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Topics may lie in any area of Africa’s history, broadly defined to include economic, political, or social history, and other specialties. The editors are particularly interested in projects that bear upon the following: economic activities of peoples or regions during the colonial period; effects of political turmoil upon the social and economic diaspora of the post-colonial period; economic development modeling for Africa; and historiographical examinations of particular regions. This list, we stress, is meant only to encourage certain kinds of submissions, not to exclude thoughtful and challenging work of other sorts. 

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64 results in Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora

Page 3 of 4

Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria
  • Ebenezer Obadare
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    15 February 2018
    Print publication:
    29 February 2016
  • In Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria, Ebenezer Obadare offers an innovative perspective on the idea and reality of civil society. Mobilizing a wide range of concepts and insights from political science, African studies, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, anthropology, communications theory, and international development, Obadare develops a notion of civil society that radically departs from the literature's axiomatic focus on voluntary civic associations and focuses instead on more informal strategies of resistance, such as humor and silence. Compellingly argued, Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria raises provocative questions on a topic of keen importance for students, scholars, and policymakers.

    Ebenezer Obadare is associate professorof sociology at the University of Kansas. He is coeditor of Civic Agency in Africa: Arts of Resistance in the 21st Century (James Currey, 2014).

Ira Aldridge
  • The African Roscius
  • With contributions by Cyril Bruyn Andrews , Nikola Batusic , Philip A. Bell , Keith Byerman , Ruth M. Cowhig , Nicholas M. Evans , Joost Groeneboer , Ann Marie Koller , Onwhyn , Joyce Green MacDonald , Herbert Marshall , James J Napier , Krzysztof Sawala , Gunner Sjögren , James McCune Smith , Hazel Waters and Stanley B. Winters
  • Edited by Bernth Lindfors
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    26 October 2017
    Print publication:
    02 October 2007
  • Ira Aldridge -- a black New Yorker -- was one of nineteenth-century Europe's greatest actors. He performed abroad for forty-three years, winning more awards, honors, and official decorations than any of his professional peers. Billed as the "African Roscius," Aldridge developed a repertoire initially consisting of Shakespeare's Othello, melodramas about slavery, and farces that drew on his ability to sing and dance. By the time he began touring in Europe he was principally a Shakespearean actor, playing such classic characters as Shylock, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear.
    Although his frequent public appearances made him the most visible black man in the world by mid-nineteenth century, today Aldridge tends to be a forgotten figure, seldom mentioned in histories of British and European theater. This collection restores the luster to Aldridge's reputation by examining his extraordinary achievements against all odds. The early essays offer biographical information, while later essays examine his critical and popular reception throughout the world. Taken together, these diverse approaches to Aldridge offer a fuller understanding and heightened appreciation of a remarkable man who had an exceptionally interesting life and a spectacular career.
    Contributors: Cyril Bruyn Andrews, Nikola Batusic, Philip A. Bell, Keith Byerman, Ruth M. Cowhig, Nicholas M. Evans, Joost Groeneboer, Ann Marie Koller, Joyce Green MacDonald, Herbert Marshall, James J. Napier, Krzysztof Sawala, Gunner Sjögren, James McCune Smith, Hazel Waters, and Stanley B. Winters.

    Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African literatures at The University of Texas at Austin.

Ira Aldridge
  • The Early Years, 1807–1833
  • Bernth Lindfors
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    26 October 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2011
  • Ira Aldridge: The Early Years, 1807-1833 chronicles the rise of one of the modern world's first black classical actors, as he ascended from an impoverished childhood in New York City to a career as a celebrated thespian on the British stage.
    After a successful debut in London in 1825, Aldridge began touring the British provinces, billing himself grandiloquently as the "African Roscius," and attracting crowds with his powerful presence and style. He received accolades not only as a tragedian in classic roles such as Othello and Oroonoko but also as a comic actor in popular farces and musicals. In 1833, when a bill to abolish slavery was being debated in Parliament, he was called back to London to perform at one of the city's most prestigious theaters, where his appearance, now under his own name but also billed as "a native of Senegal," created a great deal of controversy.
    In dealing with Aldridge's emergence as a professional actor in the United Kingdom, Lindfors here records in detail the ups and downs of his itinerant existence in a world where no theatergoer had ever seen anyone like him on stage before. Aldridge was genuinely a unique phenomenon in Britain at a pivotal point in history.

    Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African Literatures, University of Texas at Austin, and editor of Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius (University of Rochester Press, 2007).

Ira Aldridge
  • The Vagabond Years, 1833–1852
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 October 2017
    Print publication:
    30 October 2011
  • Ira Aldridge: The Vagabond Years, 1833-1852 deals in depth with the later experiences of one of the modern world's first black classical actors as he toured throughout the United Kingdom impressing audiences with his virtuosity and versatility as an interpreter not only of tragic and comic black roles but also eventually as an actor of classic white Shakespearean parts -- Shylock, Macbeth, Richard III, even Iago.
    Aldridge was very popular in Ireland and remained there for six years, performing in venues large and small. He traveled often in his own carriage with assistants who supported him in scenes, enabling famous plays to be staged anywhere, even in villages that did not have a proper theater.
    He also performed periodically in large cities with professional acting companies, and returned to the London stage in 1848, after leaving it fifteen years earlier. During these years he expanded his repertoire, refined his skills, and gained a reputation as one of Britain's most talented thespians.
    In dealing with Aldridge's emergence as a professional actor in the United Kingdom, Lindfors here records in detail the ups and downs of his itinerant existence in a world where no theatergoer had ever seen anyone like him on stage before. Aldridge was genuinely a unique phenomenon in Britain at a pivotal point in history.

    Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African Literatures, University of Texas at Austin, and editor of Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius (University of Rochester Press, 2007).

Sources and Methods in African History
  • Spoken Written Unearthed
  • Edited by Toyin Falola, Christian Jennings
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    25 October 2017
    Print publication:
    01 June 2003
  • Spurred in part by the ongoing re-evaluation of sources and methods in research, African historiography in the past two decades has been characterized by the continued branching and increasing sophistication of methodologies and areas of specialization. The rate of incorporation of new sources and methods into African historical research shows no signs of slowing.

    This book is both a snapshot of current academic practice and an attempt to sort through some of the problems scholars face within this unfolding web of sources and methods. The book is divided into five sections, each ofwhich begins with a short introduction by a distinguished Africanist scholar. The first section deals with archaeological contributions to historical research. The second section examines the methodologies involved in deciphering historically accurate African ethnic identities from the records of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The third section mines old documentary sources for new historical perspectives. The fourth section deals with the method most often associated with African historians, that of drawing historical data from oral tradition. The fifth section is devoted to essays that present innovative sources and methods for African historical research.

    Together, the essays in this cutting-edge volume represent the current state of the art in African historical research.

    Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
    Christian Jennings isa doctoral candidate in history at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950
  • A. E. Afigbo
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    11 May 2017
    Print publication:
    02 December 2006
  • The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950, is a history of the campaign waged by Great Britain in colonial Nigeria from approximately 1885 on, to abolish the internal slave trade in the Bight of Biafra and its hinterland, a region also known as Eastern Nigeria, Southeastern Nigeria, the Eastern Provinces, or the trans-Niger Provinces. It treats the internal slave trade and the war against it in this region and period as themes separate from the institution of slavery in the same area and the campaign to root it out generally known as emancipation. For this reason, and because slavery and the effort at emancipation have received more attention from scholars, this work concentrates entirely on that aspect of the slave trade and its fortunes under British colonial rule commonly known as abolition. In reconstructing the story of this important and protracted campaign, Adiele Afigbo sheds light on a dark corner of social history that has largely been neglected by historians.

    Adiele Afigbo is Professor in the Department of History and International Relations at Ebonyi State University, Nigeria.

Writing African History
  • Edited by John Edward Philips
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    11 May 2017
    Print publication:
    01 June 2005
  • Writing African History is an essential work for anyone who wants to write, or even seriously read, African history. It will replace Daniel McCall's classic Africa in Time Perspective as the introduction to African history for the next generation and as a reference for professional historians, interested readers, and anyone who wants to understand how African history is written.
    Africa in Time Perspective was written in the 1960s, when African history was a new field of research. This new book reflects the development of African history since then. It opens with a comprehensive introduction by Daniel McCall, followed by a chapter by the editor explaining what African history is [and is not] in the context of historical theory and the development of historical narrative, the humanities, and social sciences. The first half of the book focuses on sources of historical data while the second half examines different perspectives on history. The editor's final chapter explains how to combine various sorts of evidence into a coherent account of African history. Writing African History will become the most important guide to African history for the 21st century.

    Contributors: Bala Achi, Isaac Olawale Albert, Diedre L. Badéjo, Dorothea Bedigian, Barbara M. Cooper, Henry John Drewal, Christopher Ehret, Toyin Falola, David Henige, Joseph E. Holloway, John Hunwick, S. O. Y. Keita, William G. Martin, Daniel McCall, Susan Keech McIntosh, Donatien Dibwe Dia Mwembu, Kathleen Sheldon, John Thornton, and Masao Yoshida.

    John Edwards Philips is Professor of International Society, Hirosaki University, and author of Spurious Arabic: Hausa and Colonial Nigeria [Madison, University of Wisconsin African Studies Center, 2000].

Not So Plain as Black and White
  • Afro-German Culture and History, 1890–2000
  • With contributions by Anne V. Adams , Tina M. Campt , Fatima El-Tayeb , Heide Fehrenbach , Leroy T. Hopkins Jr. , Tobias Nagl and Krista Molly O'Donnell
  • Edited by Patricia Mazon, Reinhild Steingrover
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    11 May 2017
    Print publication:
    01 April 2005
  • Since the Middle Ages, Africans have lived in Germany as slaves and scholars, guest workers and refugees. After Germany became a unified nation in 1871, it acquired several African colonies but lost them after World War I. Children born of German mothers and African fathers during the French occupation of Germany were persecuted by the Nazis. After World War II, many children were born to African American GIs stationed in Germany and German mothers. Today there are 500,000 Afro-Germans in Germany out of a population of 80 million. Nevertheless, German society still sees them as "foreigners," assuming they are either African or African American but never German.

    In recent years, the subject of Afro-Germans has captured the interest of scholars across the humanities for several reasons. Looking at Afro-Germans allows us to see another dimension of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ideas of race that led to the Holocaust. Furthermore, the experience of Afro-Germans provides insight into contemporary Germany's transformation, willing or not, into a multicultural society. The volume breaks new ground not only by addressing the topic of Afro-Germans but also by combining scholars from many disciplines.

    Patricia Mazon is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
    Reinhild Steingrover is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

Locality, Mobility, and "Nation"
  • Periurban Colonialism in Togo's Eweland, 1900–1960
  • Benjamin N. Lawrance
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    11 May 2017
    Print publication:
    01 November 2007
  • In this original interdisciplinary study of Togo and African colonial history, Benjamin Lawrance synthesizes political, gender, and social history by documenting the contributions of rural-dwelling populations in anti-colonial struggles. Anchoring his arguments on the premise that nationalist historiographies have overstated the role of urban and elite power while undervaluing the strategic place of rural constituencies, Lawrance uses the Ewe nationalist movement of southern Togo as a case study in what he terms "periurban colonialism" -- a historical paradigm that reunites the urban and rural experiences of post-World War I colonialism. By reconciling the marginal and non-elite communities and the social upheavals of the two World War periods, Lawrance offers a new perspective on the colonial experience and the anti-colonial struggle. In focusing on an African country uniquely colonized by the Germans, British, and French, he provides a wealth of information not readily available to the English-language audience. Accessible to scholars of African social history and African culture in general, Locality, Mobility, and "Nation" will occupy a distinguished place among studies of African colonial history and anti-colonial struggles.

    Benjamin N. Lawrance is Assistant Professor of African History at the University of California, Davis, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate African and World History. He is the editor of The Ewe of Togo and Benin [2005] and the co-editor of Intermediaries, Interpreters and Clerks [2006].

Making Headway
  • The Introduction of Western Civilization in Colonial Northern Nigeria
  • Andrew E. Barnes
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    11 May 2017
    Print publication:
    02 December 2009
  • The process of cultural transfer in Northern Nigeria was historically thought to have been dictated by European colonial domination. In fact, Western missionaries may not have been able to guide African Christians toward mastery of the secular world when they themselves lacked the worldliness to do so. In this penetrating study, Andrew E. Barnes argues that competition among colonizing forces impelled British colonial administrators and Christian missionaries alike to offer Africans those aspects of Western civilization Africans themselves specifically wanted: schools that provided greater access to Western intellectual skills. In Making Headway: The Introduction of Western Civilization in Colonial Northern Nigeria, Barnes demonstrates effectively that Europeans were successful in transferring to local peoples the cultural values they hoped to foster only because Africans and Europeans reached consensus about the nature and character of the Western civilization to be shared. Ultimately, this study asserts, Africans had greater control over the introduction of Western civilization to the region than traditionally thought.

    Andrew E. Barnes is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University.

Narrating War and Peace in Africa
  • Edited by Toyin Falola, Hetty ter Haar
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    09 May 2017
    Print publication:
    15 October 2010
  • Narrating War and Peace in Africa interrogates conventional representations of Africa and African culture -- mainly in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries -- with an emphasis on portrayals of conflict and peace. While Africa has experienced political and social turbulence throughout its history, more recent conflicts seem to reinforce the myth of barbarism across the continent: in Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Chad, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Sudan. The essays in this volume address reductive and stereotypical assumptions of postcolonial violence as "tribal" in nature, and offer instead various perspectives -- across disciplinary boundaries -- that foster a less fetishized, more contextualized understanding of African war, peace, and memory. Through their geographical, historical, and cultural scope and diversity, the chapters in Narrating War and Peace in Africa aim to challenge negative stereotypes that abound in relation to Africa in general and to its wars and conflicts in particular, encouraging a shift to more balanced and nuanced representations of the continent and its political and social climates.

    Contributors: Ann Albuyeh, Zermarie Deacon, Alicia C. Decker, Aména Moïnfar, Kayode Omoniyi Ogunfolabi, Sabrina Parent, Susan Rasmussen, Michael Sharp, Cheryl Sterling, Hetty ter Haar, Melissa Tully, Pamela Wadende, Metasebia Woldemariam, Jonathan Zilberg.

    Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
    Hetty ter Haar is an independent researcher in England.

White Chief, Black Lords
  • Shepstone and the Colonial State in Natal, South Africa, 1845–1878
  • Thomas V. McClendon
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    09 May 2017
    Print publication:
    15 September 2010
  • White Chief, Black Lords explores the tensions and contradictions between the British colonial civilizing mission and the practice of indirect rule. While the colonial imperative was to transform colonized societies and bring them within "civilized" norms, fiscal limitations frequently resulted in ruling through indigenous authorities and customs. In this book, Thomas McClendon analyzes this deep contradiction by looking at several crises and key turning points in the early decades of colonial rule in the British colony of Natal, later part of South Africa. He focuses a keen eye on the tenure of Theophilus Shepstone as that colony's Secretary for Native affairs, examining his interactions with subject African communities.
    In a series of case studies, including high drama over rebellions by African "chiefs" and their followers and intense debates over the control of witchcraft, White Chief, Black Lords shows that these colonial imperatives led to a self-defeating conundrum. In the process of attempting to rule through African leaders and norms yet to discipline and transform African subjects, the colonial state inevitably was itself transformed and became, in part, an African state. McClendon concludes by spotlighting the continuing importance of these unresolved contradictions in post-apartheid South Africa.

    Thomas McClendon is Professor of History at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Health, State and Society in Kenya
  • Faces of Contact and Change
  • George Ndege
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    29 April 2017
    Print publication:
    15 January 2002
  • This book examines the conflicts brought on by the introduction, management and institutionalization of Western biomedicine into Kenya. From the dawn of the colonial age, there were conflicts over the issues and meanings of sickness, health and therapy. Conversations often broke down, especially during the first two decades of the twentieth century, because of the natural and strong desire on the part of local populations, the state and biomedical practitioners to protect their respective hallowed traditions, approaches and identities.
    However, the persistence of epidemics, spiraling mortality rates, the interdependent nature of the colonial economy, and the establishment and recommendations of Commissions of Inquiry turned the tensions of race and conflict into dialogues about accommodation and compromise. The focus on a common good, rather than upon partisan satisfaction, became a dominant force. Western biomedicine and African traditional therapies each contributed to the growth and development of colonial health care in Kenya.

    George Ndege is Professor of History at St. Louis University.

A Political History of the Gambia, 1816–1994
  • Arnold Hughes, David Perfect
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    13 April 2017
    Print publication:
    27 November 2006
  • A Political History of the Gambia: 1816-1994 is the first complete account of the political history of the former British West African dependency to be written. It makes use of much hitherto unconsulted or unavailable British and Gambian official and private documentary sources, as well as interviews with many Gambian politicians and former British colonial officials.
    The first part of the book charts the origins and characteristics of modern politics in colonial Bathurst (Banjul) and its expansion into the Gambian interior (Protectorate) in the two decades after World War II. By independence in 1965, older urban-based parties in the capital had been defeated by a new, rural-based political organisation, the People's Progressive Party (PPP).
    The second part of the book analyzes the means by which the PPP, under President Sir Dawda Jawara, succeeded in defeating both existing and new rival political parties and an attempted coup in 1981. The book closes with an explanation of the demise of the PPP at the hands of an army coup in 1994.
    The book not only establishes those distinctive aspects of Gambian political history, but also relates these to the wider regional and African context, during the colonial and independence periods.

    Emeritus Professor Arnold Hughes was educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Ibadan University, Nigeria. Between 1966 and 2001 he taught at the Centre of West African Studies, the University of Birmingham, becoming its Director and Professor of African Politics. He has researched and published widely on various aspects of African politics and political history and, since, 1972, developed a special interest in the political history of the Gambia. He has paid some twenty-five research visits to the Gambia and published two books, The Gambia: Studies in Society and Politics (1991) and Historical Dictionary of the Gambia (with H. A. Gailey) (1999); and over thirty articles and book chapters on Gambian politics.

African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective
  • Edited by Steven J. Salm, Toyin Falola
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    08 April 2017
    Print publication:
    09 June 2005
  • African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective presents new and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of African urban history and culture. It presents original research and integrates historical methodologies with those of anthropology, geography, literature, art, and architecture. Moving between precolonial, colonial, and contemporary urban spaces, it covers the major regions, religions, and cultural influences of sub-Saharan Africa. The themes include Islam and Christianity, architecture, migration, globalization, social and physical decay, identity, race relations, politics, and development. This book elaborates on not only what makes the study of African urban spaces unique within urban historiography, it also offers an encompassing and up-to-date study of the subject and inserts Africa into the growing debate on urban history and culture throughout the world.
    The opportunities provided by the urban milieu are endless and each study opens new potential avenues ofresearch. This book explores some of those avenues and lays the groundwork on which new studies can build.
    Contributors: Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi, Catherine Coquery Vidrovitch, Mark Dike DeLancey, Thomas Ngomba Ekali, Omar A. Eno, Doug T. Feremenga, Laurent Fourchard, James Genova, Fatima Muller-Friedman, Godwin R. Murunga, Kefa M. Otiso, Michael Ralph, Jeremy Rich, Eric Ross, Corinne Sandwith, Wessel Visser.

    Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin; StevenJ. Salm is Assistant Professor of History, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Constructions of Belonging
  • Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century
  • Axel Harneit-Sievers
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    08 April 2017
    Print publication:
    15 August 2006
  • Constructions of Belonging provides a history of local communities living in Southeastern Nigeria since the late nineteenth century, examining the processes that have defined, changed, and re-produced these communities. Harneit-Sievers explores both the meanings and the uses that the community members have given to their particular areas, while also looking at the processes that have shaped local communities, and have made them work and continue to be relevant, in a world dominated by the modern territorial state and by worldwide flows of people, goods, and ideas.

    Axel Harneit-Sievers is a Research Fellow at the Center for Modern Oriental Studies, and Director of the Nigeria Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Lagos.

Edward Wilmot Blyden and the Racial Nationalist Imagination
  • Teshale Tibebu
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    08 April 2017
    Print publication:
    15 December 2012
  • Edward Wilmot Blyden and the Racial Nationalist Imagination is a critical study of one of the most prolific and knowledgeable black-world intellectuals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focusing on his writings, it shows the contradictions, ambiguities, complexities, and paradoxes in Blyden's powerful black racial nationalism. Blyden was a modernist who called upon African Americans to "uplift" Africa; yet he was a defender of Africa's culture and customs. He was the most sophisticated critic of Eurocentrism; yet he was an avid Anglophile. He was a Protestant who admired Islam's "civilizing" role in Africa. Blyden was the first black intellectual to advocate for the symbiosis of Africa's "triple heritage": indigenous, Islamic, and Western. His voluminous writings laid the groundwork for some of the most important ideas of African and black diasporic thinkers of the twentieth century, including Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, Chiekh Anta Diop, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Walter Rodney.

    Though Blyden is often overlooked in the history of modern black thought, in this book, Teshale Tibebu brings him out of oblivion and engages the reader in an extended, systematic evaluation of his written works.

    Teshale Tibebu is professor of history at Temple University. He is the author of The Making of Modern Ethiopia, 1896-1974, Hegel and Anti-Semitism, and Hegel and the Third World: The Making of Eurocentrism in World History.

The Politics of Chieftaincy
  • Authority and Property in Colonial Ghana, 1920-1950
  • Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 August 2014
  • Established as the commercial and administrative capital of the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) in the late nineteenth century, the city of Accra experienced profound societal changes throughout the twentieth century. The Politics of Chieftaincy examines the disputes over authority and property during the peak decades of British colonial rule. Between 1920 and 1950, colonization, commercialization, and urbanization sparked and sharpened a range of controversies. The removal of chiefs from office, succession disputes, and litigation resulting from land alienation and urban development became commonplace. An intriguing dynamic unfolded as colonial rule intersected with grassroots politics: although chieftaincy disputes and litigation were powerful sites of conflict and disruption, they also became spaces for local people to negotiate the sociopolitical and economic changes of the period. Sackeyfio-Lenoch demonstrates how these disputes opened new arenas for Accra's residents to engage in dialogue about the efficacy of chieftaincy and the meaning of property and its alienation during colonial rule. Accra exerted dominance inthe region by virtue of its location and status; its history provides us with an important case study for understanding urban and colonial processes in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch is Assistant Professor of African History at Dartmouth College.

Blood on the Tides
  • The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology
  • Isidore Okpewho
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    05 August 2014
    Print publication:
    25 May 2014
  • The Ozidi Saga is one of Africa's best known prosimetric epics, set in the Delta region of Nigeria. Blood on the Tides examines the epic -- a tale of a warrior and his sorcerer grandmother's revenge upon the assassins who killed her son -- both as an example of oral literature and as a reflection of the specific social and political concerns of the Nigerian Delta and the country as a whole. Okpewho examines various iterations of the saga, including a performance of the entire saga in 1963 in Ibadan by the folk artist Okabou Okobolo. This performance was subsequently transcribed, translated, and edited by the renowned Nigerian poet, playwright, and scholar John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo. Isidore Okpewho is Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies, English, and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University (SUNY). He is the author of The Epic in Africa, Myth in Africa, African Oral Literature, and Once Upon a Kingdom. An award-winning novelist, he has published four titles: The Victims, The Last Duty, Tides, and Call Me By My Rightful Name.

Enchanted Calvinism
  • Labor Migration, Afflicting Spirits, and Christian Therapy in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana
  • Adam Mohr
  • Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    05 December 2013
    Print publication:
    15 November 2013
  • Enchanted Calvinism's central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities, both past and present, have become significantly more enchanted--that is, more attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering--as they have become more integrated into capitalist modes of production. The author draws on a specific Weberian concept of religious enchantment to frame the discussion of spiritual affliction and spiritual healing within the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, particularly under the conditions of labor migration: first, in the early twentieth century during the cocoa boom in Ghana and second, at the turn of the twenty-first century in the context of the healthcare migration from Ghana to North America. Relying on extensive archival research, oral historical interviews, and participant-observation group interviews conducted in North America, Europe, and West Africa, the study provides evidence that the more these Ghanaian Calvinists became dependent on capitalist modes of production, the more enchanted their lives, and, subsequently, their church became, although in different ways within these two migrations. One striking pattern that has emerged among Ghanaian Presbyterian labor migrants in North America, for example, is a radical shift in gendered healing practices, where women have become prominent healers, while a significant number of men have become spirit-possessed. Adam Mohr is a Senior Writing Fellow in Anthropology with the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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