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Articles 1 - 30 of 214
Full-Text Articles in Africana Studies
Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 2, Editors Note
Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 2, Editors Note
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
The editors are pleased to present to you the second issue of Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies. Volume 1 Number 2 has a collection of research and forum articles as well as book reviews. There are four articles that builds from field research with different themes spanning from neolithic to the postcolonial periods. The themes include new neolithic dating; smallpox control in early colonial period in the former German East Africa (now Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi); evasion of colonial taxation; and the connection between land legislations and land conflicts among the peasant and pastoral communities. There are also …
New Chronology For Neolithic Cultures In The Lake Eyasi Basin, Northern Tanzania, Musa Said Mwitondi, Pastory Magayane Bushozi
New Chronology For Neolithic Cultures In The Lake Eyasi Basin, Northern Tanzania, Musa Said Mwitondi, Pastory Magayane Bushozi
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
There have been several studies on Neolithic Cultures in the Serengeti National. The recovered archaeological materials include domestic and wild fauna remains, potsherds and lithic artefacts, ochre, and stone enclosures, dating between 7200 and 4900 BP. In the East African Rift System (EARS), conventional ages for Neolithic Cultures are inferred from the most extensively researched Neolithic sites in Kenya, where the oldest Nderit ware, cattle and caprine in the Lake Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, date ca. 5200 BP. Studies on the Neolithic of EARS have been structured to fit into the migration or diffusion models that consider the spread of …
Smallpox Outbreaks And Immunization Policies In Tanzania From The Late Nineteenth Century To The First World War, Lorne Larson
Smallpox Outbreaks And Immunization Policies In Tanzania From The Late Nineteenth Century To The First World War, Lorne Larson
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
An estimated 300 million people died globally from smallpox in the 20th century alone. There was very much a North/South divide in the existence of the disease in that period, with countries across South America, Africa and Asia recording the majority of cases. In 1966 the World Health Organization launched an intensive effort to finally eliminate the disease. The last known endemic case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977, and that outbreak was promptly contained. In 1980 smallpox was declared eradicated – the only infectious disease affecting humans to achieve this distinction. This remains among the most notable …
'Evading The Tax Collector’: Native Responses To The Head Tax In Colonial Njombe, Tanzania, 1920-1960, Peter Chaula, Hezron Kangalawe
'Evading The Tax Collector’: Native Responses To The Head Tax In Colonial Njombe, Tanzania, 1920-1960, Peter Chaula, Hezron Kangalawe
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Tax collection was one of the core preoccupations of the colonial government in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and other colonies in the Africa that persisted even after independence. Direct taxation formed the basis of colonial taxation in Tanganyika. Head tax was a dominant form of direct taxation with its burden being borne primarily by Africans. This article uses the colonial Njombe District of Tanganyika to explore the responses of the African taxpayers to the head tax. The available data indicates that colonial head tax policies and practices in Njombe elicited varied responses from Africans with covert forms forming the mainstay of …
Revisiting African Religion As An Academic Discipline In Africa: History And Prospects, Ivan B. Kivinge
Revisiting African Religion As An Academic Discipline In Africa: History And Prospects, Ivan B. Kivinge
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Three main religious traditions—indigenous African beliefs and practices (African religion), Christianity and Islam—have dominated everyday life of communities in Africa today. Scholarship on religion indicates that only African religion originated in Africa— Christianity and Islam are foreign religions. Many Africans today have been active Christians and Muslims, who are sometimes being misleadingly taught that African religion is demonic and forms of paganism. This article employs historical and philosophical approaches to show how the study of African religion has navigated through various historical currents and resultant implications on the way the current generation views it. In the end, the article proposes …
Major Trends In Oral Historiography In Mainland Tanzania, 1960s To The Present: A Review Of Published Sources, Albertus K. Onyiego
Major Trends In Oral Historiography In Mainland Tanzania, 1960s To The Present: A Review Of Published Sources, Albertus K. Onyiego
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This article examines the role of oral methodology in reconstructing historical knowledge in Mainland Tanzania over the last six decades. Although greater attention is paid to the period from the 1960s onwards, efforts have been made to illuminate on the use of oral methodology in the period before. The article is organised into four temporal sections, each representing a distinct phase of oral methodology. The first section explores the role of oral methodology before independence. It will be noticed that the gradual use of oral sources in the writing of history in Mainland Tanzania started way back during German and …
A Society For Professional Archaeologists In Tanzania: A Call For Action, Richard K. Bigambo
A Society For Professional Archaeologists In Tanzania: A Call For Action, Richard K. Bigambo
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This essay discusses the need for an Archaeological Association of Tanzania and provides its general structure. It argues that the proposed association is essential for promoting the country’s development, heritage preservation and conservation, and promotion of archaeological studies. In addition to providing resources and support for research, training, and education, it would facilitate collaboration and networking, help protect and preserve Tanzania's cultural heritage, and increase public awareness and education about archaeology in Tanzania. The essay also discusses the development of archaeology in Tanzania and the history and contributions of archaeological associations worldwide. This structure for the proposed association would enable …
Review Of Water Brings No Harm: Management Knowledge And The Struggle For Waters Of Kilimanjaro, Maxmillian J. Chuhila
Review Of Water Brings No Harm: Management Knowledge And The Struggle For Waters Of Kilimanjaro, Maxmillian J. Chuhila
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Water Brings No Harm is a key text that enables readers to understand the competing claims to resource control between government authorities and local communities on the ground. Scholarship on the relationship between local knowledge and expert knowledge in resource management and control suggests an asymmetrical relationship in which expert opinion assumes the primary responsibility.1 Bender contrasts traditional and imposed systems of resource ownership and management, arguing that there has been a struggle from both sides, as each side believes it has a rightful claim to ownership and management of water source.
Review Of Decolonising Sociology: An Introduction, Armstrong K. Matogwa
Review Of Decolonising Sociology: An Introduction, Armstrong K. Matogwa
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Decolonizing Sociology is one of the few works in sociology that makes critical assessment of the discipline. It is a kind of self-critique within the discipline that aims to reveal epistemic setbacks that have existed for decades. To arrive to the point, Meghji, has situated his thesis along decolonial sociology, which interrogates dominant sociological theories in the context of imperialism. By so doing, he makes three main arguments as follows; first, what is called sociology is colonial in nature as it is based on the ideas of the Western thinkers namely Marx, Durkheim and Weber which emerged and institutionalized during …
Legal Provisions And Administration Of Land Disputes In Kiteto District, Ca. 1970s – 2000s: The Missing Linkage, Juma Marmo
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
There have been a series of legal interventions on land use in the post-colonial Tanzania to create a good land administration and management in order to end land use conflicts. Scholarship on the legal aspect of land use indicates that legal interventions did not provide lasting solutions to land use conflicts because of their structural and systemic arrangements. In addition, existing scholarship has little focus on the linkage between law enforcement machinery, the peoples’ level of understanding on land laws, and the occurrence of land use conflicts. This paper discusses the violation of laws by peasants, pastoralists, and government officials …
Agency And Identity Crisis In Diasporic Experience: A Study Of Dinaw Mengestu’S The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Phatik Prasad Poudyal
Agency And Identity Crisis In Diasporic Experience: A Study Of Dinaw Mengestu’S The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Phatik Prasad Poudyal
Critical Humanities
This paper examines agency and identity crisis in Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, focusing on protagonist Sepha Stephanos' diasporic experience as an Ethiopian refugee in the United States. Against the backdrop of trauma and socio-economic vulnerability, Sepha's struggle to navigate a new cultural landscape reveals the complexities of diasporic identity formation. Through a theoretical lens encompassing concepts of agency and identity discourse, the study analyzes Sepha's inability to exert agency in shaping his destiny, as influenced by his diasporic status and past trauma. Drawing on scholars such as William H. Sewel and Stuart Hall, the paper explores …
Introduction: Failed Futures? (Post)-Colonial Planning And Future-Making In Tanzania, Ulrike Lindner
Introduction: Failed Futures? (Post)-Colonial Planning And Future-Making In Tanzania, Ulrike Lindner
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Future-making and planning as social practices are strongly related to the
surrounding society’s political structures and power relations. In this
special issue of ZAMANI, we conceptualize future-making as physical
changes and social practices that shape future conditions by making future
an issue in the present. We analyse how different approaches to the future,
and also surprises and unintended side-effects, have informed the politics
and practices of planning in Tanzania and its various regions.1 When we ask:
“Failed Futures?” we address future in the plural, a term that has diffused
into historical scholarship rather recently and originates from
futurology/future studies, known …
‘Sold Down The River’: Histories Of Production, Trade, And Transport Along The Waterways Of The Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, Jonathan M. Jackson
‘Sold Down The River’: Histories Of Production, Trade, And Transport Along The Waterways Of The Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, Jonathan M. Jackson
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This article considers the centrality of waterways in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania to the region’s histories of development from above, particularly in terms of infrastructure, crop production, trade, and transport. Early colonial investigations hoped Kilombero’s riverine system might prove a navigable link from the coast to the Southern Highlands. The British colonial era instead focused more on utilising riverine networks for internal goods transport. Throughout these colonial visions – simultaneously ambitious and naïve – the prevalent dug- out canoe was considered unsafe, inefficient, and replaceable by modernised methods. But the canoe – a symbol of indigenous knowledge and practice …
Nurturing Traditional Midwifery And Medicine: The Entangled Path Of Health Integration In Post-Independence Kilombero, Tanzania, Veronica Kimani
Nurturing Traditional Midwifery And Medicine: The Entangled Path Of Health Integration In Post-Independence Kilombero, Tanzania, Veronica Kimani
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This paper focuses on the Tanzanian government’s ambitious endeavour to enhance health, particularly midwifery services following independence. The initial strategy by the government involved promoting Western medicine by establishing healthcare facilities and training medical personnel. However, the strain of a burgeoning population and limited resources soon became evident, prompting the government to recognise the need for the incorporation of traditional medicine, previously overlooked. This integration posed its own set of obstacles, as the focus on herbal remedies overshadowed crucial aspects of conventional midwifery, such as rituals. While research has shown the resolve of the government towards medical integration between different …
Health Infrastructure Planning In Tanzania, 1961–1980s: The Problems Of Future-Making, Frank Edward, Ulrike Lindner
Health Infrastructure Planning In Tanzania, 1961–1980s: The Problems Of Future-Making, Frank Edward, Ulrike Lindner
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
Between 1961 and 1978, Tanzania invested significantly in the health service provision – from training requisite manpower, provision of health education to building the necessary infrastructure in order to improve health conditions of the population. As existing research indicates, the investment paid off considerably in qualitative terms, for instance, with a gradual increase in life expectancy and a decline in infant mortality. This paper examines the vision of the state of health in Tanzania by using the prism of infrastructure. Its focus is on direct and indirect physical infrastructures, particularly medical buildings and facilities. Through the analysis of archival and …
Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 1, Editors Note
Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 1, Editors Note
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This is the maiden issue of Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies. It charts the beginning of a continental journal that is based in an African higher education institution within Africa. It breaks away from the traditional historical journals in Africa of being national or regional and at best being owned and operated by scholars and institutions from Europe and North America. With this maiden issue, the journal seeks to demonstrate that it is part of the bigger knowledge decolonization movement. It seeks to influence historical writing and research by giving more Africanness in ownership, operations, production and knowledge …
Medical Mission Futures: German Protestant Missionaries And Modern Healthcare In Southern Highlands, Tanzania,1891–1940, Luoneko Kaduma
Medical Mission Futures: German Protestant Missionaries And Modern Healthcare In Southern Highlands, Tanzania,1891–1940, Luoneko Kaduma
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
The history of colonial missionaries in Tanzania is marked by a complex interplay between evangelical efforts and the provision of Western biomedicine, which functioned as crucial mechanisms for conversion and cultural transformation. Missionaries viewed the improvement of African health as a project aimed at attracting converts and propagating Christianity. However, the available data indicates that, instead of genuinely expressing interest in converting to Christianity, the majority of Africans primarily sought mission medical assistance for medical reasons while maintaining strong connections to their traditional beliefs and healing practices. This paper, drawing from archival documents, ethnographic accounts, and missionary writings, focuses on …
‘Prevention Is Better Than Cure’: Smallpox Vaccination In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1961–1980, Musa Sadock
‘Prevention Is Better Than Cure’: Smallpox Vaccination In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1961–1980, Musa Sadock
Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies
This article examines the smallpox vaccination programme in postcolonial Tanzania from the 1960s to the early 1980s as part of the postcolonial future making in preventive medicine. The article departs from extant scholarship on smallpox vaccination in postcolonial Tanzania, which depicts the intervention as a success, while relegating to the background challenges associated with the intervention. The article argues that the smallpox vaccination programme registered challenges and successes that offer lessons for combating of future epidemics. The achievements of the programme were due to the adoption of specific public health policies, namely mass vaccination and public health education as well …
Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed
Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed
Capstones
This criticism piece explores the controversial female rapper Sexyy Red. It challenges negative perspectives about her persona, primarily based on respectability politics. It highlights Sexyy Red's ability to capitalize on a moment and business savviness. The article has themes of racial double standards and classism. Sexyy Red is more than the "ghetto Black girl," aesthetic. She's a mother and entrepreneur who is authentic to herself.
Maka: Un Processo Collaborativo Raccontato A Tre Voci, Simone Brioni Dr., Geneviève Makaping, Elia Moutamid
Maka: Un Processo Collaborativo Raccontato A Tre Voci, Simone Brioni Dr., Geneviève Makaping, Elia Moutamid
Department of English Faculty Publications
The documentary Maka offers an account of Makaping’s journey of migration from Cameroon, her arrival in Italy in 1982 following the tragic death of her partner, her success as a journalist and television host, and her more recent relocation to Mantua. Maka focuses on questions of national belonging, and it reflects on how the perception of migration and race has changed since Makaping first came to Italy in the 1990s. This contribution includes a short article in which the protagonist, the writer and the director of the film reflect upon their collaboration. It also includes a video recording of the …
How Misogyny In Gaming Affects Black Women/Poc, Niccarri Allen
How Misogyny In Gaming Affects Black Women/Poc, Niccarri Allen
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
This research query explores the gaming industry and how its misogynistic issues affect the Black community in its forums. Research has shown that there has been a suppressed issue of prejudice against women of color in many gaming spaces in the last 20 years. Video games, created for healing and interactive spaces for communities seemingly have normalized its harming nature to minority groups. My research will look into aspects of how gender bias and racism mix into the gaming industry and cause distress among its players. I will research how misrepresentation in the character personas in video games lead to …
In The Mix: Hip Hop's Impact On Genre Development And Cultural Influence In African And Jamaican Music, Kinzi Kabadeh
In The Mix: Hip Hop's Impact On Genre Development And Cultural Influence In African And Jamaican Music, Kinzi Kabadeh
Postgraduate
In this exegesis, I contend that certain compositional elements and production methods of dancehall, amapiano, and afrobeats demonstrate hip hop’s influence on contemporary Jamaican and African electronic music. In particular, the drum programming, track mixing, and use of sampling demonstrate a cross-pollination and cultural transfer between the two forms of music (on one hand, the African and Jamaican genres of dancehall, amapiano, and afrobeats, and on the other, the African American music of hip hop). These genres are fundamental to contemporary Black culture and share origins as vehicles for resistance to oppressive forces.
The Ministries Of New Communities In The Ivory Coast Scrutinised Under The Lens Of The Theological And Magisterial Vision Of The Church, Joseph Loïc Mben Sj
The Ministries Of New Communities In The Ivory Coast Scrutinised Under The Lens Of The Theological And Magisterial Vision Of The Church, Joseph Loïc Mben Sj
Journal of Global Catholicism
The goal of this article is to show that the ministries of new communities are in conformity with the theological and magisterial vision of the Church and that, in many cases, they contribute to its enrichment. Following some lexical clarifications, it makes particular use of the schema of the threefold offices of Christ in which the members of new communities partake as the baptized, to show how the ministries realize each of the dimensions of Christ’s office.
Les Ministères Des Communautés Nouvelles Au Crible De La Vision Théologique Et Magistérielle De L’Eglise, Joseph Loïc Mben Sj
Les Ministères Des Communautés Nouvelles Au Crible De La Vision Théologique Et Magistérielle De L’Eglise, Joseph Loïc Mben Sj
Journal of Global Catholicism
L’objectif de cet article est de montrer que les ministères des communautés nouvelles sont en conformité avec la vision théologique et magistérielle de l’Eglise et que, dans bien des cas, ils contribuent à l’enrichir. Passé les clarifications lexicales, il s’agira, en utilisant notamment le schéma du triple office du Christ auquel les membres des communautés nouvelles participent en tant que baptisé-e-s, de montrer comment les ministères réalisent chacune des dimensions de l’office du Christ.
Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz
Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz
Journal of Global Catholicism
No abstract provided.
“Forget The Rest ...”: Notes On Magnetic Tape And Other Antiquated Media As Archives Of Afro-Atlantic Liturgy, David Font-Navarrete
“Forget The Rest ...”: Notes On Magnetic Tape And Other Antiquated Media As Archives Of Afro-Atlantic Liturgy, David Font-Navarrete
Yale Journal of Music & Religion
The virtuosic complexity of Afro-Cuban orisha music has led scholars and artists to enshrine it as a “classical” tradition, and it has become one of most iconic and closely-studied sacred music traditions of the historical Afro-Atlantic. This essay traces the legacies of several analog-era multimedia technologies in orisha music traditions: reel-to-reel and cassette tapes; limited edition and out-of-print books and phonograph discs; ephemeral texts such as album liner notes; and photographic negatives, prints, and slides. The tapes and photos — along with a vast body of informal, unpublished, and out-of-print documents of Afro-Cuban orisha liturgy — are seldom archived by …
Souleymane’S Story, Sherry Coman
Souleymane’S Story, Sherry Coman
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Souleymane’s Story (2024), directed by Boris Lojkine.
Seeds Of Dependency: How Neocolonialism Acts As A Barrier To Sustainable Agriculture In Cameroon’S Centre Region, Joseph Caltagirone
Seeds Of Dependency: How Neocolonialism Acts As A Barrier To Sustainable Agriculture In Cameroon’S Centre Region, Joseph Caltagirone
Cameroon: Development and Social Change
This paper aims to answer how neocolonialism has acted as a barrier to sustainable agriculture in the Centre region of Cameroon. This research draws on primary data from interviews with government officials, NGO employees, and farmers, as well as observations conducted in the village of Sa’a, and a review of literature on Cameroon’s colonial history and agricultural practices. It reveals that the barriers to sustainable agriculture are rooted in entrenched economic incentives driven by foreign investors and multinationals, with the complicity of the Cameroonian government, domestic NGOs, and producers. Findings uncovered that these financial incentives in turn encourage export driven …
The Ideological State Apparatus Of Cameroon: Molding Consciousness, Ethan Levine
The Ideological State Apparatus Of Cameroon: Molding Consciousness, Ethan Levine
Cameroon: Development and Social Change
The ideological state apparatus is a concept introduced by French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser that refers to the body of institutions–educational, cultural, religious, and communications–that shape the popular class’ values, beliefs, and political ideas to legitimize and reproduce the conditions of production. This framework is essential for my research because it offers a material basis–the economic foundations–of the institutions that mold consciousness. Simply put, the education and media in Cameroon, as in every state, are guided by the underlying logics of their mode of production. Using this framework, my research explores the political consciousness of the working class in Yaoundé …
Professional Mourning: Billie Holiday’S “Strange Fruit” And The Remaking Of Black Consciousness, Samuel Galen Ng
Professional Mourning: Billie Holiday’S “Strange Fruit” And The Remaking Of Black Consciousness, Samuel Galen Ng
Africana Studies: Faculty Publications
This article examines the impact that Billie Holiday’s singing of “Strange Fruit” had on African American audiences from 1939 until Holiday’s death in 1959. It argues that Holiday’s performances embodied and induced a state of collective mourning by way of their politically strategic efforts to frame Black existence as a site of ongoing endangerment and corresponding fear. With carefully crafted, professional expertise, Holiday’s singing generated a feeling of shared vulnerability among her Black audiences and, furthermore, presented that feeling as the very foundation of Black being. Effecting its intended political work, her singing thus prompted some of these listeners to …