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To either achieve or resist domination, some postcolonial and post slavery societies appropriate and contest the current memories on slavery. This occurs more often where the sites of slavery are tourist attractions that positively empower the communities through economic benefits, resulting in an emergence of ‘new’ memories of the past and a constant construction and reconstruction of identity. In The Legacy of Slavery in Coastal Kenya: Memory, Identity, and Heritage, Herman Ogoti Kiriama exami...

One small East African country embodies the battered history of the continent: patronised by colonialists, riven by civil war, confused by Cold War manoeuvring, proud, colorful, with Africa's best espresso and worst rail service. Michela Wrong brilliantly reveals the contradictions and comedy, past and present, of Eritrea. Just as the beat of a butterfly's wings is said to cause hurricanes on the other side of the world, so the affairs of tiny Eritrea have reached onto the agenda of superpower...

In the early 1960s, nationalist politicians established in Tanzania a stable government in the face of external threats and internal turmoil. Paul Bjerk's volume chronicles this history and examines the politics and policies of the nation's first president, Julius Nyerere. One of the great leaders of modern Africa, Nyerere unified the diverse people who became citizens of the new nation and negotiated the tumultuous politics of the Cold War. In an era whenmany postcolonial countries succumbed to...

In the horrific events of the mid-1990s in Rwanda, tens of thousands of Hutu killed their Tutsi friends, neighbors, even family members. That ghastly violence has overshadowed a fact almost as noteworthy: that hundreds of thousands of Hutu killed no one. In a transformative revisiting of the motives behind and specific contexts surrounding the Rwandan genocide, Lee Ann Fujii focuses on individual actions rather than sweeping categories. Fujii argues that ethnic hatred and fear do not satisfacto...

Modern socioeconomic developments have diminished the traditional role and power of women in East Africa. Drawing on nearly two decades of research based on their method of "interactive ethnography," the authors show how this change in status has brought about strains in family life and decreased the value of children, resulting in more frequent occurrences of child abuse and neglect. Surveys, interviews, and psychological assessments conducted by the authors during repeated visits to Kenya and...

"Saviours and Survivors" is the first account of the Darfur crisis to consider recent events within the broad context of Sudan's history, and to examine the efficacy of the world's response to the ongoing violence. Illuminating the deeply rooted causes of the current conflict, Mamdani works from its colonial and Cold War origins to the war's intensification from the 1990s to the present day. Examining how the conflict has drawn in national, regional, and global forces, Mamdani deconstructs the p...

An original study on the strategic dimensions of Kenya encompasses in-depth examinations of the Kenya Armed Forces, political and military relations with key neighboring countries, and Kenya's crucial strategic relationship with the United States. Kenya plays a key role in the conflicts between the Western and Islamic worlds, making a grasp of its politics, international relations, military services, and security status an important study. Global Security Watch-Kenya provides a thorough introdu...

Popular romance was one of the most wide-spread forms of literature in the middle ages, yet despite its cultural centrality, and its fundamental importance for later literary developments, the genre has defied precise definition,its subject matter ranging from tales of chivalric adventure, to saintly women, and monsters who become human. The essays in this collection seek to provide an inclusive and thorough examination of romance. They provide contexts,definitions, and explanations for the genr...