{"title":"International African Library","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the rich and diverse tapestry of African history, culture, and literature with the International African Library series. A vital collection showcasing scholarly works, it's perfect for broadening perspectives and understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"serving-class-book-janet-bujra-9780748614844","title":"Serving Class","description":"This is a book about contradictions. About the men who are better at housework than women and still retain their view of themselves as real men.In colonial Tanganyika, when housework for some was transformed into wage labour for others, the only available labour force was predominantly male, so men became domestic servants, even nursemaids to babies.  Even today men are preferred over women as servants.  Paradoxically, these were also militant domestics, in an occupation usually characterised by passivity and inability to organise.  A wave of strikes involving domestic workers swept East Africa in the 1950s-60s.  Given this unusual militancy, why did domestic servants become so politically passive after independence?  And equally contradictory: how did an institution so sharply expressing class differences persist in a period when the Tanzanian state was proclaiming 'socialism' and the end of class exploitations?  Exploring the institution of domestic service, this book discloses processes of postcolonial class formation both as exploitation and cultural elaboration.  It also uncovers gender struggles amongst workers and those who employ them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49505976779025,"sku":"GOR013363858","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748614842.jpg?v=1768559433"},{"product_id":"death-in-abeyance-book-christopher-davis-9780748613052","title":"Death in Abeyance","description":"This is a comprehensive survey, in both its theory and its practice, of the Tabwa who live on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo (fomerly Zaire). The following topics are covered: concepts of the body and of illness, illness categories and approaches to diagnosis, divination and the meaning of illness in the life-histories of individuals and lineage groups. Moving to a broader perspective, it embraces therapies both of bodily events ('medicine') and of social circumstances ('magic' and 'religion'), and relates them to the cosmological beliefs which link and underwrite all three.Based on nearly four years of fieldwork, Dr Davis' book is the most complete study so far of an African therapeutic system. In contrast to most ethnographies of medicine, which take social structures as primary and treat medical knowledge as an extension or reflection of it, this study focuses on the medical system itself.  When medicine is thus considered first as an indigenous or vernacular science, it is soon seen that much of what passes for an inderstanding of ritual, magic and religion in Africa is thin and misconceived.Death in Abeyance was awarded the 2002 Wellcome Medal (Royal Anthropological Institute).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49585053499665,"sku":"GOR010144823","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748613056.jpg?v=1768562054"},{"product_id":"masquerades-of-modernity-book-ferdinand-de-jong-9780748633197","title":"Masquerades of Modernity","description":"How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? This book demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as locality. Focusing on initiation rituals, masked performances and modern art, this study shows that rituals and performances long deemed obsolete, serve the insertion of their performers in the world at their own terms.The Jola and Mandinko people of the Casamance region in Senegal have always used their rituals and performances to incorporate the impact of Islam, colonialism, capitalism, and contemporary politics. Their performances of secrecy have accommodated these modern powers and continue to do so today. The performers incorporate the modern and redefine modernity through secretive practices. Their traditions are not modern inventions, but traditional ways of dealing with modernity.This book will interest anthropologists, historians, political scientists and all those studying how globalisation affects peripheral societies. It shows that secrecy, performed as a weapon of the weak, empowers their performers. Secrecy serves to mark boundaries and define the local in the global.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49616829415697,"sku":"GOR012751428","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748633197.jpg?v=1768562001"},{"product_id":"beyond-the-state-in-rural-uganda-book-ben-jones-9780748635184","title":"Beyond the State in Rural Uganda","description":"In this innovative study, Ben Jones argues that scholars too often assume that the state is the most important force behind change in local political communities in Africa. Studies look to the state, and to the impact of government reforms, as ways of understanding processes of development and change. Using the example of Uganda, regarded as one of Africa's few \"success stories\", Jones chronicles the insignificance of the state and the marginal impact of Western development agencies. Extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a Ugandan village reveals that it is churches, the village court, and organizations based on family and kinships obligations that represent the most significant sites of innovation and social transformation. Groundbreaking and critical in turn, Beyond the State offers a new anthropological perspective on how to think about processes of social and political change in poorer parts of the world. It should appeal to anyone interested in African development. Key features: *Offers a new approach to studying development and change *Gives a fresh perspective on Christianity in Africa *Looks at problems of international development assistance *Provides a rich ethnographic rural study from east Africa","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49618500714769,"sku":"GOR013311911","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50004267303185,"sku":"GOR005003705","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748635181.jpg?v=1768557667"},{"product_id":"christians-and-chiefs-in-zimbabwe-book-david-maxwell-9780748611300","title":"Christians and Chiefs in Zimbabwe","description":"This is the fascinating social history of a remote chiefdom in Zimbabwe.  The book focuses on the religion and politics of the area, describing how the Hwesa people adapted the Christianity that the missionaries brought to found their own popular Christianity, pitted against local notions of evil.  It also examines the role of the chief, challenging the idea that the they were no more than colonial stooges. Key Features *Original and perceptive writing from a prominent Africanist historian *Fresh body of new data, challenging conventional wisdom","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50510160298257,"sku":"GOR009357959","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697259090193,"sku":"NGR9780748611300","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748611304.jpg?v=1768559789"},{"product_id":"advance-of-african-capital-book-tom-forrest-9780748604920","title":"The Advance of African Capital","description":"Combining ethnographic and historical perspectives, this study is the most detailed, most extensive account of medium- and large-scale African business yet published.  It examines the strategies and patterns employed by business people from the colonial period to the present day and provides profiles of Nigeria's key entrepreneurs.  Not only a valuable digest of business activities, this important study also challenges existing views about African enterprise and is highly relevant to policy-makers concerned with economic development.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50510257586449,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50510258471185,"sku":"GOR013978807","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748604928.jpg?v=1768559813"},{"product_id":"tears-of-the-dead-book-dick-werbner-9780748603046","title":"Tears of the Dead","description":"Illuminating 100 years of family history in Western Zimbabwe, from the colonial period to the present, this social biography is the first account of its kind for southern Africa.  At the heart of the book are the life histories of several generations of Kalanga men and women in a single extended family.  Together they chronicle the family's endurance and empowerment in the face of large scale eviction, displacement from home, the threat of imposed resettlement, guerilla war, and near starvation in a food blockade.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50790141559057,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50790141886737,"sku":"GOR005505390","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0748603042.jpg?v=1751428105"},{"product_id":"philosophising-in-mombasa-book-kai-kresse-9780748627868","title":"Philosophising in Mombasa","description":"Philosophising in Mombasa provides an approach to the anthropological study of philosophical discourses in the Swahili context of Mombasa, Kenya. In this historically established Muslim environment, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, philosophy is investigated as social discourse and intellectual practice, situated in everyday life. This is done from the perspective of an 'anthropology of philosophy', a project which is spelled out in the opening chapter. Entry-points and guidelines for the ethnography are provided by discussions of Swahili literary genres, life histories, and social debates. From here, local discourses of knowledge are described and analysed. The social environment and discursive dynamics of the Old Town are portrayed, firstly, by means of following and contextualising informal discussions among neighbours and friends at daily meeting points in the streets; and secondly, by presenting and discussing in-depth case studies of local intellectuals and their contributions to moral and intellectual debates within the community. Taking recurrent internal discussions on social affairs, politics, and appropriate Islamic conduct as a focus, this study sheds light on local practices of critique and reflection.In particular, three local intellectuals (two poets, one Islamic scholar) are portrayed against the background of regional intellectual history, Islamic scholarship, as well as common public debates and private discussions. The three contextual portrayals discuss exemplary issues for the wider field of research on philosophical discourse in Mombasa and the Swahili context on the whole, with reference to the lives and projects of distinct individual thinkers. Ultimately, the study directs attention beyond the regional and the African contexts, towards the study of knowledge and intellectual practice around the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52739930685713,"sku":"NIN9780748627868","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780748627868.jpg?v=1768558163"},{"product_id":"ethnicity-and-the-making-of-history-in-northern-ghana-book-carola-lentz-9780748624010","title":"Ethnicity and the Making of History in Northern Ghana","description":"Drawing on two decades of research this social and political history of North-Western Ghana traces the creation of new ethnic and territorial boundaries, categories and forms of self-understanding, and represents a major contribution to debates on ethnicity, colonialism and the 'production of history'. 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