Oxford Studies in African Affairs – serie

When news of the Darfur famine in the '80s broke in the West, relief experts predicted that, without massive food aid, millions of people would starve to death. Food aid on this scale did not arrive, but millions did not starve to death. Analyzing the famine from the perspective of the rural people in the region who suffered it, Alex de Waal uncovers a number of new and important insights into the dynamics of famine and famine relief. The author argues that deaths during the famine were not due to starvation, but instead were caused by disease, which ensued in the aftermath of the social disruption caused by the famine. In addition, the priority for rural people during the crisis was not to try to save every possible life, but to preserve their way of life for the future. Consequently, he concludes, the huge international relief effort was largely irrelevant to their survival. De Waal's findings have profound implications, not just for famine relief, but for our very conception of 'famine' itself. Already a classic in the field, this revised edition Famine that Kills provides critical background and lessons of past intervention for a region that finds itself in another moment of humanitarian crisis.

This is the first full study of the Turkana people of north-western Kenya and their armed resistance of the Turkana people of north-western Kenya to British colonial administration in the early twentieth century. From their first encounters with the colonial vanguard in the 1890s to the final surrender of the Great Diviner, Loolel Kokoi, in 1926, the Turkana resisted imperial conquest. Even after the imposition of colonial rule, they continued to oppose the administration through a variety of strategies.John Lamphear explores their responses to European colonialism and examines the nature of their resistance, making extensive use of oral sources, as well as archival and published material. His analysis takes full account of the military history of the period, and addresses the fundamental question of why some African societies met the European advance with armed resistance while others did not. In doing so, he makes an important contribution to the historiography of the imperial conquest of Kenya.

John Kent has written the first full scholarly study of British and French policy in their West African colonies during the Second World War and its aftermath. His detailed analysis shows how the broader requirements of Anglo-French relations in Europe and the wider world shaped the formulation and execution of the two colonial powers' policy in Black Africa. He examines the guiding principles of the policy-makers in London and Paris and the problems experienced by the colonial administrators themselves.This is a genuinely comparative study, thoroughly grounded in both French and British archives, and it sheds new light on the development of Anglo-French co-operation in colonial matters in this period.

This is a history of the Kenyan city of Mombasa and its surrounding settlements from the mid-nineteenth century to the height of colonial rule in the 1930s. Justin Willis sets out to place the island and town of Mombasa in its African context, incorporating the findings of recent historical and anthropological research.Dr Willis examines the institutions and social networks which simultaneously united and divided the people of the region before the colonial period, demonstrating both their interdependence and the creation of distinct population categories. He traces the development of these institutions under British rule, when the demands of the colonial economy caused officials to attempt far-reaching changes to the social structure and physically to remake the town of Mombasa.This is a radical re-interpretation of the history of Mombasa and its hinterland, based on thorough archival research. It offers valuable insights into the nature of ethnic identity, and makes an important contribution to the growing body of scholarly work on the African city.

This is the first scholarly study of African marriage relationships in Southern Rhodesia during the early twentieth century. It is a highly original and cogently argued history of sexuality and gender relations in colonial Africa. Diana Jeater's analysis pays careful attention to methodological questions and fruitfully combines historical and anthropological approaches.Dr Jeater examines the marriage relationship and the regulation of sexuality in terms of both the poltiical and the production systems, and offers valuable insights into the nature of gender relationships before and during the colonial period. She analyses colonial ideology, its contradictions and its effects on the people of Southern Rhodesia, and explores the interactions between black and white, male and female. Marriage, Perversion, and Power is an important contribution to African history and to the study of gender relations.

This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early twentieth century. Though much has been written about the South African War and `Reconstruction' period, this is the first scholarly and comprehensive analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal.Jeremy Krikler analyses the `Revolution from Above' unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. He explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. It is an original, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written account, which illuminates our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers new insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.

The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1886-1890

This is a study of the evolution of proposals to develop the Nile Basin to ensure the best use of its precious waters. The hydropolitics of the Nile Valley is the most important issue today for the future of the inhabitants of Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and East Africa. The story of `Nile Control' is the product of British, Egyptian, and Sudanese engineers and hydrologists, whose designs have determined the way of life of the millions who depend upon the Nile waters for their survival.

This is a study of the administration and government of the West African kingdom of Asante between 1744 and 1873. Larry W. Yarak analyses the nature and development of the pre-colonial state, and traces the history and character of the Asante-Dutch relationship from the early eighteenth century until the Dutch departure from the Gold Coast in 1872. Dr Yarak has carried out extensive researches in hitherto neglected Dutch archives, and made a detailed examination of important Asante oral sources. His book broadens our knowledge of the complexities of Afro-European relations on the pre-colonial Gold Coast, and contributes to wider historiographical debates concerning our understanding of African institutions. Asante and the Dutch is a substantial and original contribution to the history of a powerful imperial African state in the period before the European `Scramble' for Africa.

The political history of an East African stateless society c.1800-1939.