Being Colonized

by Vansina, Jan

• ISBN13: 9780299236441
• ISBN10: 0299236447
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-18
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

What was it like to be colonized by foreigners? Highlighting a region in central Congo, in the center of sub-Saharan Africa,Being Colonizedplaces Africans at the heart of the story. In a richly textured history that will appeal to general readers and students as well as to scholars, the distinguished historian Jan Vansina offers not just accounts of colonial administrators, missionaries, and traders, but the varied voices of a colonized people. Vansina uncovers the history revealed in local news, customs, gossip, and even dreams, as related by African villagers through archival documents, material culture, and oral interviews. Vansinars"s case study of the colonial experience is the realm of Kuba, a kingdom in Congo about the size of New Jersey-and two-thirds the size of its colonial master, Belgium. The experience of its inhabitants is the story of colonialism, from its earliest manifestations to its tumultuous end. What happened in Kuba happened to varying degrees throughout Africa and other colonized regions: racism, economic exploitation, indirect rule, Christian conversion, modernization, disease and healing, and transformations in gender relations. The Kuba, like others, took their own active part in history, responding to the changes and calamities that colonization set in motion. Vansina follows the regionrs"s inhabitants from the late nineteenth century to 1960, as a new elite emerged on the eve of Congors"s dramatic passage to independence.

Author Biography

Jan Vansina, now emeritus, held the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professorship and the Vilas Professorship in History and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many books include his memoir Living with Africa, as well as Oral Tradition as History, Antecedents to Rwanda, Living with Africa, Kingdoms of the Savanna, The Children of Woot, and Paths in the Rainforests, all published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Considered one of the founders of the academic field of African studies, he was the second scholar chosen as “Distinguished Africanist” by the African Studies Association of the United States.

Jan Vansina, now emeritus, held the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professorship and the Vilas Professorship in History and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many books include his memoir Living with Africa, as well as Oral Tradition as History, Antecedents to Rwanda, Living with Africa, Kingdoms of the Savanna, The Children of Woot, and Paths in the Rainforests, all published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Considered one of the founders of the academic field of African studies, he was the second scholar chosen as “Distinguished Africanist” by the African Studies Association of the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
A Note on Spelling and Pronunciation	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
Congo: Becoming a Colony	p. 10
The Colonial Relationship	p. 35
Incidental Conquest	p. 58
Company Rule and Its Consequences	p. 86
Were the Kuba Nearly Wiped Out?	p. 127
Fifty Years of Belgian Rule: An Overview	p. 150
A Kingdom Preserved	p. 178
Village Life: 1911-1950s	p. 214
In Pursuit of Harmony	p. 244
Visions for a Different Future	p. 271
Toward a New World	p. 298
Conclusion: the Experience of Being Colonized	p. 325
Index	p. 333
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.