The Winds of History

Life in a Corner of Rural Africa since the 19th Century

Andreas Zeman

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2023
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110765052
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

Based on extensive archival research in six countries and intensive fieldwork, the book analyzes the history of the village of Nkholongue on the eastern (Mozambican) shores of Lake Malawi from the time of its formation in the 19th century to the present day. The study uses Nkholongue as a microhistorical lens to examine such diverse topics as the slave trade, the spread of Islam, colonization, subsistence production, counter-insurgency, decolonization, civil war, ecotourism, and matriliny. Thereby, the book attempts to reflect as much as possible on the generalizability and (global) comparability of local findings by framing analyses in historiographical discussions that aim to go beyond the regional or national level. Although the chapters of the book deal with very different topics, they are united by a common interest in the social history of rural Africa in the longue durée. Contrary to persistent clichés of rural inertia in Africa, the book as a whole underscores the profound changeability of social conditions and relations in Nkholongue over the years and highlights how people's room for maneuver kept changing as a result of the Winds of History, the frequent and often violent ruptures brought to the village from outside. 

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction: Ways and Arguments Towards a “Global” Microhistory
• 2 Linking the Global with the Local: A Village Crafted by the Slave Trade
• 3 Christianity’s Double: Islamization as Slave Emancipation
• 4 One Village, One People? The Colonization of Masters and Slaves
• 5 The Grandmother of Poverty: A (Local) Periodization of Colonialism
• 6 Uncaptured Again: History and the Subsistence Mantra of Development Studies
• 7 Being Resettled: A Social History of the Mozambican War of Independence
• 8 At the Margins of the Nation: Malawians at Heart in Mozambique
• 9 From Victims to Voters: Renamo’s Delayed Supporters
• 10 Tourism and the Return of Tradition and Custom: How to Find the Chief?
• 11 From Slave Trade to Tourism: Towards a Local History of Matriliny
• 12 Conclusion: The World and a Really Small Place in Africa
• List of Maps
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Index