Intermediaries, Interpreters, And Clerks

by Lawrance, Benjamin N.; Osborn, Emily Lynn; Roberts, Richard L.

• ISBN13: 9780299219505
• ISBN10: 029921950X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-16
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

As a young man in South Africa, Nelson Mandela aspired to be an interpreter or clerk, noting in his autobiography that "a career as a civil servant was a glittering prize for an African." Africans in the lower echelons of colonial bureaucracy often held positions of little official authority, but in practice the occupants of these positions functioned as hidden lynchpins of colonial rule. As the primary intermediaries among European colonial officials, African chiefs, and subject populations, these men (and a few women) could manipulate the intersections of power, authority, and knowledge at the center of colonial society. By uncovering the role of African civil servants in the construction, function, and legal apparatus of colonial states, the essays in this volume highlight a new perspective. They offer important insights on hegemony, collaboration and resistance, structures and changes in colonial rule, the role of language and education, the production of knowledge and expertise in colonial settings, and the impact of colonization in dividing African societies by gender, race, status, and class. Contributors: Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi, Ralph Austen, Andreas Eckert, Ruth Ginio, Herve Jezequel, Martin Klein, Benjamin Lawrance, Roger Levine, Saliou Mbaye, Thomas McClendon, Emily Osborn, David Pratten, Richard Roberts, Brett Shadle

Author Biography

Benjamin N. Lawrance is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Davis. Emily Lynn Osborn is assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. Richard L. Roberts is professor of history and Director of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: African Intermediaries and the "Bargain" of Collaboration	3	(34)
BENJAMIN N. LAWRANCE, EMILY LYNN OSBORN, and RICHARD L. ROBERTS
The Formative Period of Colonial Rule, ca. 1800-1920
An Interpreter Will Arise: Resurrecting Jan Tzatzoe's Diplomatic and Evangelical Contributions as a Cultural Intermediary on South Africa's Eastern Cape Frontier, 1816-1818	37	(19)
ROGER S. LEVINE
Interpreting Colonial Power in French Guinea: The Boubou Penda-Ernest Noirot Affair of 1905	56	(21)
EMILY LYNN OSBORN
Interpretation and Interpolation: Shepstone as Native Interpreter	77	(17)
THOMAS MCCLENDON
Petitioners, "Bush Lawyers," and Letter Writers: Court Access in British-Occupied Lome, 1914-1920	94	(21)
BENJAMIN N. LAWRANCE
Negotiating Legal Authority in French West Africa: The Colonial Administration and African Assessors, 1903-1918	115	(24)
RUTH GINIO
The Maturing Phase of Colonial Rule, ca. 1920-1960 "Collecting Customary Law": Educated Africans, Ethnographic Writings, and Colonial Justice in French West Africa	139	(20)
JEAN-HERVÉ JÉZÉQUEL
Interpreters Self-Interpreted: The Autobiographies of Two Colonial Clerks	159	(21)
RALPH A. AUSTEN
African Court Elders in Nyanza Province, Kenya, ca. 1930-1960: From "Traditional" to "Modern"	180	(22)
BRETT L. SHADLE
Power and Influence of African Court Clerks and Translators in Colonial Kenya: The Case of Khwisero Native (African) Court, 1946-1956	202	(18)
MAURICE NYAMANGA AMUTABI
The District Clerk and the "Man-Leopard Murders": Mediating Law and Authority in Colonial Nigeria	220	(28)
DAVID PRATTEN
Cultural Commuters: African Employees in Late Colonial Tanzania	248	(25)
ANDREAS ECKERT
Afterword
African Participation in Colonial Rule: The Role of Clerks, Interpreters, and Other Intermediaries	273	(16)
MARTIN KLEIN
Appendix: Personnel Files and the Role of Qadis and Interpreters in the Colonial Administration of Saint-Louis, Senegal, 1857-1911	289	(8)
SALIOU MBAYE
Bibliography	297	(22)
Contributors	319	(4)
Index	323