CHRIS YOU? is Professor of History at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He is the author of Robert Thorne Coryndon: Proconsular Imperialism in Southern and Eastern Africa, 1897-1925 and his articles have appeared in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History and African Affairs. - TIMOTHY STAPLETON is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. He is the author of MAQOMX: Xhosa Resistance to Colonial Advance, 1798-1873.

'This collection is a fine tribute to John Flint, the Dalhousie University historian, whose wide-ranging research on the history of colonialism in Africa has done much to challenge established thinking. The book shows how Flint's ways of understanding the colonial era have been influential in the work of his students and colleagues. Presenting the results of research on all parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Agency and Action reveals the complexities and ambiguities of the colonial era through the lives and careers of a diverse group of colonial agents and subjects. In different ways, each of these chapters follows the approach of Flint himself by showing how individual ambitions, beliefs and actions were both shaped by and makers of the colonial experience.' - Alan Jeeves, President, Canadian Association of African Studies '...an important book...the essays are all of a quality to rival those in the top journal...' - Toyin Falola, African Studies Review

• Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction: John Flint and Agency in History; C.Youé & T.Stapleton Chronology of John Flint's Publications Faku, the Mpondo and Colonial Advance in the Eastern Cape, 1834-53; T.Stapleton 'Scientific Gold': Robert Koch and Africa, 1883-1906; M.Echenberg Colonial Commandants and the Administration of Slavery Policy in French West Africa; M.Klein Slavery, Sorcery and Colonial 'Reality' in Mauritania, c.1910-60; E.A.McDougall 'You are tearing my skirt': Labotsibeni Gwamile Lamduli of Swaziland; A.Kanduza A Christian, Civilized Man: D.D.T.Jabavu of South Africa; C.Higgs Creech Jones and African Universities, 1934-50; A.Nwauwa Chiefs and the Making of Industrial Policy in Nigeria; A.Hinds Critical Agents: Colonial Nigerian Intellectuals and their British Counterparts; P.Zachernuk Rebellion and Quiescence: Kenyan and Rhodesian Responses to Forced Removals in the 1950s; C.Youé Hastings Banda and Cold War Politics in Malawi; J.Power Index