Search results for ""James Currey""
James Currey Marikana: A People's History
In-depth account of the Marikana massacre, based on the voices of the miners and their families themselves, from the build up to the strike to attempts to hold the state to account and its lasting significance. In August 2012 the South African police - at the encouragement of mining capital, and with the support of the political state - intervened to end a week-long strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, in South Africa's NorthWest Province. On the afternoon of Thursday, 16 August, the police shot and killed 34 men. Hundreds more were injured, some shot as they fled. None posed a threat to any police officer. Recognised by many as an event of international significance in stories of global politics and labour relations, the perspectives of the miners has however been almost missing from published accounts. This book, for the first time, brings into focus the mens' lives - and deaths - telling the stories of those who embarked on the strike, those who were killed, and of the family members who have survived to fight for the memories of their loved ones. It places the strike in the context of South Africa's long history of racial and economic exclusion, explaining how the miners came to be in Marikana, how their lives were ordinarily lived, and the substance of their complaints. It shows how the strike developed from an initial gathering into a mass movement of more than 3,000 workers. It discusses the violence of the strike and explores the political context of the state's response, and the eagerness of the police to collaborate in suppressing the strike. Recounting the events of the massacre in unprecedented detail, the book sets out how each miner died and everything we know about the police operation. Finally, Brown traces the aftermath: the attempts of the families of the deceased to identify and bury their dead, and then the state's attempts to spin a narrative that placed all blame on the miners; the subsequent Commission of Inquiry - and its failure to resolve any real issues; and the solidarity politics that have emerged since. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana): Jacana.
£24.99
James Currey ALT 39: Speculative & Science Fiction
Explores the ways in which African writers have approached speculative fiction through in-depth articles on the use of language, terminology and the genealogy of the works. Over the past two decades, there has been a resurgence in the writing of African and African diaspora speculative and science fiction writing. Recent discussions around the "rise of science-fiction and fantasy" in Africa have led to a push-back, in which writers and scholars have suggested that science fiction and fantasy is not a new phenomenon in African literature, but that the deep past of the African world and its complex and mysterious foundations still register in burgeoning modern literary productions. Such influences can be seen in early twentieth-century writers such as D.O. Fagunwa's classic novel (1938) Ogboji Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga), the mythopoeia of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine (1966) as well as the dystopian writing of Buchi Emecheta in The Rape of Shavi (1983). This volume shows this long tradition of speculative literature in examining African classics such as Kojo Laing's Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988) and the oeuvre of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The volume also critically examines modern African texts from writers including Nnedi Okorafor, Namwali Serpell and Masande Ntshanga, as well as critically looking at the terms 'Afrofuturism' and 'Africanfuturism' vis-à-vis their particular cultural aesthetics and suitability in describing tradition rooted African speculative arts. This volume also includes a Literary Supplement. Guest Editors: LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE (Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University) and CHIMALUM NWANKWO (Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria). Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint) Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma (Fellow, Department of English University of Central Florida).
£75.00
James Currey A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991: Updated and revised edition
Updated and revised edition. Bahru Zewde has updated the first edition, adding a new chapter and taking the history through to 1991. 'The new chapter enhances the value of the book as the best historical introduction to modern Ethiopia. The account of the Revolution, contained in 41 pages, is nuanced and worthy of attention in its own right... In short, the updating of an already indispensable book.' - Donald Crummey in JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES NorthAmerica: Ohio U Press; Ethiopia: Addis Ababa U Press
£24.99
James Currey General History of Africa volume 3 [pbk abridged]: Africa from the 7th to the 11th Century
SPECIAL COMMENDATION in Africa's 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The series is illustrated throughout with maps and black and white photographs. The period covered by Volume 3 is dominated by two movements of major and lasting significance in the history of Africa: the influence of Islam in the north and west, interacting with traditional African culture; and the Bantu expansion in the south. The book first places Africa in the context of world history at the opening of the seventh century. Detailed chapters follow discussing the successive Islamic dynasties, the Christian Nubia, the civilizations of the savannas, forests and coast of West Africa, the Horn of Africa, the East African coast and interior, Central Africa, Southern Africa, and Madagascar's internal development and international contacts. The three concluding chapters trace the African diaspora in Asia, examine international relations and the spread of technology and ideas, and assess the overall impact of the period on African history. The series is co-published in Africawith seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.
£25.99
James Currey Labor and Democracy in Namibia 19711996
£19.99
James Currey Across the Copperbelt: Urban & Social Change in Central Africa's Borderland Communities
The first comparative historical analysis - local, national and transnational - of the cross-border Central African copperbelt; a key work in studies of labour, urbanisation and African studies. The Central African Copperbelt, encompassing the mining communities of Katanga (DR Congo) and Zambia, has been central to the study of modernisation and rapid social and political change in urban Africa. This volume expands upon earlier studies of industrial mining, male-dominated formal labour organisation and political change by examining both sides of the border from pre-colonial history to the present and encompassing a wide range of economic, social and cultural identities and activities. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the contributors explore copperbelt communities' sense of identity - expressed in comic strips and football matches, their precarious and inventive ways of living, their involvement in church and education, and the processes and impact of urbanisation and development, environmental degradation and changing gender relations. A major contribution to borderland studies, in showing how the meaning and relevance of the border to the copperbelt's mixed and mobile population has changed constantly over time, the book's engagement with communities at the nexus of social, economic and political change makes it a key study for those working in global urban development. This book is available under the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC. It is based on research that is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no: 681657): 'Comparing the Copperbelt: Political Culture and Knowledge Production in Central Africa'.
£24.99
James Currey Masquerades in African Society: Gender, Power and Identity
Explores the dynamics of African masquerades and mask performances on the continent, linking performative expressions to societal characteristics. What is the meaning of masks and masquerades in African traditions and how can we understand their role in rituals and performances? Why do we find masks in some African regions and not in others, and what does this 'mask habitat' say about the general dynamics of masquerades in Africa? Though masks are among the most famous art icons of Africa, exploration of their uses and the way in which they articulate social characteristics of African societies has been underexamined. This book takes an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of masquerades on the African continent to show how mask rituals are an integral part of African indigenous religions and societies, and are informed by and linked to specific types of social and ecological conditions. Having established the commonalities of mask rituals and a mask typology, the authors look at the varieties of mask performances and the types of rituals in which masks function in rites of passage and in rituals of gender, power, and identity. The following chapters focus on different types of rituals featuring masks, from initiation and death ceremonies to secrecy, kingship, law and war. With its broad examination of the use of masks on the continent, from Angola to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, this well illustrated book will stand as an authoritative study of the use of masks, of interest not only to those in African Studies but to anthropologists and ethnographers worldwide.
£90.00
James Currey General History of Africa volume 5 [pbk abridged]: Africa from the 16th to the 18th Century
SPECIAL COMMENDATION in Africa's 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The series is illustrated throughout with maps and black and white photographs. A history of Africa from the 16th to the 18th centuries, this study concentrates on the continuing evolution of African states and cultures, the increase in external trade, and the consequences of the slave trade. The seriesis co-published in Africa with seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.
£29.99
James Currey Africa Rising?: BRICS - Diversifying Dependency
Explores to what extent Africa's "rise" has impacted on development and whether the BRICS are creating a new version of dependency. Africa is said to be rising, turning a definitive page in its history, heralding new and exciting possibilities for the continent. This discourse maintains that with upsurge in economic growth comes improved governance and endogenous dynamics; that the emerging economies, and especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), have been instrumental in diversifying Africa's international relations, perhaps leading to a radical change in theglobal order, favourable to the developing world. But to what extent is this true, and how deep and how broad has been the impact on society at large? This book takes a critical look at the prevalent Africa Rising discourse,and explores the nature and implications of Africa's "rise" and the role that the BRICS have played in it. The author argues that Africa has still to undergo any structural transformation; that there is strong evidence that deindustrialisation and jobless growth have accompanied the upsurge of interest in the continent; and that far from making a radical turn in its developmental trajectory, Africa is being pushed into the resource corner as commodity exporters, to the North (and now, the BRICS) with little scope for industrial progress or skills advancement. Hope that the BRICS might offer an alternative to the extant neoliberal order are misplaced, for the BRICS have a stake in maintaining the current global unequality. Africa must therefore fashion its own independent path - while the emerging economies will be important, relying on external actors may simply reproduce anew the current state of underdevelopment. Ian Taylor is Professor in International Relations and African Politics, University of St Andrews; Chair Professor, Renmin, University of China; Professor Extraordinary, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; Honorary Professor, Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, China; and a Visiting Scholar at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.
£19.99
James Currey Imperialism and Development: The East African Groundnut Scheme and its Legacy
A compelling exploration of one of the most ill-advised and calamitous interventions in colonial development history. As colonial development took off after the Second World War, in the context of national food shortages, Britain's Labour Government initiated the Groundnut Scheme, an extraordinarily ambitious project to convert 3 million acres of bush in Tanganyika into the largest mechanized groundnut farm in the world. It was to prove the largest, most expensive and most disastrous development scheme ever undertaken by the British Government. Never previously analysed in depth, the author draws on a wide range of sources to discuss the political dynamics that drove the Groundnut Scheme forward, despite the gravest doubts of agriculturalists and economists, why it went wrong, and what its impact has been since on the practice of economic development. Initially employing the United Africa Company as agent, the government set up an Overseas Food Corporation to manage the Groundnut Scheme as an example of socialist development in Africa. Army surplus kit and demobbed soldiers poured into the country and were sent up the railway line to Kongwa to beat the bush. By the time the effort was abandoned in 1950, costs had risen to a colossal 36 million - equivalent to over 1 billion today - and yet almost no groundnuts had been exported. The prototype of many large-scale, government-run, high-cost development projects that failed to deliver, the Groundnut Scheme was perhaps the first major failure of agricultural development in Africa, and its legacy in development practice still with us today.
£24.99
James Currey War Veterans in Zimbabwe's Revolution: Challenging neo-colonialism and settler and international capital
Written by a critically positioned participant in Zimbabwe's political history, this book covers more than a generation of eyewitness account and scholarly analysis by a war veteran academic and activist. Traces the roots of Zimbabwe's well known, but little analysed, revolution of 2000 to the 1970s guerrilla war, revealing the foundational philosophies, cosmologies and experiences that are manifest in the War Veterans-led revolution. The book is a bold account of an ongoing bottom-up struggle against neo-colonialism, settler economy and international capital. It traces the unfolding events of Zimbabwe's war of liberation, revealing little-known factsthat help to explain the complexity of current politics, ideology and class conflicts. Based on grounded empirical research this scholarly analysis differs significantly from the standard journalistic accounts of this topic.The book illustrates that the popular land occupations of 2000 were part of a much wider current under the surface that reconfigured industry, mining, finance, commerce and trade. War Veterans led a revolution that challenged thestate, ruling ZANU PF, the MDC, President Robert Mugabe, settler and international capital. Zimbabwe's revolution sets a new agenda and raises anew the intriguing question 'what are the people of Africa trying to free themselvesfrom and what are they trying to establish?' Zvakanyorwa Wilbert Sadomba is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe: Zvakanyorwa Wilbert Sadomba (PB)
£75.00
James Currey General History of Africa volume 8 [pbk unabridged]: Africa since 1935
SPECIAL COMMENDATION in Africa's 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The series is illustrated throughout with maps and black and white photographs. Africa has moved from international conflict under foreign domination to struggles for political sovereignty and economic independence. Looking at the changes in Africa's fortunes since 1935, this volume examines the challenges ofnation-building and socio-cultural changes affecting the continent. The series is co-published in Africa with seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.
£29.99
James Currey Migrants and Masculinity in High-Rise Nairobi: The Pressure of being a Man in an African City
Examines how young male migrants in urban Nairobi navigate the tension between expectations of success and repetitive failure. Pipeline is a low-income, high-rise-tenement settlement in Nairobi's marginalized East and one of sub-Saharan Africa's most densely populated estates. An aspirational place where fleeting forms of capitalist consumption reassure migrants of an upward trajectory, it is also a place where their ambitions of long-term economic success and stable romantic relationships are routinely thwarted. This book explores how men who migrate to Nairobi from Western Kenya navigate this tension that is generated by the contrast between their view of Pipeline as a launching pad for their personal and professional careers and the fact that they face constant economic, romantic, and personal backlashes. Drawing on over two years of fieldwork, the book reveals that many male migrants design their future on trajectories of personal and economic growth but have to adjust or indefinitely postpone their plans once they arrive in Kenya's capital. Under the pressure to succeed from romantic partners, spouses, rural kin, and children, they create and participate in homosocial spaces where a sense of brotherhood emerges and their experience of pressure is attenuated. Alongside a deep ethnographic exploration of how male migrants model their financial, physical, and mental well-being in three different masculine spaces - an ethnically homogenous investment group, an interethnic gym, and the semi-digital sphere of self-help books, workshops, and motivational trainings on man- and fatherhood - this book brings a new perspective to our understanding of urban African life and the nature of masculinity. This title is available under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND, with funding from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Open Access Fund and the German Research Foundation.
£23.02
James Currey Labour & Christianity in the Mission: African Workers in Tanganyika and Zanzibar, 1864-1926
Important and broadening study of the way Africans engaged with missions, not as beneficiaries of humanitarian philanthropy, but as workers. The important role missions played as places of work has been underexplored, yet missionaries were some of the earliest Europeans who tried to control African labour. African mission workers' roles were not just religious and educational, as they were actively involved, not always voluntarily, in building and domestic work. Focusing on the Anglican Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) in Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Michelle Liebst shows how missionaries both supported and undermined the livelihood trajectories of Africans. Revealing the changing nature of relations over time between missionaries - who referred to themselves as "workers" - and the African mission workers, including teachers and priests - whom missionaries referred to as "helpers" - reflected broader political transformations, and this innovative study of missions' role in society adds a critical dimension to our understanding of their function and socio-economic impact and the history of Christianity in Africa.
£21.52
The Merlin Press Ltd From Sharpville to Rivonia
1959 was the year James Currey arrived in South Africa and found a nation in crisis. Hopes of change rose and foundered over the next five years. Letters and vivid conversations capture the excitement of daily life and political drama. The extra-parliamentary opposition had used non-violent means of protest since 1952, but on 21 March 1960 the police shot and killed 69 peaceful protesters in Sharpeville. It was a turning point. In March 1960 some 35,000 Africans protested on Cape Town and the police responded with further savagery. Shortly after Randolph Vigne, Neville Rubin, Tim Holmes and James Currey founded The New African a radical review of politics and the arts. The intense comings and goings of a small magazine served as effective cover for acts of sabotage. In July 1964 Randolph Vigne appealed to Clare and James to enable him escape. Clare had no hesitation; ‘Randolph and Gillian are our friends’, she said. James used his British passport, to buy a ticket on a Norwegian freighter so that Vigne could travel to Montreal. Two days later Clare and James flew out of Johannesburg.
£15.99
The Merlin Press Ltd The New African: A History: The Radical Review
The New African was first published in 1962 and survived in Cape Town and in London for 53 issues, (www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/newafrican). The radical monthly introduced to South Africa new writers such as Bessie Head, Lewis Nkosi, Ngugi, Can Themba, Dennis Brutus, Andre Brink and Masizi Kunene alongside established writers like Nadine Gordimer, Dan Jacobson and Alan Paton. It was 'a magazine aimed at opening up debate and spreading the word about the new Africa' in the heady years of African independence. The New African was founded to tell people about this new Africa, a newly born concept to analyse, report on and rejoice in. It also looked ahead to the ultimate collapse of white-racial supremacy and the dawn of non-racial democracies. The journal soon attracted the attention of the South African state and its Special Branch as recorded in a leader: "On 9 March 1964 policemen from the Cape Town security police HQ raided the offices of The New African...The entire contents was removed. from a locked filing cabinet, carried by four (black) constables, to a handful of rubber stamps carried by one (white) constable.' The editors were soon forced to flee, and printing restarted in London and copies were smuggled back to South Africa. The second half of the book Cape Escape is an account, thrilling enough for a film, of how James Currey by leaping from a Norwegian freighter in Cape Town docks enabled Randolph Vigne the clandestine editor of The New African to escape to Canada.
£12.99