This series of Classics in African Anthropology is primarily drawn from a distinct family of texts which dominated the academic analysis of society in mid-20th century Africa. The texts are significant yet often neglected, but have stood the test of time, according to the editors. Originally published in 1954. New edition published in association with the International African Institute North America: Transaction Books; Germany: Lit Verlag
West African Worlds provides a critical assessment of social, economic and political change in Africa’s most populous and arguably most externally focused region. With an emphasis on globalisation and modernisation, case studies and commentary are integrated throughout to highlight the concerns and issues of the region. Enriched by an impressive mix of West African voices, this text combines theory and application with policy and practice to address socio-economic change, the pursuit of livelihoods, and development within West Africa.
Between 1730 and 1750, powerful healer and vodun priest Domingos Alvares traversed the colonial Atlantic world like few Africans of his time--from Africa to South America to Europe--addressing the profound alienation of warfare, capitalism, and the African slave trade through the language of health and healing. In Domingos Alvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World, James H. Sweet finds dramatic means for unfolding a history of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world in which healing, religion, kinship, and political subversion were intimately connected.
" This volume consists of nine studies, each describing the world outlook of an African people as expressed in their myths of creation, traditions of origin, and religious beliefs. The studies are concerned with such widely divergent systems of thought as the complex metaphysical system of the Dogon of French West Africa, the magical cults of the Abuluyia of Kenya, the religious practices of the Lele of Kasai, in which the forest plays a dominant part, the secret societies of the Mende, and the ancestor cult of the Ashanti. The authors show how closely concepts of the divine ordering of the universe are related to the organization of society and the everyday activities of men, so that the enthronement of a king or chief, the brewing of beer, the building of a granary, the organization of a hunt, all have symbolic significance and are accompanied by appropriate rituals. The wealth of imagery and symbolism displayed in many of these myths, and the subtlety of the metaphysical concepts, will be a revelation to those who have not studied the thought of so-called primitive societies. Rarely out of print since it was first published in 1954, this new edition has an introduction by Professor Wendy James of the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Oxford. Contents: Introduction, Daryll Forde; The Lele of Kasai, Mary Douglas; The Abaluyia of Kavirondo (Kenya), Gunter Wagner; The Lovedu of the Transvaal, J. D. Krige/E. J. Krige; The Dogon of the French Sudan, Marcel Griaule/Germaine Dieterlen; The Mende in Sierra Leone, Kenneth Little; The Shilluk of the Upper Nile, Godfrey Lienhardt; The Kingdom of Ruanda, J. J. Maquet; The Ashanti of the Golden Coast, K. A. Busia; The Fon of Dahomey, P. Mercier. Daryll Forde was Professor of Anthropology, University London and Director of the International African Institute. "
African history as world history: Africa and the Roman Empire -- Africa and the rise of Islam -- The mighty kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay -- The Atlantic slave trade: Slavery and resistance in South America and the Caribbean -- Slavery and resistance in the United States -- African Americans in the twentieth century.
Combines histories of the complex interactions between blacks and Natives in North America with examples and readings of art that has emerged from those exchanges.
This collection of speeches covers an array of topics from the contributions of Nile Vally civilizations to the future of Pan-Africanism in the 21st century.
The African World in Dialogue: An Appeal to Action! is a probing and politically timely collection of essays, interviews, speeches, poetry, short stories, and proposals. These rich works illuminate the struggles, dreams, triumphs, impediments, and diversity of the contemporary African world. The African World in Dialogue contains five sections: "Listen: The Ink Speaks"; "Restitutions, Resolutions, Revolutions"; "Africanity, Education, and Technology"; "Life Lines from the Front Lines"; and "Gender, Power, and Infinite Promise." Each section brims with provocative and compelling insights from elder-warriors, wordsmiths, journalists, and academics, many of whom are also activists. The volume's contributors include Tunde Adegbola, Muhammad Ibn Bashir, Jacqueline Bediako, Charlie Braxton, Alieu Bundu, Baba A. O. Buntu, Chinweizu, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Oyinlola Longe, Jumbe Kweku Lumumba, Morgan Miller, Asiri Odu, Chinwe Ezinna Oriji, Kevin Powell, Blair Marcus Proctor, Ishola Akindele Salami, Aseret Sin, Teresa N. Washington, and Ayoka Wiles. The book also features interviews with Hilary La Force, Mandingo, Kambale Musavili, and Prince Kuma N’dumbe. With selections designed to critique and in many cases upend conventional political thought, educational norms, fantasies of social progress, and gender myths, The African World in Dialogue challenges its audience. The book’s “Appeal to Action” is literal: Rather than offering eloquent elaborations of African world woes, The African World in Dialogue offers detailed plans and paths for emancipation and elevation that readers are urged to implement. Activists and scholars of African studies, African American studies, Pan-Africanism, criminal justice, Black revolutionary thought and action, gender studies, sociology, and political science will find this book to be both inspirational and indispensable.
