TSWANA CHRISTIANS The Realm of the Word: Language, Gender and Christianity in a Southern African Kingdom. By PAUL LANDAU. London: James Currey, 1995. Pp. xxix + 249. £35 (ISBN 0-85255-670-5); £14.95 paperback (ISBN 0-85255-620-9).

Abstract

‘Writing history’, claims Paul Landau in a revealing comment in his epilogue, ‘is an attempt to pin and mount lives on the page of a book, like butterflies or rose petals’ (p. 219). The generalization is sweeping, but the tropes aptly symbolize the type of history written in this book. This is a subtle, nuanced account of the intertwining of Christianity and politics in central Botswana from the 1850s to the 1940s. It is deeply informed by Foucauldian notions of power. Landau, moreover, is troubled by the implications of exercising power, through the very act of ‘pinning’ down lives.