By Richard Reid
“An important and thoughtful overview that reminds us that African military history is worth studying in its own right, and that it illuminates much else about ‘state and society.’”
African Studies Review
“(A) much needed counterpart to studies already done on precolonial warfare in other geographical regions of Africa.... Through well-organized chapters, Reid shows how the East African societies...had a refined sense of the meaning of warfare and its influence on identity, respect, royal inheritance, nationhood, and community.”
International Journal of African Historical Studies
War in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa examines the nature and objectives of violence in the region in the nineteenth century. It is particularly concerned with highland Ethiopia and the Great Lakes. It will be of use to those interested in military history and to anyone involved in modern development and conflict resolution seeking to understand the deeper historical roots of African warfare.
Contents:
I THEORY & CONTEXT
African War in Historical & Theoretical Perspective
Antiquity & Inheritance
Restorative Violence & the Weight of History
II ARMIES Tools & Tactics
Organisation & Function
III PROCESS, IMPACT & CULTURE
Cost & Profit
War & Economic Change
Violence & Society
The Resolution & Avoidance of Conflict
The Culture of Conflict
Conclusions: War & the Making of State & Society
Richard Reid is a lecturer in African and Imperial History at the University of Durham. More info →
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Paperback
978-0-8214-1795-9
Retail price: $29.95,
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Release date: October 2007
256 pages
Rights: World (exclusive in Americas, and Philippines) except British Commonwealth, Continental Europe, and United Kingdom
Hardcover
978-0-8214-1794-2
Out-of-print
Wielding the Ax
State Forestry and Social Conflict in Tanzania, 1820–2000
By Thaddeus Sunseri
Forests have been at the fault lines of contact between African peasant communities in the Tanzanian coastal hinterland and outsiders for almost two centuries. In recent decades, a global call for biodiversity preservation has been the main challenge to Tanzanians and their forests. Thaddeus Sunseri uses the lens of forest history to explore some of the most profound transformations in Tanzania from the nineteenth century to the present.
African History · Environmental Policy · Environmental History · African Studies · Eastern Africa · Tanzania
Conflict, Age and Power in North East Africa
Age Systems in Transition
Edited by Eisei Kurimoto and Simon Simonse
Age systems are involved in the competition for power. They are part of an institutional complex that makes societies fit to wage war. This book argues that in postcolonial North East Africa, with its recent history of national political conflict and civil and regional wars, the time has come to reemphasize the military and political relevance of age systems. Herein is new information about age systems in North East Africa, setting them firmly in a wider spatial and temporal context.
African Studies · Political Science · African History · History · Violence in Society
Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda
Economy, Society, and Warfare in the Nineteenth Century
By Richard Reid
Blessed with fertile and well-watered soil, East Africa's kingdom of Buganda supported a relatively dense population and became a major regional power by the mid-nineteenth century. This complex and fascinating state has also long been in need of a thorough study that cuts through the image of autocracy and military might.
African Studies · African History · History · Violence in Society · Military History · Africa · Uganda · Eastern Africa
