Ohio University Press
African gifts of the spirit; pentecostalism & the rise of a Zimbabwean transnational religious movement.
Maxwell (U. of Keele) describes the origins, evolution, and dynamics of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa, known in its transnational incarnation as Forward in Faith Mission International. It is one of the many African Pentecostal movement that have been recasting the shape and character of world Christianity since the 1980s. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Black and white in colour; African history on screen.
The editors (professors of historical studies, U. of Cape Town, South Africa) present 17 papers that explore how African history has been portrayed in film. The films examined include African films and European films, as well as films well known in the United States, such as Zulu Dawn, Out of Africa, and Hotel Rwanda. Major themes include the slave trade, representations of white colonialists, French West Africa in the World Wars, armed struggle in Zimbabwe, and anti- apartheid resistance. Much of the material is concerned with how accurately the films depict the past, but other themes typical of film studies emerge as well. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Blank verse; a guide to its history and use.
Shaw (English, Mount Holyoke College) explores the characteristics of the poetic form called blank verse and the achievements of poets who have used it from its first emergence to the present. A historical survey is sandwiched between chapters providing practical suggestions for writers and readers. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The complete works of Robert Browning with variant readings & annotations; v.15.
As part of a projected 17-volume set presenting all the known writings of Browning (1812-1889), this volume features works from the later years of the English poet's life, when he focused on such themes as love, desire, faith, classical and British colonial history, and Middle Eastern tales that were in vogue then. Volume 15 includes all variants of editions of: Dramatic Idylls: II (1883), Jocoseria (1883), and Ferishtah's Fancies (1884). Dooley (general editor of the series) and Ewbank, professors emeriti at Kent State U., provide useful brief explanations of references contemporary audiences may find obscure. The final volume in the series, published in association with Baylor U., will contain the index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Democratic reform in Africa; its impact on governance & poverty alleviation.
Ndulo (director, Institute for African Development, Cornell U.) presents 15 papers from a similarly titled October 2002 conference convened at Cornell University to explore issues that cut across political and economic reform, governance, and poverty alleviation in Africa and to assess how well they are being addressed. The key subtexts of the conference are the examination of institutions and their role in governance and poverty alleviation and the key actors in the processes of both democratic reform and economic development. The contributions provide policy analysis of law and development and also analyze civil society strategies that employ the law to advance good governance and poverty reduction. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Emancipation without abolition in German East Africa, c.1844-1914.
Unlike other colonial powers in Africa, authorities in German East Africa did not legally abolish slavery, explains Deutsch (Commonwealth history, U. of Oxford), and the self-emancipation that led to a decline in slavery beginning with colonization in 1890 suggests that the end of slavery was a social process rather than the result of colonial intervention or legislation. He describes the events, and explores the immediate impacts and general implications. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The memoir and the memoirist; reading and writing personal narrative.
Larson mixes criticism, psychology, reflection, essay, and historical and cultural contexts to examine the new genre. He asks such questions as why it is so popular, why people write memoirs, how the writing affects the writer, and whether the form has shown any pattern of change in its 20 years. He facilitates private memoir-writing groups in San Diego. There is no index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
One day for democracy; Independence Day and the americanization of Iron Range immigrants.
Nemanic (communications, Pennsylvania State U.) uses the evolving traditions of Fourth of July celebrations in Minnesota's northeastern Iron Range mining towns as a means to examine issues of identity construction, mass culture and popular culture, and pluralistic visions of Americanism. She discusses how the European immigrant communities of the Iron Range adopted the Fourth of July as a means of maintaining European popular culture carnival traditions that included parody, satire, clown bands, cross-dressing, and other subversive traditions, maintaining these characteristics even while adopting practices from America mass-mediated culture. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Triumph of the expert; agrarian doctrines of development and the legacies of British colonialism.
The economic depression of the early 1930s and the rising social unrest in the form of strikes, riots, and disturbances that followed in its wake, marked a critical turning point in the colonial encounter, argues Hodge (history, West Virginia U.-Morgantown). He contends that the colonial response to the social, economic, and ecological crises provided the framework of ideas and practices that support the current models of development. The nexus of Britain and agriculture serves as his case study. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The unsettled land; state-making & the politics of land in Zimbabwe, 1893-2003.
Alexander (Commonwealth studies, U. of Oxford) begins his story with the colonial onslaught that drove people from their homes and territories into reserves, and from there ever to farther and bleaker reserves, as Europeans settled down on the farmable land in what became Southern Rhodesia. He carries it through the controversial policy of the Zimbabwe government to return the stolen land, if not to its original inhabitants, at least to natives. Part of the story is also the making and unmaking of authority over people and land. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Violence, political culture & development in Africa.
Kaarsholm (international development studies, U. of Roskilde, Denmark) presents nine studies that explore recent history in Africa as a means of theorizing the interactions between violence, political culture, and development beyond overly facile references to "state collapse." Topics include the dynamics of militia formation in the Eastern Congo, the rhetorical deployment of different definitions of "genocide" by competing actors in Rwanda, the oil politics behind the American stance towards recent violence in Darfur, state- and opposition-sponsored commemorations of violence in Zimbabwe as means of contesting moral and political legitimacy, cultural style and intergenerational violence in post-apartheid South Africa, and a Durkheim-influenced "sociology of war" as applied to Sierra Leone. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Women, work & domestic virtue in Uganda, 1900-2003.
Kyomuhendo (women and gender studies, Makere U.) and McIntosh (history emerita, U. of Colorado) appraise the work of women in Uganda from precolonial times to the present and expanding that appraisal to the future. Before the 1970s relatively few women in Uganda were considered to earn their own income, despite their stocking most of the food and handicrafts sold in local markets. Since that time, due to education programs begun in the 1950s and 1960s and the number of men in the workforce reduced due to aids and conflicts, women have mad inroads into the professions and urban employment. As the economy of Uganda responds to efforts at globalization it cannot be said that women's work has been continually improving in all cases, but many more women are finding their opportunities for significant expanding. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
