Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute最新文献

{"title":"The Languages and Literatures of Africa: the sands of Babel (review)","authors":"F. Ugochukwu","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0078","url":null,"abstract":"and reversal of gender roles’. Therefore, ‘writing madness’, she implies, is potentially liberating, an idea which informs her subsequent focus on women writers. While deviant women are punished in folktales, unruly women seem driven to madness, Veit-Wild points out, in African women’s writing. Bessie Head’s A Question of Power is a prime example. Rebeka Njau’s Ripples in the Pool and Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Kare Kare Zvako are other instances of voicing or depicting gender violence (and resistance). The significance of ‘mad’ creative production, Veit-Wild optimistically suggests, is a possible ‘invocation of new gender roles’. Veit-Wild strikes the right balance in her assortment of male and female writers, colonial and post-colonial texts, oral and written literature, Anglophone and Francophone. That said, the book suffers somewhat from a loose, shifting, all-encompassing concept of madness. Because her canvas is so vast, VeitWild struggles to pull the many strands and vignettes she has to offer into a single over-arching distinctive argument. The analyses, though poignant, are somewhat scattered. Nonetheless, Veit-Wild deserves credit for a diverse, pioneering and useful compilation.","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114910743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Flickering Shadows: cinema and identity in colonial Zimbabwe (review)","authors":"Lawrence S. Dritsas","doi":"10.1353/afr.2007.0080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/afr.2007.0080","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116799740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An African Family Archive: the Lawsons of Little Popo/Aneho (Togo) 1841–1938 (review)","authors":"B. Lawrence","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0073","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127295557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Political History of The Gambia 1816–1994 (review)","authors":"Mark Davidheiser","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0074","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"915 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132867454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Nile in Darkness: a flawed unity, 1863–1899 (review)","authors":"Cherry Leonardi","doi":"10.1353/afr.2007.0079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/afr.2007.0079","url":null,"abstract":"Portuguese explorers and fragments of Germany’s early military presence in Southwest Africa. A long excursion into the life and (mostly domestic) politics of German Reich Chancellor von Caprivi leads into the negotiations that resulted in the 1890 Anglo-German territorial swap that created the German access corridor to the Zambezi known as the ‘Caprivi Zipfel’. Okupa has some interesting points to make here, and with issues of international law she is clearly on more familiar scholarly ground. The next 150 pages are concerned with the scandalous atrocities and war of extermination committed by the German colonial military against the Herero, Nama and other indigenous groups between 1904 and 1908. Much of this has already been covered extensively by various other scholars more capable of working with the available archival material. Long sections are taken up by details of, for example, German colonial military award medals, railway and firearms technology, Herero social organization and chiefly genealogy, polygamy and Christianity. Okupa’s key contribution here lies in her emotional and engaging narrative of the Herero’s ordeal in the Omaheke Desert following the appalling Waterberg massacre of 1904. But while the acknowledgements indicate she has collected interview material from recently repatriated descendants of survivors, the author neither names nor quotes her Herero sources directly. The book then shifts to another legacy of German colonialism in Namibia: the Caprivi Strip. Okupa’s discussion of the pre-colonial and colonial administration of Caprivi, the history of the area and its people again contains little new material, while failing to exclude unnecessary excursions and various inaccuracies. The last two chapters are concerned with the colonial origins and 1999 settlement by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the boundary dispute between Namibia and Botswana over the Kasikili/Sedudu island. Long sections of treaty texts, official communications and hearing transcripts appear with little analysis. Scholars interested in Caprivi or working on the historical origins and current disputes over African boundaries, international and African customary law may find some interesting leads to further material here, but the ICJ website provides most of this in a well-organized manner. While the appearance of the book is neat and balanced most of the maps, diagrams and photographs add little value. The main title and some chapter headings offer no clue regarding the contents. There are countless mistakes, inconsistencies and omissions in references, footnotes and quotations throughout the book. The same lengthy section of text from the 1890 AngloGerman agreement appears in full no less than three separate times. That the publisher should have sent a manuscript in this under-edited and uncorrected form to the printers is utterly surprising.","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131164817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Le Malaise Créole: ethnic identity in Mauritius (review)","authors":"L. Jeffery","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0086","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"132 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130861191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Revisionism in Postcolonial Africa: the case of Mozambique, 1975–1994 (review)","authors":"J. Archambault","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0068","url":null,"abstract":"to operate in Djibouti. Given the involvement of several contributors with a background in the US government, as well as the customary American academics, this collection looks rather like the informed and semi-official view from Washington. After Rotberg’s opening overview the book proceeds through Somalia and Somaliland with Kenneth Menkhaus, which is appropriate since it is the stateless character of the former area (as well as the US having got it spectacularly wrong in the 1990s) that has been the main concern with regard to the problems of addressing terrorism. He is of the view, however, that statelessness is not necessarily that helpful for Al Qaeda because of the ‘danger of betrayal and extortion’. Lange Schermerhorn is next up on Djibouti, a country that has hitherto attracted limited attention, but is once more at ‘the eye of the storm’. Created as a French outpost on the Bab Al Mandeb straits, it now has a similar purpose for the US as well. Dan Connell discusses the ever-growing authoritarianism of Eritrea, once so beloved of western AfroMarxists, and still trying to punch above its weight across the Horn – rivalry with Ethiopia always at the forefront of its moves. David Shinn gives a very full and balanced account of Ethiopia. In addition to its ethnic tension, the position of the large Muslim population always needs careful political as well as security understanding. Tim Carney gives a brief and straightforward view of Sudan, the place where Osama bin Laden resided from 1991 to 1996 and where he was encouraged in his building of Al Qaeda. The same people are still largely in power, though now proclaiming their cooperation with the US on terrorism (though not on Darfur). The book rightly includes Yemen, for the Horn has long been almost as Arabian as African. Robert Burrowes feels that though Al Qaeda has been a threat there, the more conservative traditions of Yemeni Islam are still firmly in place. Finally Johnnie Carson considers Kenya, where Al Qaeda attacks have been mounted, and particularly the Muslim community on the coast. This brings us back to Kenya’s recent efforts to intercept the fleeing supporters of the Islamic Courts in the latest strike on possible terrorists from Mogadishu. What is most noticeable is the extent to which all the governments of the region have gone out of their way to join in cooperation with the US in the ‘war on terror’ – even to the point of rivalling each other, as with Eritrea and Ethiopia. But that is also the real point, for their motives have less to do with this ‘global’ war than their domestic and regional politics. The US is too powerful for them to resist supporting it in its self-proclaimed struggle, but the issues for the governments of the Horn are much nearer home, while overt cooperation with the US may be damaging domestically. Only when the US understands the many and varied local problems of the Horn will it really contribute to a more secure environment. Security cooperation m","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116026360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Les Trajectoires d'un Etat-frontière: espaces, évolution politique et transformations sociales en Mauritanie (review)","authors":"Laurence Marfaing","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0085","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122011125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Democracy and Elections in Africa (review)","authors":"N. Cheeseman","doi":"10.1353/AFR.2007.0071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/AFR.2007.0071","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":" 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120828866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Locality, Mobility and 'Nation': periurban colonialism in Togo's Eweland, 1900-1960 (review)","authors":"Laurent Fourchard","doi":"10.5860/choice.46-0453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.46-0453","url":null,"abstract":"In this original interdisciplinary study of Togo and African colonial history, Benjamin Lawrance synthesizes political, gender, and social history by documenting the contributions of rural-dwelling populations in anti-colonial struggles. Anchoring his arguments on the premise that nationalist historiographies have overstated the role of urban and elite power while undervaluing the strategic place of rural constituencies, Lawrance uses the Ewe nationalist movement of southern Togo as a case study in what he terms \"periurban colonialism\" - a historical paradigm that reunites the urban and rural experiences of post-World War I colonialism. By reconciling the marginal and non-elite communities and the social upheavals of the two World War periods, Lawrance offers a new perspective on the colonial experience and the anti-colonial struggle.In focusing on an African country uniquely colonized by the Germans, British, and French, he provides a wealth of information not readily available to the English-language audience. Accessible to scholars of African social history and African culture in general, \"Locality, Mobility, and \"Nation\"\" will occupy a distinguished place among studies of African colonial history and anti-colonial struggles. Benjamin N. Lawrance is an assistant professor of African history at the University of California, Davis, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate African and World history. He is the editor of \"The Ewe of Togo and Benin\" (2005) and the co-editor of \"Intermediaries, Interpreters and Clerks\" (2006).","PeriodicalId":337749,"journal":{"name":"Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127618781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}