African History Research Articles

Viriato da Cruz and His Chinese Exile: A Biographical Approach

Existing analyses of China’s involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on military support for competing independence movements. However, Maoism as an ideology had a more personal impact on Angolan elites in their struggle to define Angolan nationalism. Among them was Viriato da Cruz, an Angolan poet and nationalist who served as the secretary general of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) between 1962 and 1964. As a result of both ideological alignment and personal circumstances, Cruz lived in exile in the People’s Republic of China from 1966 until his death in 1973. Drawing on original archival, newspaper and oral sources, this article employs a biographical approach to analyse the connections between Angolan nationalism and Communist China through Viriato da Cruz’s life story. His intellectual and life adventures, played out beyond the confines of national borders and nationalist structures, reveal the mobile and transnational nature of southern African liberation. The article’s biographical approach also offers a unique opportunity to understand African history through the interaction between historical context and individuals.

What’s in a name? Reinventing Luo naming system in Kenya’s ethnopolitical landscape

ABSTRACT This paper examines an emergent naming subculture gaining popularity among ethnic Luo in the urban areas of Mombasa and Nairobi. The paper posits that the naming pattern is embedded in the development of Kenya’s ethnopolitical landscape which has placed ethnic Luo at an economically, socially and politically disadvantaged position. Though popular in linguistic and anthropological circles, the field of anthroponymy has received little attention from Africanist historians. This dearth is especially curious since naming systems still bear significant meaning to large segments of the continent’s populations. Names are pointers to identities; identities that have been used world over to create binaries of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Every so often, identities have been determinants of individuals’ primary existence. Because of its centrality in existentiality, societies constantly consolidate, manipulate and restructure identities in order to fit in, dominate or survive. This evaluation of the development and changes of Luo naming system is therefore an attempt at understanding identities reimagined to adapt to a society’s history, systems and structures.

Book Review: Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature. By Ena Jansen

Book Review: <i>Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature</i>. By Ena Jansen

Contemporary African history in unusual times

Contemporary African history in unusual times

Patchwork States: The Localization of State Territoriality on the South Sudan–Uganda Border, 1914–2014*

Abstract This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in 1914. It argues that the conflict was an outcome of the long-term constitution of local government territories as patches of the state, making the international border simultaneously a boundary of the local state. Some scholars have seen the limited control of central governments over their borderlands and the intensification of local territorialities as signs of African state fragmentation and failure. But the article argues that this local territoriality should instead be seen as an outcome of ongoing state-formation processes in which state territory has been co-produced through local engagement and appropriation. The paper is thus of wider relevance beyond African or postcolonial history, firstly in contributing a spatial approach to studies of state formation which have sought to replace centre–periphery models with an emphasis on the centrality of the local state. Secondly it advances the broader field of borderlands studies by arguing that international boundaries have been shaped by processes of internal territorialisation as well as by the specific dynamics of cross-border relations and governance. Thirdly it advocates a historical and processual approach to understanding territory, arguing that the patchwork of these states has been fabricated and reworked over the past century, entangling multiple, changing forms and scales of territory in the ongoing constitution of state boundaries.

Que pode a cultura material enquanto fonte para o estudo da história afro-brasileira e africana nas escolas?

O presente texto tem o intuito de demonstrar que a cultura material, ao ser abarcada como fonte para o ensino da história e da cultura afro-brasileira e africana, tem o potencial de contribuir para práticas pautadas em pluriepistemologias. Para tanto, argumentamos sobre a necessidade de debater o papel das fontes diretas no ensino de História, bem como expomos possibilidades advindas do estudo da fonte material, em diálogo com a chamada arqueologia da diáspora. Dessa maneira, discutimos como as estratégias materiais colocadas em prática pelos africanos e por seus descendentes nos permitem perceber uma parcela de seu complexo repertório de conhecimentos.

Tribute to Professor Emeritus Frederick Hickling

Tribute to Professor Emeritus Frederick Hickling

(Re)imagining African futures: Wakanda and the politics of transnational Blackness

ABSTRACT Black Panther (2018) is now one of the most popular Hollywood movies across the globe featuring a predominantly Black cast. Its success lies not only in economic value, but also in its ability to present universal concerns of power, pride, and humanity from global Black perspectives. In this essay, we analyze Black Panther through the lens of postcolonial cultural critique guided by Afrofuturism to examine how the movie misrepresents itself as a vehicle for unifying complex histories of continental Africans and African diasporic perspectives on Blackness, home, and belonging. We argue that Black Panther’s Afrofuturist unifying and codifying theme of Blackness, as transnationally shared intimate relations, while transformative, yields too much to Western neocolonial and cinematic fantasies about “Africa.” We conclude by stating that while Black Panther is a welcome shift from the dominant white Western gaze; it also deserves a critical reading as an ongoing and imperfect project of emancipation from the dominant gaze.

Reading Plato and Aristotle in contemporary South Africa

The distinction usually made between Western and non-Western philosophy is one that disguises a more relevant and informative distinction: that between non-modern and modern forms of philosophy. In this article, I argue for taking the latter distinction as primary. The main reason for doing so is that it relates more intimately to the actual contents and methodologies of the philosophies being distinguished. In particular, the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle have more in common with those of precolonial (i.e. non-modern) Africa than they do with those of modern Europe. I argue this through the close analysis of a few central examples. Further, I show how the distinction between the non-modern and the modern, as well as our appreciation of it, both strengthens and is strengthened by an understanding of Plato’s praise for the life of inquiry as the best life for a human being.

The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic is another challenge in South Africa's history, which is characterized by apartheid and its aftermath, the AIDS pandemic, and ongoing social and transgenerational trauma. South Africans have experienced serial collective trauma. The virus arrived here later than in the other parts of the world, offering possible respite to already burdened parallel health systems. The pandemic will exacerbate social and economic challenges and increase mental health risks. South African resilience will be tested again.

Adding the Dots and crossing the Ts: A historiographical overview of African theatre history

The historiography of Africa has often needed an update or review because it is no news how African history was constructed; a product of colonial and anthropological records. Due to this, attention was not paid to occurrences, especially the arts which were of no interest to either the colonial administration or the Anthropology researcher. It took combined efforts of the then Organization of African Unity (O.A.U.) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to deconstruct the misconceptions created through an eight-volume of a General History of Africa between 1964 and 1999. These attempts by African historians to correct the damage exclusion and distortion of facts about Africa and Africans is laudable, however, a gap still remains. The historiography of African theatre which has its foundation in Africa’s oral traditions is minimal. A continent of such diverse artistic performances needs a huge representation of both indigenous and external theatrical traditions in Theatre History. Using the desk review approach, ideological criticism and content analysis, this paper argues that the lack of expertise in decoding indigenous language and expressions and fear of misrepresentation are the sources of the minimal presence of African Theatre Historiography.

Edgar, Robert R. The Finger of God: Enoch Mgijima, the Israelites, and the Bulhoek Massacre in South Africa. Reconsiderations in Southern African History. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2018. xii+264 pp. $45.00 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsEdgar, Robert R. The Finger of God: Enoch Mgijima, the Israelites, and the Bulhoek Massacre in South Africa. Reconsiderations in Southern African History. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2018. xii+264 pp. $45.00 (cloth).Josiah Ulysses Young IIIJosiah Ulysses Young IIIWesley Theological Seminary. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 100, Number 3July 2020 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/708898 Views: 38Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Scenario Forecasts of Population Dynamics in Some Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa

Purpose. In Sub-Saharan Africa, UN demographers expect the population to nearly double over the next 30 years (2020–2050), increasing by more than 1 billion people. Demographic changes of such speed and scale will undoubtedly have global implications. The purpose of the work is to calculate a number of scenarios of the demographic future for some countries of the region, taking into account specific features and events of African recent demographic history (in contrast to the UN forecasts). We also aim to assess the difference between various scenarios for each country and the attainability of the “optimistic” scenario.Materials and methods. We develop scenario forecasts for population dynamics in a number of African countries. In all scenarios, mortality dynamics corresponds to the “medium” UN forecast. For the birth rate dynamics, two scenarios were simulated: the optimistic one (birth rate goes from current rates to 2.1 children per woman in 20 years, which was observed in Iran; Rwanda and Ethiopia are more or less close to this scenario) and the inertial one (for countries where birth rate declined in 2005–2015, this decline was simulated to continue at the same rate; for countries where birth rate “froze”, two options were modeled; both projected birth rate decline at 0.1 child per woman annually, either starting immediately or after another 10 years).The results show that all scenarios, even the “optimistic” one, forecast a huge population increase in all countries considered (Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia) over the next 30 years. Slow birth rate decline (or prolonged “stagnation” at high levels) parallel to successful mortality reduction (especially in infants and children) accumulated enormous demographic inertia in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (to calculate its scope, an additional “provisional” scenario was calculated in the work). The difference between the “inertial” and the “optimistic” reaches the size or even sometimes exceeds the current population of the country. This underlines the importance of the governments’ efforts to curb population growth. Ethiopia proves such efforts.Conclusion. Only in Ethiopia the “inertial” and “optimistic” scenarios almost coincide thanks to demographic growth-reducing efforts undertaken there since the early 1990s; thus, in 2005–2015 the birth rate decreased by 1.3 children per woman. This proves that achieving an “optimistic” scenario is possible in African countries, although with considerable and concentrated efforts.

Colonialismo: un episodio en la historia africana

En 1969 la descolonización era un proceso en curso que ya había dado lugar a numerosos estados independientes. Y jóvenes historiadores, fuera y dentro del continente, trabajaban con entusiasmo por ofrecer una "historia africana" alejada de los presupuestos hegelianos y eurocéntricos que habían negado, en las décadas anteriores, la historicididad de las poblaciones al sur del Sáhara. Eran tiempos de "construcción de naciones", y había que proporcionar historias donde los africanos paarecieran como protagonistas, hacedores de estados y sistemas comerciales, y no como meras víctimas o elementos del paisaje.

Grabbing the Sharp End of the Knife to Bring Liberation, Peace and Justice to South Africans: lessons from Ellen Kuzwayo and Phyllis Naidoo

abstract The tableware sparkles, the fresh flower arrangements are fragrant, soft, live jazz music tones permeate the air as the luncheon, which is of a world-class standard, gets underway. I am attending the celebration to mark the opening of new teaching venues at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, named after political stalwarts Ellen Kuzwayo and Phyllis Naidoo. Tributes are paid to these prototypical giantesses, who had worked as teachers during a part of their lives. My interest is piqued: Who were these political icons whose memory was being preserved in the buildings? What obstacles did they experience as women in the struggle for political emancipation? How might these insights inform our cultural identity as South African women in modern day society? In the present, pluralistic, patriarchal South African society, women encounter a multitude of challenges, including HIV and Aids, gender-based violence, unemployment, poverty, workplace gender discrimination and child abuse. However, women have broken the shackles of the past by resisting gender oppression and political injustices. Historically, women experienced exclusion within social and political spheres. For example, it took 31 years before women were permitted to join the African National Congress (ANC). Currently, the invisibility of women, compared to men in South African political history, is attributed in a large part to patriarchy. In order to address this vacuum, I use a feminist lens to look into the past to understand the herstorical accounts of these women, and locate the challenges and enablers which can serve to inform the empowerment of women today and in the future.

DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS AND THE UNFOLDING HISTORICAL DIALETICS OF WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The main thrust of this paper is centered around examining the historical challenges confronting women political participation in the democratization process of the Sub-Saharan African countries. In the past, indeed, women were never equal to men in the political sphere, because in the precolonial Africa, they were being allowed by men to ruled kingdoms, established cities, launched military conquests, and formed states. However, they unfortunately lost out in such arrangements and the social status with the coming and spread of Islam and Christianity and later colonization. Although women are key actors in the democratization process world over, they have now been politically, socially and economically marginalized especially in the Sub-Saharan African region. Marginalization has been a great challenge to the women of the region due to some socio-religious beliefs that came to the fore particularly with the emergence of Islam and Christianity. Likewise, in the contemporary African politics women are relegated to the background, hence sidelined, without tolerable and equal participation in the governance of their own social formations. The paper, therefore, adopts historical and descriptive approaches to argue that despite the increasing number of women in politics, the political landscape is still largely occupied by men. This is seen in the challenges facing the active political participation of women in the process such as cultural factors, lack of adequate representation and consultation in the political parties’ decision-making processes, gender discrimination, lack of fund and so on which the paper revealed. The paper concludes that the involvement of West African women in the democratization process would provide a new track in the developmental agendas of the entire region. And, a specific step to promote gender equality which would advance the status of women and young girls in the process of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa is greatly needed.

Eavesdropping on the Biafra-Lisbon link – breaking historical ciphers from the Biafran war

The Biafran War, or Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970 was a significant conflict in post-colonial African history. We obtained encrypted messages sent from Lisbon to Biafra via telex during the conflict. We employed manual and computerized cryptanalysis methods to decipher a series of transposition ciphers sent by Biafran officials in 1968 and 1969, which were encrypted using unknown variants of columnar transposition. We then derived the keywords the system was based on and the method used, and analyzed the codewords, names and traffic contained in the plaintexts. Some five-figure ciphers sent during the same period remain unsolved.

Pitfalls of participation: explaining why a strike followed unprecedented employee dividend pay-outs at a South African mine

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to provide explanations for why a spectacular strike (in 2012) at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine followed after the highest Employee Share Ownership Programme (ESOP) linked pay-out of dividends to workers in South African history. It is argued that a hidden transcript challenged the company’s official version of the ESOP and that some workers saw a political opportunity shortly after the events at Marikana and subsequent wage dispute settlements outside the ordinary collective bargaining procedures. The context for this was an approach to ESOPs that involved shares held in trust, but funded by loans dependent on future income, as well as contestation over the ownership of mineral rights at the mine by a politically influential rival firm. To this end, the ESOP was politicised in public debates. The situation was aggravated by a divided union branch. The functioning of the ESOP and how workers experienced it are analysed by means of publically available documents and primary research. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the case study for ESOPs in the mining industry as a form of ownership diversity.

APONTAMENTOS E BASES EPISTEMOLÓGICAS ENTRE FORMAÇÃO DOCENTE E CURRÍCULO: DESAFIOS CONTEMPORÂNEOS PARA UMA EDUCAÇÃO ANTIRRACISTA

The article discusses elements for the debate on the education of racial relations and the teaching of African and afro-brazilian history as a contribution to the debate on curriculum and education. It presents some points for a discussion on the interpretation and historical narrative around the teaching of contemporary African history. This will be done based on considerations about the epistemological debate around the publication of the Volume IX of the General History of Africa. It is intended to contribute to this debate with the introduction of theoretical and methodological aspects that guide the proposition around the notion of global Africanity from the contemporary historiographical discussion.

Fernanda Domingos Pinheiro, Em defesa da liberdade. Libertos, coartados e livres de cor nos tribunais do antigo regime

Em defesa da liberdade is the first book by Fernanda Domingos Pinheiro, Assistant Professor at the University of International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony. It essentially represents her doctoral thesis defended in 2013 at Campinas State University. She is no stranger to experts and academics of the African Diaspora in America since she is a recent contributor to the social history of Africans and their descendants in Brazil with articles in academic journals and book chapters....