Sally Gross 165 Appendix Two: Cited Twitter Posts Referencing Caster Semenya 167 Appendix Three: African Intersex Movement Priorities (2017, 2019, 2020) 169 Notes 171 References 207 Index 231

    £70.55

  • Insignificant Things

    Duke University Press Insignificant Things

    Book SynopsisIn Insignificant Things Matthew Francis Rarey traces the history of the African-associated amulets that enslaved and other marginalized people carried as tools of survival in the Black Atlantic world from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Often considered visually benign by white Europeans, these amulet pouches, commonly known as “mandingas,” were used across Africa, Brazil, and Portugal and contained myriad objects, from herbs and Islamic prayers to shells and coins. Drawing on Arabic-language narratives from the West African Sahel, the archives of the Portuguese Inquisition, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European travel and merchant accounts of the West African Coast, and early nineteenth-century Brazilian police records, Rarey shows how mandingas functioned as portable archives of their makers’ experiences of enslavement, displacement, and diaspora. He presents them as examples of the visual culture of enslavement and critical to conceptualizTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Significance, Survival, and Silence 1 1. Labels 31 2. Contents 72 3. Markings 124 4. Revolts 171 Epilogue 208 Notes 217 Works Cited 249 Index 275

    £70.55

  • Kingdom Come

    Duke University Press Kingdom Come

    Book SynopsisIn Kingdom Come, Tshepo Masango Chéry charts a new genealogy of early twentieth-century Black Christian activists who challenged racism in South Africa before the solidification of apartheid by using faith as a strategy against global racism. Masango Chéry traces this Black freedom struggle and the ways that South African church leaders defied colonial domination by creating, in solidarity with Black Christians worldwide, Black-controlled religious institutions that were geared toward their liberation. She demonstrates how Black Christians positioned the church as a site of political resistance and centered specifically African visions of freedom in their organizing. Drawing on archival research spanning South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Masango Chéry tells a global story of the twentieth century that illuminates the formations of racial identity, state control, and religious belief. Masango Chéry’s recentTrade Review“Tshepo Masango Chéry’s Kingdom Come is a fascinating exploration of Christianity as a subversive, anti-imperial force in the twentieth century. With South Africa as generative source, Masango Chéry follows a circuitry of individuals and ideas connecting Africa to the Caribbean and North America, including Ethiopianism, the Garvey movement, and the African Orthodox Church. As such, Kingdom Come is a signal contribution across multiple registers that include African diasporic, South African, Black liberation, and religious studies.” -- Michael A. Gomez, Silver Professor of History, New York University“Tshepo Masango Chéry’s Kingdom Come centers Africa and Africans in an expansive nineteenth- and twentieth-century black internationalist religious movement that laid the groundwork for Bishop Desmond Tutu and Reverend Allan Boesak’s liberationist ‘theologies of refusal’ in the global anti-apartheid struggle. Kingdom Come is a refreshing rejoinder to insular South African histories disconnected from the rest of the African continent, instead centering South Africa in the multidirectional flows of Christian-identified black peoples, foundational religious institutions, and liberationist ideologies to and from southern, and eastern Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean.” -- Robert Trent Vinson, author of * The Americans Are Coming!: Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ixTlhompo/Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Thy Kingdom Come on Earth 1 1. “My Blood Is a Million Stories”: The Making of Coloured Identity 13 2. Faith of Our Fathers: The Ethiopian Movement and African Identities 29 3. In the Name of the Father: The Manye Sisters and Church Formation 54 4. Ministries of Migration: George McGuire, Robert Josias Morgan, and the Transformation of Black Churches in the West Indies and the United States 83 5. Garvey’s God: Racial Uplift and the Creation of the African Orthodox Church 105 6. “We See on the Horizon the Sun of African Orthodoxy”: Church Growth in Southern Africa 122 7. Seeds of Freedom: Growing Orthodoxy and Freedom in East Africa 151 Epilogue: Thy Will Be Done 179 Notes 187 Bibliography 219 Index 239

    £73.95

  • Architecture and Development

    Duke University Press Architecture and Development

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Architecture and Development Ayala Levin charts the settler colonial imagination and practices that undergirded Israeli architectural development aid in Africa. Focusing on the “golden age” of Israel’s diplomatic relations in and throughout the continent from 1958 to 1973, Levin finds that Israel positioned itself as a developing-nation alternative in the competition over aid and influence between global North and global South. In analyses of the design and construction of prestigious governmental projects in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, Levin details how architects, planners, and a trade union--owned construction company staged Israel as a new center of nonaligned expertise. These actors and professionals paradoxically capitalized on their settler colonial experience in Palestine, refashioning it as an alternative to Western colonial expertise. Levin traces how Israel became involved in the modernization of governance, education, and agriculture in Trade Review“A remarkable addition to the growing literature on the intrinsic plurality of global development experiences. Placing architectural expertise at the center of knowledge transfer between the newly-formed nation-states of Israel and on the African continent, Ayala Levin depicts state building as a parallel activity being undertaken by both provider and receiver of expertise, undoing received notions about ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ contexts. The sections comparing Israeli approaches toward kibbutzim at home and rural-urban migration patterns in Sierra Leone and Nigeria are nothing short of spectacular.” -- Arindam Dutta, author of * The Bureaucracy of Beauty: Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducibility *“In this rich and wonderfully detailed study, Ayala Levin provides a careful, learned, and multidisciplinary assessment of Israel’s architectural and developmental impact in Africa in which the characters and mindsets of Israeli architects and planners come alive. Scholars of Israeli-African relations, African development studies, African and Israeli architecture, and urban planning in the global South will find Levin’s exposé of Israeli-African geopolitics to be a valuable contribution.” -- Garth Myers, author of * Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South *“Levin takes the reader on a well-detailed and multifaceted journey.” -- Gabriel Schwake * Connections *"Architecture and Development provides far more than the sum of its case studies: this volume presents excellent scholarship. ... It significantly enriches our knowledge of Israeli and African planning and architecture. It critically reveals fascinating connections between national ideologies and international relations and provides new perspectives on global junctions of architecture culture and knowledge production." -- Inbal Ben Asher Gitler * Israel Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Settler Colonial Expertise in the Theater of Development 1 1. Fast-Tracking the Nation-State: The Design and Construction of the Sierra Leone Parliament 25 2. Rootedness and Open-Ended Planning: The Sierra Leone National Urbanization Plan 68 3. Planning a Postcolonial University Campus: The University of Ife, Nigeria 97 4. Designing the University of Ife: Climate, Regeneration, and Ornament 125 5. Israeli Aid, Private Entrepreneurship, and Architectural Education in Addis Ababa 165 Postscript. Ghosts of Modernity 195 Notes 219 Bibliography 269 Index 295

    10 in stock

    £20.69

  • Queer African Cinemas

    Duke University Press Queer African Cinemas

    Book SynopsisIn Queer African Cinemas, Lindsey B. Green-Simms examines films produced by and about queer Africans in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in an environment of increasing antiqueer violence, efforts to criminalize homosexuality, and other state-sanctioned homophobia. Green-Simms argues that these films not only record the fear, anxiety, and vulnerability many queer Africans experience; they highlight how queer African cinematic practices contribute to imagining new hopes and possibilities. Examining globally circulating international art films as well as popular melodramas made for local audiences, Green-Simms emphasizes that in these films queer resistance—contrary to traditional narratives about resistance that center overt and heroic struggle—is often practiced from a position of vulnerability. By reading queer films alongside discussions about censorship and audiences, Green-Simms renders queer African cinema as a rich visual archive that documentsTrade Review“Conceptually rich and deeply pedagogical, Queer African Cinemas models how to think about African queer worldmaking. Lindsey B. Green-Simms wrenches resistance away from heteronormative duty and national obligation to track its wayward possibilities. Resistance is no longer an exhausted term that excludes African queers, but one that centers African queer practices and freedoms. Green-Simms listens for how African queer audiences navigate representation and find succor even in hostile places. A joy to read.” -- Keguro Macharia, author of * Frottage: Frictions of Intimacy across the Black Diaspora *“Lindsey B. Green-Simms’s compelling insights prod us to think about resistance as multilayered, incomplete, and even messy in ways that reveal how the vulnerabilities of queer life exist alongside multiple modes of survival, care, and aspirational imaginaries. Queer African Cinemas is engaging, generative, and remarkably persuasive.” -- Grace A. Musila, author of * A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder *“In Queer African Cinemas, Green-Simms offers an insightful and illuminating analysis. . . . Queer African Cinemas makes an important and necessary intervention in queer studies as it works to decenter queerness from the global north and to challenge common understandings of acceptable means of resistance, affect, and representation.” -- Bruno Guaraná * Film Quarterly *“[Green-Simms’s] musings on resistance, aspiration, and resilience, among other difficult-to-define and identity-specific terms, is cultural theory at its finest. Queer African Cinemas will be impactful far beyond its range of study. Highly recommended.” -- G. R. Butters Jr. * Choice *"Written in clear prose and brilliantly self-reflexive in method, this sophisticated reading of queer cinematic texts deserves attention. . . . [A] must-read for those interested in queerness and film studies in Africa and beyond." -- Naminata Diabate * GLQ *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Registering Resistance in Queer African Cinemas 1 1. Making Waves: Queer Eccentricity and West African Wayward Women 37 2. Touching Nollywood: From Negation to Negotiation in Queer Nigerian Cinema 73 3. Cutting Masculinities: Post-Apartheid South African Cinema 123 4. Holding Space, Saving Joy: Queer Love and Critical Resilience in East Africa 165 Coda. Queer African Cinema's Destiny 203 Notes 211 Filmography 227 References 231 Index 243

    £20.89

  • Students of the World

    Duke University Press Students of the World

    Book SynopsisOn June 30, 1960—the day of the Congo’s independence—Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a fiery speech in which he conjured a definitive shift away from a past of colonial oppression toward a future of sovereignty, dignity, and justice. His assassination a few months later showed how much neocolonial forces and the Cold War jeopardized African movements for liberation. In Students of the World, Pedro Monaville traces a generation of Congolese student activists who refused to accept the foreclosure of the future Lumumba envisioned. These students sought to decolonize university campuses, but the projects of emancipation they articulated went well beyond transforming higher education. Monaville explores the modes of being and thinking that shaped their politics. He outlines a trajectory of radicalization in which gender constructions, cosmopolitan dispositions, and the influence of a dissident popular culture mattered as much as access to various networks of actTrade Review"Students of the World is richly referenced in the endnotes and stands as an example of the creative possibilities of scholarly monographs. Students of the World will prove an enduring reference point for global histories of Cold War-era activism." -- Ismay Milford * H-Soz-Kult *"With his well-researched and meticulously wrought study, Monaville has conjured up a bygone world of possibilities that clashed with the realities of Africa’s postcolonial hubris, a world that ended up crushed in the vortex of global politics. Students of the World possesses all the trappings of the kind of seminal works that pave the way for a historiographical renewal." -- Didier Gondola * The Global Sixties *"This study is a significant, well-written contribution to the history of youth movements in the late 20th century. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- J. M. Rich * Choice *"The beauty of this book lies in both its content and form. . . . . Monaville’s book exemplifies an approach that integrates ‘theory and form’, thereby offering a valuable contribution to the historiography of student activism, decolonization, the Cold War, and the Global Sixties." -- Emery Kalema * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsPreface. Memory Work in the Age of Cinq Chantiers ix Note on Toponyms xvii Acknowledgments xix Introduction. The School of the World 1 Interlude I. Postal Musings 20 1. Distance Learning and the Production of Politics 23 2. Friendly Correspondence with the Whole World 42 Interlude II. To Live Forever Among Books 63 3. Paths to School 65 4. Dancing the Rumba at Lovanium 84 Interlude III. To the Left 103 5. Cold War Transcripts 109 6. Revolution in the (Counter)revolution 129 7. A Student Front 144 Interlude IV. The Dictator and the Students 161 8. (Un)natural Alliances 166 9. A Postcolonial Massacre and Caporalisation in Mobutu's Congo 179 Epilogue. The Gaze of the Dead 201 Notes 213 Bibliography 287 Index 323

    £21.59

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