Africa articles from June 2001

Africa archives from June 2001

Music videos and the effeminate vices of urban culture in Mali.
June 22, 2001... A striking recent development in Mali is the rise of extremely successful women singers who dominate the musical programmes of national radio and television and the audio- and video-cassette market. Many of these pop stars belong to a group of...

`Beer used to belong to older men': drink and authority among the Nyakyusa of Tanzania.
June 22, 2001... In her last major work on social change among the Nyakyusa of southwestern Tanzania, Monica Wilson returned to an argument about the changing role of beer drinking which had featured in her earlier writings (1963: 176, 1977: 92-3, 131). She...

The `true Nzema': a layered identity.(Akan people of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire)
June 22, 2001... This article approaches the question of identity with reference to an important section of the Akan people located in south-western Ghana and south-eastern Cote d'Ivoire, namely the group of communities known as Nzema. In the Sub-Saharan...

Communal land rights in Zimbabwe as state sanction and social control: a narrative.
June 22, 2001... THE LAND QUESTION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA Land remains the most central issue: underpinning social, economic and political processes in Southern and Eastern Africa (Palmer, 1996; Simon, 1995). However, the dominance of and preoccupation with the...

Degradation debates and data deficiencies: the Mkomazi game reserve, Tanzania.
June 22, 2001... INTRODUCTION The challenge of environmental history is to explain how and why environments have changed. But it is a demanding task. It is often easier to explain how particular interpretations of the environment formed, why they persisted...

In search of nyo: Lyela farmers' perceptions of the forest in Burkina Faso.
June 22, 2001... This study deals with the cultural construction of the forest by focusing on a group of farmers in Burkina Faso. It aims to contribute to the scholarly literature on environmental change and, more specifically, to social and cultural analyses...

Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: an environmental history of Africa 1800-1990. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... JAMES C. MCCANN, Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: an environmental history of Africa, 1800-1990. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann; Oxford: James Currey, 1999, 216 pp, 12.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 325 00096 4 paperback. Environmental history...

A Green Place, a Good Place: agrarian change, gender and social identity in the Great Lakes region to the fifteenth century. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... DAVID LEE SCHOENBRUN, A Green Place, a Good Place: agrarian change, gender and social identity in the Great Lakes region to the fifteenth century. Social History of Africa. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, Oxford: James Currey; Nairobi: East African...

The Gabra: camel nomads of northern Kenya. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... PAUL TABLINO The Gabra: camel nomads of northern Kenya. Nairobi: Paulines Publications, 1999, 455 pp., US$80.00, ISBN 9966 21 438 0. The Gabra are a pastoralist group, about 30,000, who live in the arid landscape of northern Kenya. While...

The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World: consumption, commoditization and everyday practice. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... BRAD WEISS, The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World: consumption, commoditization and everyday practice. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1996, 258 pp., ISBN 0 8223 1722 2. This is an exhilarating, articulate and inventive account...

Directions of Change in Rural Egypt. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... NICHOLAS S. HOPKINS and KIRSTEN WESTERGAARD (eds), Directions of Change in Rural Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1999, 398 pp., 21.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 977 424 483 4. During the past twenty years or so, Egypt has...

The Politics of Age and Gerontocracy in Africa: ethnographies of the past and memories of the present. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... MARIO I. AGUILAR (ed.), The Politics of Age and Gerontocracy in Africa: ethnographies of the past and memories of the present. Trenton NJ and Asmara: Africa World Press, 1998, 306 pp., 14.99 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 86543 598 7 paperback. ...

Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: the Duala and their hinterland, c. 1600-c. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... RALPH A. AUSTEN and JONATHAN DERRICK, Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers: the Duala and their hinterland, c. 1600-c. 1960. African Studies 96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 264 pp., 40.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 521 56228 7 hard...

Approche du developpement durable en milieu rural africain: les regions cotieres de Guinee, Guinee-Bissau et Casamance. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... ANNIE CHENEAU-LOQUAY and PIERRE MATARASSO, Approche du developpement durable en milieu rural africain : les regions cotieres de Guinee, Guinee-Bissau et Casamance. Collection bibliotheque du developpement. Paris and Montreal: Harmattan, 1998,...

The African State at a Critical Juncture: between disintegration and reconfiguration. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... LEONARDO A. VILLALON and PHILLIP A. HUXTABLE (eds), The African State at a Critical Juncture: between disintegration and reconfiguration. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 1998, 334 pp., ISBN 1 55587 617 X The decade of the 1990s witnessed...

Mau Mau Memoirs: history, memory and politics. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... MARSHALL S. CLOUGH, Mau Mau Memoirs: history, memory and politics. Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997, 293 pp., 43.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 1 55587 537 8. Since Independence a trickle of Mau Mau memoirs has appeared in press. Clough has...

Identity Jilted or Re-imagining Identity? The divergent paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan nationalist struggles. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... ALEMSEGED ABAY, Identity Filted or Re-imagining Identity? The divergent paths of the Eritrean and Tigrayan nationalist struggles. Trenton NJ: Red Sea Press, 1998, 232 pp., 14.99 [pounds sterling], ISBN 1 56902 072 8 paperback. In the...

How we Think they Think: anthropological approaches to cognition, memory and literacy. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... MAURICE E. F. BLOCH, How we Think they Think: anthropological approaches to cognition, memory and literacy. Boulder CO and Oxford: Westview Press, 1998, 205 pp., 37.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 8133 3373 3. This volume contains a second...

African Royal Court Art. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... MICHELLE COQUET, African Royal Court Art, trans. Jane Marie Todd. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, 181 pp., US $55.00, ISBN 0226 11575 5. Long has mankind been enamoured of royalty and all its worldly trappings. Traditionally...

Marriage in Maradi: gender and culture in a Hausa society in Niger, 1900-89. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... BARBARA M. COOPER, Marriage in Maradi: gender and culture in a Hausa society in Niger, 1900-89. Social History of Africa series. Oxford: James Currey, 1997, 288 pp., 40.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 85255 677 2, 15.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0...

People are Not the Same: leprosy and identity in twentieth-century Mali. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... ERIC SILLA, People are Not the Same: leprosy and identity in twentieth-century Mali. Social History of Africa. Oxford: James Currey; Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 1998, 40.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 85255 680 2 hard covers, 15.95 [pounds...

Mort et maladie au Zaire. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... JAN-LODEWIJK GROOTAERS (ed.), Mort et maladie au Zaire. Afrika Studien/ Cahiers africains, Zaire, annees 90, vol. 8, no. 31-32, Tervuren: CEDAF/ ASDOC; Pads: Harmattan, 1998, 172 pp., ISBN 2 7384 6233 2. This volume documents and analyses...

Disease and Empire: the health of European troops in the conquest of Africa. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... PHILIP D. CURTIN, Disease and Empire: the health of European troops in the conquest of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 256 pp., 45.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 521 59835 4 hard covers, 16.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 521...

Uneven Zimbabwe: a study of finance, development and underdevelopment. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... PATRICK BOND, Uneven Zimbabwe: a study of finance, development and underdevelopment. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 1998, 500 pp., 16.99 [pounds sterling] (US $24.95), ISBN 0 86543 539 1 paperback. This book examines the role played by...

Socio-economic Stress, Health and Child Nutritional Status in Zimbabwe at a Time of Economic Structural Adjustment: a three-year longitudinal study. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... LEON A. BIJLMAKERS, MARY T. BASSETT and DAVID M. SANDERS, Socio-economic Stress, Health and Child Nutritional Status in Zimbabwe at a Time of Economic Structural Adjustment: a three-year longitudinal study. Research report 105. Uppsala:...

Structural Adjustment and Women Informal Sector Trades in Harare, Zimbabwe. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... RODRICK MUPEDZISWA and PERPETUA GUMBO, Structural Adjustment and Women Informal Sector Trades in Harare, Zimbabwe. Research report 106. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1998, 123 pp., 6.95 [pounds sterling] (US $18.95), ISBN 91 7106 435 4....

International Bibliography of African Customary Law: ius non scriptu. (Reviews Of Books).
June 22, 2001... EFFA OKUPA, International Bibliography of African Customary Law: ius non scriptu. IAI Monographs 4. London: International African Institute; Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 1998, 256 pp., 0.00 [pounds sterling], ISBN 3 8258 4009 3 paperback. This...

Transforming Female Identities: women's organisational forms in West Africa. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... EVA EVERS ROSANDER (ed.), Transforming Female Identities: women's organisational forms in West Africa. Seminar Proceedings 31. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1997, 243 pp., 18.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 91 7106 403 6. Transforming...

Survival on Meagre Resources: Hadendowa pastoralism in the Red Sea hills. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... LEIF MANGER, with Hassan Abd el Ati, Sharif Harir, Knut Krzywinski and Ole R. Vetaas, Survival on Meagre Resources: Hadendowa pastoralism in the Red Sea hills. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1996, 244 pp., 16.95 [pounds sterling], ISBN 91...

Violence in Nigeria: the crisis of religious politics and secular ideologies. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... TOYIN FALOLA, Violence in Nigeria: the crisis of religious politics and secular ideologies. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 1998, 393 pp., 42.00 [pounds sterling] (US $71.00), ISBN 1 58046 018 6. This book is a useful source of...

Nomadic Voices of Exile: feminine identity in francophone literature of the Maghreb. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... VALERIE ORLANDO, Nomadic Voices of Exile: feminine identity in francophone literature of the Maghreb. Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 1999, 256 pp., US $36.95, ISBN 0 8214 1262 0. Valerie Orlando's book makes a useful contribution to the...

The Rentier State in Africa: oil rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... DOUGLAS A. YATES, The Rentier State in Africa: oil rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. Trenton NJ: Africa World Press, 1996, 249 pp., 12.99 [pounds sterling], ISBN 0 86543 521 9 paperback. Gabon belongs to the...

Sir Garfield Todd and the Making of Zimbabwe. (Shorter Notices).(RUTH WEISS)
June 22, 2001... RUTH WEISS, with Jane L. Parpart, Sir Garfield Todd and the Making of Zimbabwe. London: British Academic Press, 1999, 254 pp., 39.50 [pounds sterling], ISBN 1 85043 693 2. A biography ought to include either new material or a new...

Historical Dictionary of Kenya, second edition. (Shorter Notices).
June 22, 2001... ROBERT MAXON and THOMAS OFCANSKY (eds), Historical Dictionary of Kenya, second edition. African Historical Dictionaries 77. Lanham MD and London: Scarecrow Press, 2000, 474 pp., US $85.00, ISBN 0 8108 3616 5. This is a very useful book. The...

Books received.(Bibliography)
June 22, 2001... Naomi Chazan, Peter Lewis, Robert Mortimer, Donald Rothchild and John Stedman, Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa, a third edition. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999, 543 pp., 15.99 [pounds sterling], 0 333 69475 9 paperback. Graham...