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A look at the encounter between the French and the peoples of Southern Gabon in terms of their differing conceptions of boundaries. In the second half of the nineteenth century, two very different practices of territoriality confronted each other in Southern Gabon. Clan and lineage relationships were most important in the local practice, while the French practice was informed by a territorial definition of society that had emerged with the rise of the modern nation-state and industrial capitalism. This modern territoriality used an array of bureaucratic instruments -- such as maps andcensuses -- previously unknown in equatorial Africa. Such instruments denied the existence of locally created...
In Libreville, the capital of the African nation of Gabon, the colonial past has evolved into a present indelibly marked by colonial rule and ongoing French influence. This is especially evident in areas as essential to life as food. In this complex, hybrid culinary culture of Libreville, croissants are as readily available as plantains. Yet this same culinary diversity is accompanied by high prices and a scarcity of locally made food that is bewildering to residents and visitors alike.; A staggering two-thirds of the country's food is imported from outside Gabon, making Libreville's cost of living comparable to that of Tokyo and Paris. In this compelling study of food culture and colonialis...
In 1905, scandalous reports of torture in France's overseas colonies rocked Paris. Brazza was sent to investigate. Born an Italian nobleman, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza had spent twenty years exploring equatorial Africa as a French naval officer. His attempts to reconcile African development and prosperity with French colonial policy had already cost him his career. Now his commitment to expose colonial abuses would cost him his life. Already divided by the anti-Semitic currents of the Dreyfus Affair, France was about to discover the reality of its administration in central Africa. The European economy's greed for rubber had created a hidden world of slave labor and violence, with scenes that...
Tizian Zumthurm uses the extraordinary hospital of an extraordinary man to produce novel insights into the ordinary practice of biomedicine in colonial Central Africa. His investigation of therapeutic routines in surgery, maternity care, psychiatry, and the treatment of dysentery and leprosy reveals the incoherent nature of biomedicine and not just in Africa. Reading rich archival sources against and along the grain, the author combines concepts that appeal to those interested in the history of medicine and colonialism. Through the microcosm of the hospital, Zumthurm brings to light the social worlds of Gabonese patients as well as European staff. By refusing to easily categorize colonial medical encounters, the book challenges our understanding of biomedicine as solely domineering or interactive.
International market, declining petroleum production, and questionable government spending policies have prompted economic crises and internal political disturbances. A captive of its natural riches, Gabon also struggles with a lack of identity, its future dependent on forces substantially beyond its control. In exploring the development of Gabon, Dr. Barnes also examines the nature of the country's political and economic systems and their colonial antecedents.
After the abolition of slavery in the Indian Ocean and Africa, the world of labor remained unequal, exploitative, and violent, straddling a fine line between freedom and unfreedom. This book explains why. Unseating the Atlantic paradigm of bondage and drawing from a rich array of colonial, estate, plantation and judicial archives, Alessandro Stanziani investigates the evolution of labor relationships on the Indian subcontinent, the Indian Ocean and Africa, with case studies on Assam, the Mascarene Islands and the French Congo. He finds surprising relationships between African and Indian abolition movements and European labor practices, inviting readers to think in terms of trans-oceanic connections rather than simple oppositions. Above all, he considers how the meaning and practices of freedom in the colonial world differed profoundly from those in the mainland. Arguing for a multi-centered view of imperial dynamics, Labor on the Fringes of Empire is a pioneering global history of nineteenth-century labor.
One of UNESCO's most important publishing projects in the last thirty years, the General History of Africa marks a major breakthrough in the recognition of Africa's cultural heritage. Offering an internal perspective of Africa, the eight-volume work provides a comprehensive approach to the history of ideas, civilizations, societies and institutions of African history. The volumes also discuss historical relationships among Africans as well as multilateral interactions with other cultures and continents.
Africa at the beginning of the nineteenth century : issues and prospects / J.F.A. Ajayi -- Africa and the world-economy / I. Wallerstein -- New trends and processes in Africa in the nineteenth century / A.A. Boahen -- The abolition of the slave trade / S. Daget -- The Mfecane and the rise of new African states / L.D. Ngcongco -- The impact of the Mfecane on the Cape Colony / E.K. Mashingaidze -- The British, Boers and Africans in south Africa, 1850-80 / N. Bhebe -- The countries of the Zambezi basin / A.F. Isaacman -- The East African coast and hinterland, 1800-45 / A.I. Salim -- The East African coast and hinterland, 1845-80 / I.N. Kimambo -- Peoples and states of the Great Lakes region / D...
In this collection authors apply spatial analysis to case studies of social, economic, and political dynamics in West, Central, and East Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Also included is a lengthy essay re-interpreting tropical Africa, 1800-1930, using spatial theory.
On parle volontiers du Gabon comme d'un pays où il ne se passe rien sinon sous les traits ubiquitaires de celui qui le gouverne depuis près de 40 ans. Au miroir de la dissimulation se reflète la réalité d'un pays qui, parce "qu'il ne s'y passe rien", rend visibles toutes les formes cumulées de cette économie générale de la disparition. Celle de ces peuples condamnés à hanter les lieux qu'ils étaient censés avoir désertés. Le Gabon se tient bien à une embrasure : entre cette inexistance décrétée et une réalité de sang, de chair et de rites que ce livre restitue avec finesse.