The Human Tradition in Modern Africa

Dennis D. Cordell

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2011
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781442213838
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

This rich collection of biographies of African men and women adds a crucial human dimension to our understanding of African history since 1800. The last two centuries have been a time of enormous change on the continent, and these life stories show how people survived by resisting European conquest and colonial rule, by collaborating with colonial powers, or by finding a middle way to live their lives through tumultuous times. Bringing the story to the present, the book traces the era of independence since the 1960s through challenges to the rule of African dictators, struggles for the rights of women and mothers, the exploitation of youth and child soldiers, and economic booms and busts.

By recounting the lives of real, identifiable people from societies across Africa south of the Sahara and from African communities in Europe, this unique book underscores the importance and power of individual agency in understanding the recent African past, a vital complement to analyses of broader, impersonal social and economic factors.

Contributions by: Agnès Adjamagbo, Maryan Muuse Boqor, Dennis D. Cordell, José C. Curto, Mamadou Diouf, Andreas Eckert, Laura Fair, Tovin Falola, Doug Henry, Lidwien Kapteijns, Issiaka Mandé, Cora Ann Presley, Carolyn F. Sargent, Pamela Scully, Ibrahim Sundiata, and Marcia Wright.

Table of contents

• Introduction: People and History in Modern Africa
• Part I: Encounters: Two Worlds and New Worlds, 1800–1850
• Chapter 1: José Manuel and Nbena in Benguela in the Late 1810s
• Chapter 2: Efusetan Aniwura of Ibadan (1820s–1874)
• Chapter 3: Moka of Bioko (Late 1820s–1899)
• Part II: Fashioning African Identities in the Era of European Conquest, 1850–1910
• Chapter 4: Hamet Gora Diop (1846–1910)
• Chapter 5: Samuel Johnson (1846–1901) and The History of the Yorubas
• Chapter 6: Stories of Cape Slavery and Emancipation in the Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 7: Mama Adolphina Unda (c. 1880–1931)
• Part III: The Contradictions of Colonialism, 1910–1960: Exploitation and New Rights
• Chapter 8: Colonial Administrator Adolphe A. M. Taillebourg (1874–1934)
• Chapter 9: Louis Brody (1892–1951) of Cameroon and Mohammed Bayume Hussein (1904–1944) of Former German East Africa
• Chapter 10: Siti binti Saad (c. 1885–1950)
• Chapter 11: Maryan Muuse Boqor (b. 1938) and the Women Who Inspired Her
• Part IV: Globalization, Family Strategies, and New Threats in the Era of Independence, 1960–2012
• Chapter 12: Wambui Waiyaki Otieno Mbugua (b. 1928)
• Chapter 13: Tina (b. 1942) of Côte d’Ivoire
• Chapter 14: Samba Sylla (b. 1948), Doulo Fofanna (b. 1948 or 1949), and Djénébou Traore (b. 1972)
• Chapter 15: Foday (b. ca. 1974) Meets the Rebels in 1991
• About the Contributors