African History Commons^™

European Missionaries And Tswana Identity In The 19th Century, Stephen Volz

Stephen Volz

During the nineteenth century, 'Batswana' became used as label for a large number of people inhabiting the interior of southern Africa, and European missionaries played an important role in the evolution of the term's meaning and the adoption of that meaning by both Europeans and Batswana. Through their long years of residence among Batswana and development ofwrillenforms of Sets wan a, missionaries became acknowledged by other Europeans as experts on Tswana culture, and their notions of Tswana ethnicity became incorporated into European understandings of Africans and, eventually, into Batswana understandings of themselves. The development of Tswana identity passed through several …

Them Who Kill The Body: Christian Ideals And Political Realities In The Interior Of Southern Africa During The 1850s, Stephen Volz

Stephen Volz

This article considers the changing political significance of Christianity in the interior of southern Africa during the 1850s, focusing primarily on the views of Tswana rulers, converts and others within their communities, and secondarily on attempts by European missionaries to reconcile their service both to African communities and to European expansion, which compelled them to articulate a rationale for their civilising mission. The article historicises the process whereby Christianity lost its initial universalistic ideals and became politicised by African-European competition, with divine sanction being claimed by one side or another. That process was accompanied by considerable debate and doubt: the …

The Swahili, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

Katama Mkangi's Subaltern Sociology: Legacies Of Race And Colonialism At The Coast Of East Africa, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

Caught Between Chief And Missionary: Tswana Evangelists And European Colonisation, Stephen Volz

Stephen Volz

"The World And Africa": World-Systems Theories And The Erasure Of East Africa From World History, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

The article examines how some world historical and world systems narratives have or not have integrated Africa or various parts of the African continent into their models. It focuses on East Africa, a place which has experienced a considerable revolt against colonial biases since the 1960s. Moreover, a review of several and most popular and acclaimed scholars of world historical scholarships were presented with the aim of demonstrating that the colonial biases of African negation have not been swept aside. They include Fernand Braudel, Andre Gunder Frank, Janet Abu-Lughod, and Eric Wolf. It had suggested that scholars must guard against …

Squatters, Resistance To "Development," And Magic As A Tool Of Subaltern Power: A Case From Coastal Kenya, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

African Antiquity, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

Of Nabateans And Nubians: Implications Of Research On Neglected Dimensions Of Ancient World History, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

Nabateans And Nubians: The Case For Ancient Connections Between Africa And Asia, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

The exploration of relations between the Nubians and the Nabateans opens new possibilities concerning the historical and historiographic linkages between ancient East Africa and the ancient Middle East. In large part, such an analysis speaks to the re-mapping of Ancient World relations and the role of anti-colonial historiography in the execution of such a task. Anti-colonial historiography has challenged the presuppositions of the modern political construction of these regions and their interaction. It has done so by posing critical questions concerning the re-reading of existing data and, therefore, the reconstruction of the historical record. The new direction into Nubian/Nabatean relations …