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Madagascar
The island of Madagascar, off the southeastern coast of Africa, is home to some of the worlds most celebrated plant and animal species, including the baobab and lemur. But few know the history of this environmentally strategic place.
Charlatans, Spirits and Rebels in Africa
When Stephen Ellis died in July 2015, African Studies lost one of its most prolific, provocative and celebrated scholars. Given the scale and uniqueness of his contribution, it is perhaps surprising that a collection of his writings did not appear during his lifetime. It is now possible to bring such a volume to the public. With an introduction by Tim Kelsall and an afterword by Jean-François Bayart, this collection aims to provide scholars and students with an introduction to the main themes in Ellis' work. These revolved around the roles of religion, criminality and violence in African society and politics--preoccupations that also informed his interpretation of African rebellions and resistance movements. The volume spans more than three decades of scholarship; case studies from six countries; highly-cited and lesser-known articles; and a sampling of works intended for public engagement as well as an academic audience. It will serve as a reader for African Politics and History, and as an invitation to students to delve deeper into Stephen Ellis' oeuvre.
Crime, Law and Society in Nigeria
This volume in honour of Stephen Ellis is a follow-up to the public presentation of his book on the history of organised crime in Nigeria This Present Darkness (Hurst, 2016) at the University of Lagos, Nigeria on 28 October 2016. In addition to four papers, and a book review presented at this colloquium, other contributions about crime in Nigeria have been added, written by Nigerian authors. In July 2015 Stephen died, and he has worked on This Present Darkness almost to his last moments, as a senior researcher of the African Studies Centre in Leiden. This book also contains a tribute to his life and work written by his wife and scholar Gerrie ter Haar. Contributors include: A.E Akintayo, Jackson Aluede, Franca Attoh, Ayodele Atsenuwa, Edmund Chilaka, Samson Folarin, Gerrie ter Haar, Ayodeji Olukoju, Abiodun Oluwadare, Paul Osifodunrin and Leo Enahoro Otoide.
Nationalism
A global perspective on the nature and evolution of nationalism, from the early modern era to the present The current rise of nationalism across the globe is a reminder that we are not, after all, living in a borderless world of virtual connectivity. In Nationalism, historian Eric Storm sheds light on contemporary nationalist movements by exploring the global evolution of nationalism, beginning with the rise of the nation-state in the eighteenth century through the revival of nationalist ideas in the present day. Storm traces the emergence of the unitary nation-state—which brought citizenship rights to some while excluding a multitude of “others”—and the pervasive spread of nationali...
Automotive Empire
In Automotive Empire, Andrew Denning uncovers how roads and vehicles began to transform colonial societies across Africa but rarely in the manner Europeans expected. Like seafaring ships and railroads, automobiles and roads were more than a mode of transport—they organized colonial spaces and structured the political, economic, and social relations of empire, both within African colonies and between colonies and the European metropole. European officials in French, Italian, British, German, Belgian, and Portuguese territories in Africa shared a common challenge—the transport problem. While they imagined that roads would radiate commerce and political hegemony by collapsing space, the pre...
Enlightened Colonialism
This book further qualifies the postcolonial thesis and shows its limits. To reach these goals, it links text analysis and political history on a global comparative scale. Focusing on imperial agents, their narratives of progress, and their political aims and strategies, it asks whether Enlightenment gave birth to a new colonialism between 1760 and 1820. Has Enlightenment provided the cultural and intellectual origins of modern colonialism? For decades, historians of political thought, philosophy, and literature have debated this question. On one side, many postcolonial authors believe that enlightened rationalism helped delegitimize non-European cultures. On the other side, some historians of ideas and literature are willing to defend at least some eighteenth-century philosophers whom they consider to have been “anti-colonialists”. Surprisingly enough, both sides have focused on literary and philosophical texts, but have rarely taken political and social practice into account.
The Black Populations of France
This edited collection considers Black peoples and their history in France and the French Empire during the modern era, from the eighteenth century to the present.
Building God’s Kingdom
The author analyzes Malagasy influence on the 19th century Norwegian mission in highland Madagascar. She reveals the complex dynamics of mission encounters.
Ritual Imagination
Ritual Imagination is a study of spirit possession and ritual dynamics. Based on fieldwork in eastern Madagascar, Hilde Nielssen shows how tromba possession works as a flexible and fluid force, whose ritual imaginary playfully draws together elements from radically different cultural and social domains, thereby constituting human realities and creating ways of relating to changing and disjunctive circumstances. Tromba's strength lies in its fluid capacities to relate to ongoing social change by altering its own practices, while at the same time continuing to heal person and cosmos. The book critically addresses the still dominant perspective in anthropology, where rituals are understood as representations of culture and society. Using tromba as a pivotal case in the critique of ritual as representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on ritual and spirit possession.
Song and Self
"In this collection of three essays, internationally renowned tenor Ian Bostridge explores his relation to the performance of Western classical vocal music through the lens of gender, politics, or the ultimate paradoxical grounding of identity, death. As a performer who needs to negotiate between his own identity and that of the musical text he delivers on stage or in the concert hall, Bostridge asks questions about how the complex identity of a piece of music was creatively configured by composers at particular historical moments, and how today's performers can embody that complexity for their audiences. In lucid and compelling prose, Bostridge guides his readers through an exploration of t...
