Mfecane Aftermath

Mfecane Aftermath
Author: Carolyn Hamilton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 518
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781868142521

A guide for interpreting the mfecane's role in history Was the mfecane a figment of historians' imagination as Julian Cobbing contends? How large a responsibility do Shaka and the Zulu people bear for the social turbulence in South-central and South-east Africa in the early decades of the 19th century? These are some of the issues explored in this collection, which is designed as a response to the radical critique of Dr. Cobbing and other scholars. The mfecane, suggests Cobbing, must be seen as a myth lying at the root of a set of interlinked assumptions and distortions that have seriously twisted our understanding of the main historical processes of late 18th- and early 19th-century Southern Africa. Contributors to this collection assess the implications of this critique for scholars from a range of disciplines, notably history, anthropology, archaeology, history of art and African languages. But the book is not only about the debate over Cobbing's work; it is also an indicator of the state of current scholarship in Southern Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries and, because it raises questions about the nature of sources and, indeed, about the nature of historical debate itself, it is also about historiography. This book should provide a useful guide for students starting out in this field, as well as a resource for established scholars seeking their way through the textual intricacies of varied editions and secondary texts that become the primary sources for historiographical debate.

The Mfecane

The Mfecane
Author: David Westley
Publisher: African Studies Program University of Wisconsin
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

Faku

Faku
Author: Timothy J. Stapleton
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0889205973

From roughly 1818 to 1867, Faku was ruler of the Mpondo Kingdom located in what is now the north-east section of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Because of Faku’s legacy, the Mpondo Kingdom became the last African state in Southern Africa to fall under colonial rule. When his father died, Faku inherited his power. In a period of intense raiding, migration and state formation, he transformed the Mpondo polity from a loosely organized constellation of tributary groups to a centralized and populous state with effective military capabilities and a prosperous agricultural foundation. In 1830, Faku allowed Wesleyan missionaries to establish a station within his kingdom and they became his main channel of communication with the Cape Colony, and later Natal. Ironically, he never showed any serious inclination to convert to Christianity. From the 1840s to early 1850s, this Mpondo king played a central, yet often understated, role in the British colonization of South Africa. While over the years his territory and power declined, Faku remained quite astute in diplomatic negotiations with colonial officials and used his missionary connections to optimum advantage. Timothy J. Stapleton’s narrative and use of oral history paint a clear and remarkable portrait of Faku and how he was able to manipulate missionaries, neighbours, colonists and circumstances to achieve his objectives. As a result, Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom (c.1780-1867) helps illuminate the history of the entire Cape region.

Lines that Divide

Lines that Divide
Author: James A. Delle
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781572330863

The division of human society by race, class, and gender has been addressed by scholars in many of the social sciences. Now historical archaeologists are demonstrating how material culture can be used to examine the processes that have erected boundaries between people. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the essays in this volume highlight diverse moments in the rise of capitalist civilization both in Western Europe and its colonies. In the first section, the contributors address the dynamics of the racial system that emerged from European colonialism. They show how archaeological remains shed light on the institution of slavery in the American Southeast, on the treatment of Native Americans by Mormon settlers, and on the color line in colonial southern Africa. The next group of articles considers how gender was negotiated in nineteenth-century New York City, in colonial Ecuador, and on Jamaican coffee plantations. A final section focuses on the issue of class division by examining the built environment of eighteenth-century Catalonia and material remains and housing from early industrial Massachusetts. These essays constitute an archaeology of capitalism and clearly demonstrate the importance of history in shaping cultural consciousness. Arguing that material culture is itself an active agent in the negotiation of social difference, they reveal the ways in which historical archaeologists can contribute to both the definition and dismantling of the lines that divide.

The Ndebele Nation

The Ndebele Nation
Author: Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Publisher: Rozenberg Publishers
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2009
Genre: Ndebele (African people)
ISBN: 9036101360

The Combing of History

The Combing of History
Author: David William Cohen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 1994-06-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226112780

How is historical knowledge produced? And how do silence and forgetting figure in the knowledge we call history? Taking us through time and across the globe, David William Cohen's exploration of these questions exposes the circumstantial nature of history. His investigation uncovers the conventions and paradigms that govern historical knowledge and historical texts and reveals the economic, social, and political forces at play in the production of history. Drawing from a wide range of examples, including African legal proceedings, German and American museum exhibits, Native American commemorations, public and academic debates, and scholarly research, David William Cohen explores the "walls and passageways" between academic and non-academic productions of history.

Imperial Networks

Imperial Networks
Author: Alan Lester
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2005-08-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134640048

Imperial Networks investigates the discourses and practices of British colonialism. It reveals how British colonialism in the Eastern Cape region was informed by, and itself informed, imperial ideas and activities elsewhere, both in Britain and in other colonies. It examines: * the origins and development of the three interacting discourses of colonialism - official, humanitarian and settler * the contests, compromises and interplay between these discourses and their proponents * the analysis of these discourses in the light of a global humanitarian movement in the aftermath of the antislavery campaign * the eventual colonisation of the Eastern cape and the construction of colonial settler identities. For any student or resarcher of this major aspect of history, this will be a staple part of their reading diet.

History of Southern Africa

History of Southern Africa
Author: John D. Omer-Cooper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1988
Genre: Africa, Southern
ISBN: 9780852550106

History of South Africa. Includes information about Namibia and the native races.

Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century: A Turbulent History

Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century: A Turbulent History
Author: Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317477502

Most histories seek to understand modern Africa as a troubled outcome of nineteenth century European colonialism, but that is only a small part of the story. In this celebrated book, beautifully translated from the French edition, the history of Africa in the nineteenth century unfolds from the perspective of Africans themselves rather than the European powers.It was above all a time of tremendous internal change on the African continent. Great jihads of Muslim conquest and conversion swept over West Africa. In the interior, warlords competed to control the internal slave trade. In the east, the sultanate of Zanzibar extended its reach via coastal and interior trade routes. In the north, Egypt began to modernize while Algeria was colonized. In the south, a series of forced migrations accelerated, spurred by the progression of white settlement.Through much of the century African societies assimilated and adapted to the changes generated by these diverse forces. In the end, the West's technological advantage prevailed and most of Africa fell under European control and lost its independence. Yet only by taking into account the rich complexity of this tumultuous past can we fully understand modern Africa from the colonial period to independence and the difficulties of today.

Hate the Old and Follow the New

Hate the Old and Follow the New
Author: Tilman Dedering
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
Total Pages: 218
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783515068727

The first comprehensive study of the interaction between the European missionaries and Africans in precolonial Namibia focusses on the expansion of the colonial frontier. Africans entered a new world of social relations where they faced the transformation of their societies in an ambivalent manner. Irrespective of the final, and unpredictable, outcome of the contest for power, many Africans encountered new challenges with initiative and determination. (Franz Steiner 1997)