The Journal of African History articles from October 1999

The Journal of African History archives from October 1999

THE KING'S AFRIKANERS? ENLISTMENT AND ETHNIC IDENTITY IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA'S DEFENCE FORCE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, 1939-45.
October 1, 1999... IN contrast to the situation in Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia, South Africa's participation in the Second World War has not been accorded a particularly significant place in the country's historiography. In part at...

THE FIRST DECADE OF 'EUROPEAN BEER' IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: THE STATE, THE BREWERS AND THE DRINKING PUBLIC, 1962-72 [*].
October 1, 1999... THE study of liquor provides an opportunity for re-examining relations between states and economies. Recent works in European social history have shown that liquor occupies an ambiguous space between economic, social and cultural production...

REPRESENTATION, STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: DIVORCE IN THE FRENCH SOUDAN DURING THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY.
October 1, 1999... ON 5 October 1905, Baia Bari of Gassin village went before the tribunal de province of Segu seeking a divorce from her husband, Tiemoko Boare of Koila. Both Baia Bari and Tiemoko Boare were Muslims. Baia Bari claimed that Tiemoko Boare had...

'CHANGING TRADITIONS TO MEET CURRENT ALTERING CONDITIONS': CUSTOMARY LAW, AFRICAN COURTS AND THE REJECTION OF CODIFICATION IN KENYA, 1930-60 [*].
October 1, 1999... If the aim of British colonizers, Frederick Lugard wrote, was to civilize Africans 'and to devote thought to those matters which... most intimately affect their daily life and happiness, there are few of greater importance than the...

TRADING IN SLAVES IN BELA-SHANGUL AND GUMUZ, ETHIOPIA: BORDER ENCLAVES IN HISTORY, 1897-1938.
October 1, 1999... LIKE other empires in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, expansion and slavery went hand in hand in Ethiopia, contrary to imperial justifications based on the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. [1] Towards the end of the...

THE MAKING OF HISTORY IN COLONIAL HAUTE VOLTA: BORDER CONFLICTS BETWEEN TWO MOOSE CHIEFTAINCIES, 1900-1940 [*].
October 1, 1999... WHEN, in 1896, the Moose kingdoms of contemporary Burkina Faso were incorporated in the colony of Haute Volta, a period of sometimes extreme hardship began for their population as the French colonizers introduced head taxes, forced labour and...

LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE AND HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION.(Review)
October 1, 1999... University of Wisconsin-Madison A Green Place, a Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the Fifteenth Century. By DAVID LEE SCHOENBRUN. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann: Oxford: James Currey, 1998....

MEROE.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Meroe City: An Ancient African Capital: John Garstang's Excavations in the Sudan. By LASZLO TOROK, with contributions by I. HOFMANN and I. NAGY. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1997. 2 vols., Part I, pp. xxx + 287; Part II, 153 figs, 243...

REREADING PTOLEMY'S MAP.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Africa in Antiquity: A Linguistic and Toponymic Analysis of Ptolemy's Map of Africa, together with a Discussion of Ophir, Punt and Hanno's Voyage. By W. F. G. LACROIX. (Nijmegen Studies in Development and Cultural Change, 28). Saarbrucken:...

A HISTORY OF PLANTAIN CULTIVATION.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Taxonomic-Linguistic Study of Plantain in Africa. By GERDA ROSSEL. Leiden: CNWS Publications, 1998. Pp. xvi+ 361. DFI 50/$25 (ISBN 90-5789-004-6). In this 1998 Ph.D. thesis from Wageningen Agricultural University, Gerda Rossel seeks to...

HISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF CASTES.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Les Castes de l'Afrique Occidentale: Artisans et Musiciens Endogames. By TAL TAMARI. (Societes africaines). Nanterre: Societe d'Ethnologie, 1997. Pp. 464. FF270 (ISBN 2-901161-50-2; ISSN 0293-9118). Tal Tamari has given historians of...

REGIONAL HISTORY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Histoire du Pays Gouin et de Ses Environs (Burkina Faso). Par MICHELE DACHER. (Decouvertes du Burkina). Paris and Ouagadougou: SEPIA-A.D.D.B., 1997. Pp. 188. FFr 113.74 (ISBN 2-84280-013-3). Although interest in local histories of the...

ROYAL WOMEN IN DANHOME.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey. By EDNA G. BAY. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 1998. Pp. xiii+376. $55 (ISBN 0-8139-1791-3); $19.50, paperback (ISBN 0-8139-1792-1). ...

WOMEN IN COMBAT.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey. By STANLEY B. ALPERN. London: Hurst, 1998. Pp. xii + 280. [pounds]35 (ISBN 1-85065-361-5); [pounds]12.95, paperback (ISBN 1-85065-362-3). One of Dahomey's most notable...

ETHIOPIAN CHURCH HISTORY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Missionary Factor in Ethiopia. Edited by GETATCHEW HAILE, AASULV LANDE and SAMUEL RUBENSON. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1998. Pp. 215. [pounds]24, paperback (ISBN 3-631-33259-9). This valuable collection of articles on Ethiopian...

SLAVERY IN CAMEROON.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Slave Settlements in the Banyang Country, 1800-1950. By E. D. S. FOMIN and VICTOR JULIUS NGOH. Limbe: University of Buea Publications, 1998. Pp. vii + 115. No price or ISBN given. Historians in Africa exercized considerable restraint in...

AFRICAN PASTORS WRITE HISTORY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Recovery of the West African Past: African Pastors and African History in the Nineteenth Century: C. C. Reindorf and Samuel Johnson. Edited by PAUL JENKINS. Basel: Basel Mission Bookshop, for Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1998 Pp. 212....

WARFARE IN COLONIAL AFRICA.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830--1914. By BRUCE VANDERVORT (Warfare and History). London: UCL Press, 1998. Pp. xviii+274. [pounds]45 (ISBN 1-85728486-0); [pounds]13.95, paperback (ISBN 1-85728-487-9). Bruce Vandervort has...

COLONIAL LAND LAW.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Our Laws, Their Lands: Land Laws and Land Use in Modern Colonial Societies. Edited by JAP DE MOOR and DIETMAR ROTHERMUND. Munster, Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 1994. Pp. 172. $38 (ISBN 3-8258-2097-1). Debate and conflict about issues...

FRENCH COLONIAL POLICY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930. By ALICE L. CONKLIN. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii + 367. [pounds]37.50/$55 (ISBN 0-8047-2999-9). Alice Conklin has reviewed...

THE BODY IN QUESTION.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Anatomy of Power : European Constructions of the African Body. By ALEXANDER BUTCHART. London and New York: Zed Books, 1998. Pp. xiv + 220. [pounds]42.50/$62.50 (ISBN 1-85649-539-6); [pounds]14.95/$22.50 paperback (ISBN 1-85649-540-x). ...

PROBLEMATIZING ETHNICITY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Die Konstruktion von Ethnizitdt: Eine politische Geschichte Nord-West Ghanas, 1870-1900 [The Construction of Ethnicity. A Political History of Northwestern Ghana, 1870-1990]. By CAROLA LENTZ. (Studien zur Kulturkunde, 112). Cologne: Rudiger...

ECOLOGICAL HISTORY.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Reframing Deforestation: Global Analysis and Local Realities: Studies in West Africa. By JAMES FAIRHEAD and MELISSA LEACH. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. XXV + 238. [pounds]50 (ISBN 0-415-18590-4); [pounds]17.99, paperback (ISBN...

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Science and Power in Colonial Mauritius. By WILLIAM K. STORBY. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1997. Pp. viii + 238. [pounds]40.00 (ISBN 1-58046-015-1). Colonialists liked to justify their rule in terms of bringing the...

GHANAIAN MEDICAL HISTORY.
October 1, 1999... The Evolution of Modern Medicine in a Developing Country: Ghana, 1880-1960. By STEPHEN ADDAE. Edinburgh, Cambridge and Durham, NC: Durham Academic Press. 1996. Pp. Xii + 523. [pounds]32.50 (ISBN 1-900838-05-2). This is a landmark book by...

DIPLOMATIC FACILITATOR.
October 1, 1999... Malcolm MacDonald : Bringing an End to Empire. By CLYDE SANGER. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press; Montreal: McGill-Queen's University, 1995. Pp. xxi+498. [pounds]25 (ISBN 0-85323-902-2); $49.95 (ISBN 077351-303-5). The task of any...

WARFARE IN PORTUGUESE AFRICA.
October 1, 1999... Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War, 1961-1974. By JOHN P. CANN (Contributions in Military Studies Number 167). Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1997. Pp. xvi + 216 [pounds]46.50 (ISBN 0-313-30189-1). In the...

A HISTORY OF PATRIMONIAL POLITICS.
October 1, 1999... Comrades, Clients and Cousins: Colonialism, Socialism and Democratization in Sao Tome and Principe. By GERHARD SEIBERT. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWA), no. 73, 1999. Pp. xiv + 465. No price given (ISBN...

SWAHILI-SPEAKING WOMEN IN COURT.
October 1, 1999... Pronouncing and Persevering: Gender and the Discourses of Disputing in an African Islamic Court. By SUSAN F. HIRSCH. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp. ix + 360. $48 (ISBN 0-226-34463-0); $19, paperback (ISBN 0-226-34464-9). ...

SCHOOLING IN KENYA.
October 1, 1999... Le Desir d'Ecole: Les Initiatives Africaines dans l'Education au Kenya [The Desire for School: African Initiatives in Kenyan Education]. By HELENE CHARTON. Paris: Publications de Universite de Paris 7-Denis Diderot, n.d. Pp. 134. FFr. 70.00,...

SCHOOLING IN UGANDA.
October 1, 1999... History and Development of Education in Uganda. By J. C. SSEKAMWA. Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 1997. Pp. 240. $18.00/[pounds]9.95, paperback (ISBN 9 970020 59 5). The first president of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere wrote in 1968...

Routes to Slavery: Direction, Ethnicity and Mortality in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
October 1, 1999... Routes to Slavery: Direction, Ethnicity and Mortality in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Edited by DAVID ELTIS and DAVID RICHARDSON. London: Frank Cass, 1997. Pp. 248. [pounds]29.50 (ISBN 0-7546-4807-8); [pounds]15, paperback (ISBN...

Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues.
October 1, 1999... Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues. Edited by ROBERT A. BICKERS and ROSEMARY SETON. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996. Pp. vi + 255. [pounds]37.50/$68.50 (ISBN 0-7007-0369-I); [pounds]14.99/$29.95, paperback (ISBN 0-7007-0370-5)....

Djibouti 1888-1967: Heritage ou Frustration?
October 1, 1999... Djibouti 1888-1967: Heritage ou Frustration? By COLETTE DUBOIS. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan 1997. Pp. 431. FFr 230 (ISBN 2-7384-5860-2). This is an economic history of the city of Djibouti based largely on colonial archival records kept...

Legacy of Bitterness: Ethiopia and Fascist Italy, 1935-1941.
October 1, 1999... Legacy of Bitterness: Ethiopia and Fascist Italy, 1935-1941. By ALBERTO SBACCHI. Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press, 1997. Pp. 434. [pounds]16.99, paperback (ISBN 0-9322415-74-1). Several 'legacies of bitterness' have been left by...

Decolonization.
October 1, 1999... Decolonization. By RAYMOND F. BETTS. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. 112. [pounds]8.99, paperback (ISBN 0-415-15236-4). This slim volume on a large subject forms part of a still more ambitious series on 'The Making of the...

Jimmy La Guma: A Biography.
October 1, 1999... Jimmy La Guma: A Biography. By ALEX LA GUMA. Cape Town: Friends of the South African Library, 1997. Pp. 87. ZAR 55 (ISBN 0-86968-121-4). Alex La Guma wrote this affectionate sketch of his father in the early 1960s. Its belated publication...

Historical Dictionary of Chad.
October 1, 1999... Historical Dictionary of Chad. Third edition. By SAMUEL DECALO. (African Historical Dictionaries, no. 13.) London and Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 1997. Pp. Xlvii+601. [pounds]85.50 (ISBN 0-8108-3253-4). The word Chad is ambiguous....

Historical Dictionary of Eritrea.
October 1, 1999... Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. By TOM KILLION. (African Historical Dictionaries, no. 75). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. Pp. Xli + 535. [pounds]61.75 (ISBN 0-8108-3437-5). This book is the most recent effort to compile a...

Historical Dictionary of Zambia.
October 1, 1999... Historical Dictionary of Zambia. Second edition. By JOHN J. GROTPETER, BRIAN V. SIEGEL and JAMES R. PLETCHER. Lanham, MD and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1998. Pp. xxxv+ 57'. [pounds]85.50 (ISBN 0-8108-3345-X). Over the past...

IDENTITY AND HISTORY.
October 1, 1999... Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries. Edited by P. T. W. BAXTER, J. HULTIN and A. TRIULZI. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1996. Pp. 310. [pounds] 18.95, paperback (ISBN 91-7106-379-x). A great distance...

POLITICAL CAREER OF A DICTATOR.
October 1, 1999... Dark Age: The Political Odyssey of Emperor Bokassa. By BRIAN TITLEY. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997. Pp. xvii + 258. [pounds]22.95 (ISBN 0-85323-712-3). Dark Age details the political career of the notorious Jean-Bedel...

SOMALI CRISIS.
October 1, 1999... Mending Rips in the Sky: Options for Somali Communities in the Twenty-first Century. Edited by HUSSEIN M. ADAM and RICHARD FORD. Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1997. Pp. xxvi + 673. [pounds]17.99, paperback (ISBN 1-56902-074-4). Few...