Author: William Robert Ochieng'Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966251527
Category : Kenya
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
Historical Studies and Social Change in Western Kenya
Author: William Robert Ochieng'Publisher: East African Publishers
ISBN: 9789966251527
Category : Kenya
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
The Swahili World
Author: Stephanie Wynne-JonesPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317430166
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
The Swahili World presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. It covers a 1,500-year sweep of history, from the first settlement of the coast to the complex urban tradition found there today. Swahili towns contain monumental palaces, tombs, and mosques, set among more humble houses; they were home to fishers, farmers, traders, and specialists of many kinds. The towns have been Muslim since perhaps the eighth century CE, participating in international networks connecting people around the Indian Ocean rim and beyond. Successive colonial regimes have helped shape modern Swahili society, which has incorporated such influences into the region’s long-standing cosmopolitan tradition. This is the first volume to explore the Swahili in chronological perspective. Each chapter offers a unique wealth of detail on an aspect of the region’s past, written by the leading scholars on the subject. The result is a book that allows both specialist and non-specialist readers to explore the diversity of the Swahili tradition, how Swahili society has changed over time, as well as how our understandings of the region have shifted since Swahili studies first began. Scholars of the African continent will find the most nuanced and detailed consideration of Swahili culture, language and history ever produced. For readers unfamiliar with the region or the people involved, the chapters here provide an ideal introduction to a new and wonderful geography, at the interface of Africa and the Indian Ocean world, and among a people whose culture remains one of Africa’s most distinctive achievements.
The Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800–1920
Author: Cynthia BrantleyPublisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520377834
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
The Giriama of Kenya's coastal hinterland persistently resisted colonialism, and they were unreceptive both to Christianity and to Islam. In 1912 the British colonial authorities earmarked the Giriama as a key source of labor for the plantations Europeans were trying to develop along the coast. The Giriama, prosperous producers and traders, could not become wage laborers and maintain their successful economy, and the British demands upon this scattered people therefore were spontaneously rejected. Increased pressure increased Giriama recalcitrance. Finally, military action brought defeat to the Giriama, whose only weapons were bows and arrows and whose decentralization prevented coordinated resistance. They lost their best lands, paid a heavy fine, and had to contribute a thousand laborers to the Carrier Corps. But the British costs were also heavy. The coastal plantations failed, few Giriama ever became wage laborers, and the entire area became depressed economically. Cynthia Brantley explores the precolonial Giriama's political and economic system and their dynamic trade relationship with the coast of Kenya in an effort to explain why the Giriama were so determined in their resistance to British pressure. She shows that even when the political and social structures of a people seem weak, it is unlikely that the population will submit to changes that undermine the economy. Moreover, their very lack of a centralized political or religious organization made the imposition of foreign administration extremely difficult. The British won the war, but their victory was hollow. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.
The Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics
Author: Nic CheesemanPublisher:
ISBN: 0198815697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 786
Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Kenyan Politics provides a comprehensive and comparative overview of the Kenyan political system as well as an insightful account of Kenyan history from 1930 to the present day.
Islam and the European Empires
Author: David MotadelPublisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199668310
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
The first comparative account of the engagement of all major European empires with Islam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, exploring an array of themes, ranging from the accommodation of Islam under imperial rule to Islamic anti-colonial resistance and contributing to our understanding of religion and power in the modern world.
Colonial Kenya Observed
Author: S. H. FazanPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857725556
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
The coast of East Africa was considered a strategically invaluable region for the establishment of trading ports, both for Arab and Persian merchants, long prior to invasion and conquest by Europeans. In the initial stages of the scramble for Africa in the 18th century, control of the area was an aspiration for every colonial nation in Europe - but it was not until 1895 that it was finally dominated by a sole power and proclaimed The Protectorate of British East Africa. In the early 20th century, the coast was brimming with vitality as immigrants, colonisers and missionaries from Arabia, India and Europe poured in to take advantage of growing commercial opportunities - including the prospect of enslaving millions of native Africans. The development of Kenya is an exceptional tale within the history of British rule - in perhaps no other colony did nationalistic feeling evolve in conditions of such extensive social and political change. In 1911, S.H. Fazan sailed to what later became the Republic of Kenya to work for the colonial government. Immersing himself in knowledge of traditional language and law, he recorded the vast changes to local culture that he encountered after decades of working with both the British administration and the Kenyan people. This work charts the sweeping tide of social change that occurred through his career with the clarity and insight that comes with a total intimacy of a country. His memoirs examine the fascinating complexity of interaction between the colonial and native courts, commercial land reform and the revolutionised dynamic of labour relations. By further unearthing the political tensions that climaxed with the Mau Mau Revolt of 1952-1960, this invaluable work on the European colonial period paints a comprehensive and revealing firsthand account for anyone with an interest in British and African history. Fazan's story provides a quite unparalleled view of colonial Africa and the conduct of Empire across half a century.
The History of Islam in Africa
Author: Nehemia LevtzionPublisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821444611
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 605
Book Description
The history of the Islamic faith on the continent of Africa spans fourteen centuries. For the first time in a single volume, The History of Islam in Africa presents a detailed historic mapping of the cultural, political, geographic, and religious past of this significant presence on a continent-wide scale. Bringing together two dozen leading scholars, this comprehensive work treats the historical development of the religion in each major region and examines its effects. Without assuming prior knowledge of the subject on the part of its readers, The History of Islam in Africa is broken down into discrete areas, each devoted to a particular place or theme and each written by experts in that particular arena. The introductory chapters examine the principal “gateways” from abroad through which Islam traditionally has influenced Africans. The following two parts present overviews of Islamic history in West Africa and the Sudanic zone, and in subequatorial Africa. In the final section, the authors discuss important themes that have had an impact on Muslim communities in Africa. Designed as both a reference and a text, The History of Islam in Africa will be an essential tool for libraries, scholars, and students of this growing field. Contributors: Edward A. Alpers, René A. Bravmann, Abdin Chande, Eric Charry, Allan Christelow, Roberta Ann Dunbar, Kenneth W. Harrow, Lansiné Kaba, Lidwien Kapteijns, Nehemia Levtzion, William F. S. Miles, David Owusu-Ansah, M. N. Pearson, Randall L. Pouwels, Stefan Reichmuth, David Robinson, Peter von Sivers, Robert C.-H. Shell, Jay Spaulding, David C. Sperling with Jose H. Kagabo, Jean-Louis Triaud, Knut S. Vikør, John O. Voll, and Ivor Wilks
War of Words, War of Stones
Author: Jonathon GlassmanPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025322280X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
The Swahili coast of Africa is often described as a paragon of transnational culture and racial fluidity. Yet, during a brief period in the 1960s, Zanzibar became deeply divided along racial lines as intellectuals and activists, engaged in bitter debates about their nation's future, ignited a deadly conflict that spread across the island. War of Words, War of Stones explores how violently enforced racial boundaries arose from Zanzibar's entangled history. Jonathon Glassman challenges explanations that assume racial thinking in the colonial world reflected only Western ideas. He shows how Africans crafted competing ways of categorizing race from local tradition and engagement with the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds.
African Languages, Development and the State
Author: Richard FardonPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134868049
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
This shows that multilingusim does not pose for Africans the problems of communication that Europeans imagine and that the mismatch between policy statements and their pragmatic outcomes is a far more serious problem for future development
Mobilizing Zanzibari Women
Author: C. DeckerPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137472634
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
The experiences of African women in the era before independence remain a woefully understudied facet of African history. This innovative and carefully argued study thus adds tremendously to our understanding of colonial history by focusing on women's education, professionalization, and political mobilization in the East African islands of Zanzibar.