Showing papers on "African studies published in 1974"

Legislation, Ideology and Economy in Post-1948 South Africa

Abstract: (1974). Legislation, ideology and economy in post‐1948 South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 5-35.

Rhodes, Rhodesia and the Rand

Abstract: (1974). Rhodes, Rhodesia and the Rand. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 74-90.

The Okiek and their history

Abstract: Roderic Blackburn conducted research into the Okiek of the Mau Highlands, Kenya, while a Visiting Research Associate of the Institute of African Studies (University of Nairobi). The present article provides a historical background for that on Okiek ceramics published in Azania VIII.

Chiefship in a South African homeland

Abstract: (1974). Chiefship in a South African homeland. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 36-51.

The Afro-American Contribution to African Studies

Abstract: The study of Africa began long before African studies in America. In the United States today the words ‘African studies’ imply a formalized, academic structure of centres, programmes, institutes, postgraduate theses, publications, professional associations, conferences, finances from the foundations, grants from the government, etc., etc. Three and a half centuries ago, when the first blacks came to the New World, the study of Africa in America was outrageously informal: the cherishing of the memories of the ancestral continent from which the slaves had been forced.

The Crisis of Consciousness in Modern African Literature: a Survey

Abstract: (1974). The Crisis of Consciousness in Modern African Literature: A Survey. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 385-410.

The Role of the Organization of African Unity in Contemporary African Politics

Abstract: Pan Africanism as an ideology and a social movement has been the subject of considerable study, especially in recent years. The history, both diplomatic and political, of the creation of successive inter-African organizations has also been described in many works. The politics of the movement for African Unity have been scrutinized.1 What has been somewhat neglected is the impact of the movement and of the organizations, particularly of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), on the politics of the continent, both taken as a whole and in the various countries. The OAU will be treated in this paper not as the dependent but as the independent variable

Afference, Efference and Legitimacy in Africa

Abstract: One of the classic cliches of African Studies is that the state boundaries of Africa have no validity, that they are only the accidental by-product of colonial whim. Drawn by European states at continental Congresses, the boundaries manifested nothing more profound or populist than barren commercial greed; they grew like a mold of ignorance on crumbs of indifference to local conditions. They cut through established tribes and lumped together irreconcilable enemies. All of this is generally expressed in the conventional wisdom that the boundaries of Africa are artificial and, therefore, flacid lines that cross, rather than follow the real contours of the continent. Popular African sentiment scarcely knows these lines, much less honors them. In the words of one recent American study: “Nationalism means an existing popular sentiment that defines and legitimizes boundaries. In this sense, nationalism does not exist in Africa”.1

Barbot, Dapper, Davity: A Critique of Sources on Sierra Leone and Cape Mount

Abstract: It is over a decade since Professor Lawrence made a plea “for subjecting the sources for African history to that kind of critical appraisal which has customarily been applied to Greek and Roman authors.” Among Anglophone African historians, the plea has largely gone unheard. Could this conceivably be because critical source analysis is dull stuff for minds accustomed to the excitement of filling blank plains of African history with elephants of speculation and castles of moralistic stance? The opportunity provided by the reprinting of the standard sources has all too frequently been lost. One editor of an essential west African source is content to remark that the contemporary translation into English he is reprinting, considered together with another contemporary translation into French, are “all [sic], for the most part, considered faithful renditions of the original Dutch.” Standards of source-verification in published African history not uncommonly fall below the standards demanded in other fields of history; even reputable publishing houses occasionally produce works whose standards of historical enquiry are so low that they have been termed, unkindly but not altogether unjustly, “Academic Oxfam for Africa.” Perhaps a case does exist for speculation and commitment in African history, perhaps non-written sources may inform in detail as well as stimulate in general; but if the African historian dares to step outside the ivory tower of African studies, and is concerned that his subject be taken seriously by the historical profession as a whole, he must perform his exercises on the common ground of historical enquiry. This means that he must include a measure of dull critical analysis of written sources. Professor Shepperson once suggested that the time had come for more ‘dull’ African history: the present paper is intended as a contribution to this and to no other good cause.

Modernization and Change in the Nizari Ismaili Community in East Africa-a Perspective

Abstract: The aspirations and problems of contemporary Muslims both in Africa and elsewhere have been variously formulated as "the challenge of the Modem Age to Islam," the modernization of technologically backward and traditional societies, or in even broader terms as a tension that is by no means peculiar to Islam. 1) Whereas the varied uses of terminology to express properly the nature of the problem may be questioned, we can agree in principle that since the onset of the so-called period of modernization, there has come about in the minds of concerned Muslims a certain new motivation. 2) This has led them to consider and evaluate Islam, as they had come to believe in it and practice it, in terms of their ability to revitalize their faith, in dealing with the emerging existential situation. 3) This essay, then, is concerned largely with analyzing this motivation as it has been reflected within the Nizari Ismaili community of East Africa and relating this to the wider issue of the processes by which a specific Muslim group has been able to effect change. The

Politics and criticism in Zambia: a review article

Abstract: Jan Pettman, Zambia: Security and Conflict (London: Julian Friedmann Publishers, 1974. pp. 284. £4.25) Kenneth Kaunda, Letter To My Children (London: Longman, 1973. pp. 139. £0.75) Henry S. Meebelo, Main Currents of Zambian Humanist Thought (Lusaka: Oxford University Press, 1973. pp. 127. K2.80) Antony Martin, Minding Their Own Business: Zambia's Struggle Against Western Control (London: Hutchinson, 1972. pp. 272. £3.50) Michael Burawoy, The Colour of Class on the Copper Mines: From African Advancement to Zambianisation (Lusaka: Institute for African Studies, Zambian Papers No. 7, 1972. pp. 121. K2.50)

The Shaka theme in dramatic literature in French from West Afirca

Abstract: (1974). The Shaka theme in dramatic literature in French from West Afirca. African Studies: Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 133-141.

Clearing the Jungle out of African Studies

Abstract: Jungle imagery and prejudiced stereotypes still abound in American knowledge of Africa. In a 1967 survey of American schoolchildren, E. Perry Hicks and Barry K. Beyer found that the majority still saw Africa' through a web of myth and unfavorable stereotypes which appeared to increase as students progressed from grade seven through grade twelve (1970, pp. 158-166). In closing remarks as President of the African Studies Association, Philip D. Curtin noted this dilemma and posed a compelling challenge to the Africanist cammunity. "The 1970's," Professor Curtin stated,

British Investment in Southern Africa

Abstract: (1974). British investment in Southern Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 52-73.

Zwangendaba's Ngoni 1821–1890: A Political and Social History of a Migration . By Thomas T. Spear. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1972. African Studies Program. Occasional paper 4. Pp. v + 43, bibl., maps.

Abstract: dependent on the maintenance of links in the community, both in order to obtain information quickly about land which may be available for purchase or mortgage, and in order to guarantee that their right to such land, once acquired, will be upheld by reliable senior witnesses if it is contested in the courts. For their part the elders find that the rising costs of financing marriages and elaborate funeral rituals, on which their reputation traditionally and substantially depends, are forcing them more and more to mortgage or sell off the land which the 'accumulators' need. This cost inflation is, moreover, partly the result of the direct or indirect participation of the entrepreneurs in the financing of such customary activities. In addition, the elders tend to see the process which is taking place in terms of a traditional theme of conflict between generations and this fundamentally cyclical viewpoint obscures for them the linear nature of the change. The book is not without its faults. The argument in parts could be better organized and it would be enhanced by the presentation of more detailed supporting data. But the work is, in general, a very elegant and enlightening analysis of an extremely complex phenomenon, and it should be read by all who have an interest in the nature of the articulation of culture, social structure, and economy. R. G. ABRAHAMS

The concept of power in Javanese tradition

Abstract: (1974). The concept of power in Javanese tradition. Indonesia Circle. School of Oriental & African Studies. Newsletter: Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 16-17.

Black Literature in South Africa 1900-1950

Abstract: African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October, 1974. Not to be used without the Author's permission

Peasants and Feudalism in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia

Abstract: (1974). Peasants and Feudalism in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des etudes africaines: Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 155-157.