This is a revised and updated edition in which the author examines the problems of post-colonial Africa. He contends that the problems have existed since independence in the sixties and have been made worse through the years by a combination of factors. It is a blunt assessment and prescribes some solutions to Africa's problems focusing on internal factors but without exonerating external forces from what has happened on the continent through the decades.
The cities of West Africa's Middle Niger, only recently brought to the world's attention, make us rethink the 'whys' and the 'wheres' of ancient urbanism. They present the archaeologist with a novelty; a non-nucleated, clustered city-plan with no centralized, state-focused power. This book explores the emergence of these cities in the first millennium B.C. and the evolution of their hinterlands from the perspective of the self-organized landscape. Cities appeared in a series of profound transforms to the human-land relations and this book illustrates how each transform marked a leap in complexity.
The true story of the events that inspired the feature film Blood Diamonds starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, in theaters Dec 8th. Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry
First discovered in 1930, the diamonds of Sierra Leone have funded one of the most savage rebel campaigns in modern history. These "blood diamonds" are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp, and New York, often with the complicity of the international diamond industry. Eventually, these very diamonds find their way into the rings and necklaces of brides and spouses the world over. "Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry--institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel--have allowed it to happen. Award-winning journalist Greg Campbell traces the deadly trail of these diamonds, many of which are brought to the world market by fanatical enemies. These repercussions of diamond smuggling are felt far beyond the borders of the poor and war-ridden country of Sierra Leone, and the consequences of overlooking this African tragedy are both shockingly deadly and unquestionably global.
The true story of the events that inspired the feature film Blood Diamonds starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, in theaters Dec 8th. Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry
This is the first comprehensive study of leftist ideology and movements and their organizational structure in colonial and post colonial Nigeria. Tijani moves the contributions of Nigerian leftists from the archival centers into mainstream intellectual and nationalist history, proving the first historical narrative of the unsung heroes of the Nigerian nationalist movement.
Working from a thematic, empirical-analytical approach, this work surveys the root causes of civil wars and military coups d'etat in West Africa, analyzes the implications for the region as a whole, and identifies possible solutions.
In this holistic approach to the study of textiles and their makers, Colleen Kriger charts the role cotton has played in commercial, community, and labor settings. She pays close attention the details of how people made, exchanged, and wore cotton cloth from before industrialization in Europe to the twentieth century. Closely tracing this history in Nigeria, Cloth in West African History offers a fresh perspective on the history of the region and on the local, regional, and global processes that shaped it.
This book provides a history of the last ten years of Sierra Leone, including a new and insightful discussion of the Sierra Leonean war which questions the assumption that it is taking place between two parties and suggests instead that there are various armed groups that have little interest in ending the conflict. The war and continuing UN presence in Sierra Leone have made it one of the African countries given a good deal of attention in the international press, and Keen's book is the most up-to-date source of reliable information and insight on the current situation and recent history.
"Coups from Below "represents the first major effort at studying coups carried out by the lumpen section or the subalterns of the armed forces of African states. No previous study has attempted to examine coup making by those in the bottom ranks of the military as a distinct pattern of intervention in African studies. Kandeh examines this pattern as broadly symptomatic of state failure, especially the inability of political leaders to institutionalize power, eradicate mass poverty and promote socioeconomic development.
Many African countries are now described as "Fourth World nations," ones which essentially have no future. How could this have happened? Through the scope of the 1960s, the first decade of African independence, Peter Schwab presents a compelling and provocative answer to this question. "Designing West Africa "tells the story of a pivotal decade in African history, when the fate of the continent was decided. Focusing on the six most visible leaders of the period--Sekou Toure, Kwame Nkrumah, and others--Schwab shows how Africa served as a grounds to play out larger international conflicts, namely the Cold War. He does not fall back solely on blaming non-African involvement for the failure to build a viable leadership for the continent; rather, he critiques the African leaders themselves for their individual failings.
View the Table of Contents and read the introduction Before the Vichy regime, there was ostensibly only one France and one form of colonialism for French West Africa (FWA). World War II and the division of France into two ideological camps, each asking for legitimacy from the colonized, opened for Africans numerous unprecedented options. "French Colonialism Unmasked" analyzes three dramatic years in the history of FWA, from 1940 to 1943, in which the Vichy regime tried to impose the ideology of the National Revolution in the region. Ruth Ginio shows how this was a watershed period in the history of the region by providing an in-depth examination of the Vichy colonial visions and practices in fwa. She describes the intriguing encounters between the colonial regime and African society along with the responses of different sectors in the African population to the Vichy policy. Although "French Colonialism Unmasked" focuses on one region within the French Empire, it has relevance to French colonial history in general by providing one of the missing pieces in research on Vichy colonialism. Ruth Ginio is a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of articles in "International Journal of African Historical Studies," "Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine," "Cahiers d'etudes africaines," and several other journals.
This new edition is based primarily on recent research on the country, but covers the earliest known inhabitants, the colonial era, and the period of independence including the very confusing turmoil of the recent past. The chronology briefly traces its history and the introduction provides an essential overview of all the recent developments in the country. Hundreds of cross-referenced entries describe significant leaders, events, political parties and movements, ethnic groups, and related political, economic, and social aspects. A bibliography is included to facilitate further research.
Like stars, societies are born, and this story deals with such a birth. It asks a fundamental and compelling question: How did societies first coalesce from the small foraging communities that had roamed in West Central Africa for many thousands of years? Jan Vansina continues a career-long effort to reconstruct the history of African societies before European contact in How Societies Are Born. In this complement to his previous study Paths in the Rainforests, Vansina employs a provocative combination of archaeology and historical linguistics to turn his scholarly focus to governance, studying the creation of relatively large societies extending beyond the foraging groups that characterized west central Africa from the beginning of human habitation to around 500 BCE, and the institutions that bridged their constituent local communities and made large-scale cooperation possible. The increasing reliance on cereal crops, iron tools, large herds of cattle, and overarching institutions such as corporate matrilineages and dispersed matriclans lead up to the developments treated in the second part of the book. From about 900 BCE until European contact, different societies chose different developmental paths. Interestingly, these proceeded well beyond environmental constraints and were characterized by "major differences in the subjects which enthralled people," whether these were cattle, initiations and social position, or "the splendors of sacralized leaders and the possibilities of participating in them."
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