African American religions and the voodoo label

In 1932, an African American man named Robert Harris killed his tenant on a makeshift altar in the back of his home in Detroit, Michigan. Harris, who was allegedly part of Detroit’s burgeoning Black Muslim community, described the murder as a human sacrifice to Allah.

Harris was put on trial for murder; however, following some bizarre courtroom rants during which he referred to himself as a “king” and the murder as a “crucifixion,” Harris was declared insane and sent to an asylum. Even while reporting on his delusions and his confinement in the asylum, newspapers throughout the United States published stories referring to Harris as the leader of a “Voodoo cult” that practiced human sacrifice.

Although the authorities knew that Harris had a history of threatening to harm his wife, his children, and his social worker and that his actions were the result of mental illness, they detained leaders of the Allah Temple of Islam—the Muslim community to which Harris allegedly belonged—asking them about their beliefs regarding human sacrifice. They allegedly ordered the Temple’s leader, Wallace Fard, to leave Detroit. Elijah Muhammad took over following Fard’s departure and changed the temple’s name to the Nation of Islam. He also moved their headquarters to Chicago. These name and location changes were designed to shake off the negative reputation that the community had developed following the Harris case. Nevertheless, the first scholarly article about the Nation of Islam, written in 1938, was titled “The Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit.” Additionally, claims that Fard had promoted human sacrifice resurfaced when the Nation gained notoriety during the Civil Rights era and was a way to discredit the work that they were doing.

The founders of the Nation of Islam are not unique. Many African American religions have been labeled as “voodoo” by outsiders and have been falsely accused of barbaric practices.

The history of “voodoo”

The term “voodoo” is deeply rooted in anti-Black racism. Specifically, the term first came into popular use during the US Civil War and was used to argue that Black people were superstitious by nature and would “relapse” into barbaric practices if not controlled by white people through slavery. After the Civil War ended, similar arguments appeared in a variety of US newspapers, reporting the “primitive” practices that had supposedly become popular since the end of slavery. The authors argued that such practices proved that Black people were not ready for citizenship, the right to vote and hold public office and other rights extended to them by post-war constitutional amendments.

Over the following decades, the term “voodoo” evolved and was no longer used simply as a broad term to refer to Black spiritual practices in the US. By the late 19^th century, “voodoo” was also a gloss for African based religions in other parts of the Americas. In particular, false allegations that Black people in Cuba and Haiti were engaged in voodoo-related human sacrifice and cannibalism were common around the turn of the 20^th century. Such stories often reflected on the horror of such things happening so close to the US and the need for an American military presence to quash these practices. 

Biases remain in the 21^st century

The negative perceptions of “voodoo” did not end in the 20^th century. They are regularly reinforced through news reports, television, movies, and other sources. Like the founders of the Nation of Islam in the 1930s, the bizarre actions of a single mentally ill individual are often attributed to entire Black religions or communities. Recent cases that have been described as “voodoo” include a mother who set her six year old daughter on fire, two women who caused third degree burns to a five-year-old while trying to cleanse her of “demons,” and a man who stabbed his dog thirty-seven times then stuffed it in a suitcase and left it to die.

In other cases, it would go without saying that such senseless acts of violence have no place in religious ritual. However, all these cases were attributed to “voodoo” and linked to Afro-Caribbean, especially Haitian, religious beliefs and practices. Such incidents have a negative impact on devotees who have felt compelled to hide their religion for fear of persecution after such cases are reported in the media. In at least one case, it led a Christian bishop in Massachusetts to denounce “voodoo” before a cheering crowd of hundreds of people. Despite the well-publicized cases of several mentally ill individuals, African American religions do not engage in human sacrifice, cannibalism, or any related acts. However, after more than 150 years of rumors and stereotypes, the term “voodoo” has little life outside of such racist myths about it that were developed to support slavery and imperialism. Aside from a small community of people in New Orleans, devotees of African American religions typically do not use “voodoo” to refer to their own faith. Nevertheless, outsiders continue to mislabel a wide variety of African and African American religions, especially Haitian Vodou, as “voodoo” and attribute barbaric practices to them. These misconceptions cause great harm to devotees who suffer discrimination and violence at alarming rates.

_{Feature image by Tracy Lundgren via Pixabay.}

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Genomic insights into the past and future of the black rhinoceros

The iconic African black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) faces an uncertain future after intense poaching caused a 98% decline in wild populations from 1960 to 1995. While numbers are currently increasing, the animal remains critically endangered.

The historical range of the black rhinoceros covered vast swaths of sub-Saharan Africa, but today’s remaining individuals inhabit just a handful of protected areas. The survival of the black rhinoceros within the fragmented remains of its natural habitat relies on dedicated conservation efforts. A study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, “Historic Sampling of a Vanishing Beast: Population Structure and Diversity in the Black Rhinoceros”, reshapes our understanding of the evolutionary and natural history of the black rhinoceros, opening a window into the species’ genetic past while urging us to forge a path toward its conservation.

The study characterizes the population structure and genomic diversity of the black rhinoceros, both before and after its range-wide collapse in the last century, providing a model for how genetic diversity is shaped during population contractions. “The only way to really explore this is to use species with well documented, temporal collections that are also tied to good demographic records,” says Thomas Gilbert, one of the study’s lead authors. “Sadly, species like the black rhinoceros are a perfect example, given their long-term appeal to big game hunters and poachers.” The motivation for the study, however, extended beyond mere scientific curiosity according to co-first author Binia De Cahsan Westbury: “Studying the genetic history of the black rhinoceros through time provides crucial insights into its evolutionary trajectory and aids in developing effective conservation strategies for its remaining populations.”

With this goal, the authors sequenced the genomes of 63 museum specimens collected from 1775 to 1981, as well as 20 individuals from modern black rhinoceros populations, compiling the most comprehensive genetic dataset of the species to date and significantly advancing earlier research efforts. “Whole genome sequences have revealed much more conservation-relevant population structure in the black rhinoceros than expected from traditional markers,” notes the study’s other lead author, Yoshan Moodley, emphasizing the transformative power of cutting-edge genomic techniques.

Analysis of the data revealed the presence of six major black rhinoceros populations historically as well as four subpopulations, offering more precise delineation of population borders than ever before. Notably, the results suggested that tectonic rifts in Africa during the Pleistocene had “driven the evolution of several hitherto unknown populations, many of which probably still exist within the present day Kenyan metapopulation,” highlights Moodley.

In addition to geographical barriers, the evolutionary history of the black rhinoceros was shaped by secondary contact when these barriers to gene flow were temporarily removed. “The interplay of these events has resulted in a significant pattern of isolation by distance across the sub-Saharan territory of the species,” says De Cahsan Westbury, referring to a trend in which populations that are farther apart geographically also show greater genetic differences from each other.

The researchers further evaluated levels of inbreeding among historical and modern populations of the black rhinoceros, an essential consideration for species that have suffered severe population bottlenecks. “Modern samples underscore the profound impact of population contractions and subsequent genetic drift,” notes De Cahsan Westbury, “with southern African individuals experiencing the most severe effects and the highest inbreeding among all populations.” Some populations showed evidence of inbreeding that predated the colonial period, which highlights the long-standing impact of human activity on this species according to the study’s authors.

Altogether, the study offers a resounding call to action to improve the conservation and management of the black rhinoceros. “For too long, wildlife conservation authorities have struggled to incorporate and implement urgent genetic recommendations, to the detriment of the biodiversity concerned,” notes Moodley. “It is absolutely crucial that the new populations identified in East Africa be given the highest conservation priority,” he emphasizes, echoing the study’s urgent plea for comprehensive genetic testing of black rhinoceroses in Kenya and Tanzania. In addition, the distinct evolutionary groups identified in the study, such as the Ruvuma, Maasai Mara-Serengeti, and possibly Chyulu National Park subpopulations, should be the focus of separate management to maintain their unique genetic lineages.

The study pays homage to the late Professor Mike Bruford of Cardiff University, a prominent figure in conservation genetics and a co-author of the project. His death “was a tragedy for not only his family but conservation biology in general,” note the authors. Bruford’s legacy continues to influence the field, an enduring testament to the pursuit of knowledge and the protection of Earth’s genetic heritage.

_{Featured image by Ron Porter via Pixabay.}

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The history of Ancient Rome: a timeline

From Octavian’s victory at Actium to its traditional endpoint in the West, the Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years—one-fifth of all recorded history. The story of Rome—and the strategic planning that grounded that history—is longer and more complex than many historians haven grappled with, until now. 

By employing an expansive definition of strategy and by focusing much of the narrative on crucial historical moments and the personalities involved, James Lacey provides a comprehensive, persuasive, and engaging account of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. 

Explore the key moments that shaped the empire in the timeline below:

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Exploring Ancient Egypt with Carter, Reisner, and Co. [interactive map]

The Ancient Egyptian civilization is regarded as one of the most iconic civilizations in history. It lasted for over 3,000 years, with the Nile River serving as a lifeline for small, independent city states to bloom along the river due to its agricultural predictability. As the fertile valley produced surplus crops, large populations thrived, leading to greater social development and culture.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign in 1798 inspired a burst of Egyptomania in Europe. Ever since then, many world scholars have attempted to discover the riches of the land, including American George Reisner, Egypt’s premier archaeologist of his era, and British Howard Carter, who discovered the Boy King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Travel back in time to Ancient Egypt and explore pyramids with hidden burial chambers, colossal royal statue, miniscule gold jewelry, and much more. Explore the interactive map below.

_{Featured image: Figure 14.3 from Walking Among Pharaohs by Peter der Manuelian. Excavations at Nuri Pyramid 6, looking local west, November 11, 1916. HU-MFA B2859 NS; Mohammedani Ibrahim.} 

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Egyptology at the turn of the century [podcast]

On 1 November 1922, Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team of excavators began digging in a previously undisturbed plot of land in the Valley of the Kings. For decades, archaeologists had searched for the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun with no success, and that November was to be Carter’s final attempt to locate the lost treasures. What Carter ultimately discovered—the iconic sarcophagus, the mummy that inspired whispers of a curse, and the thousands of precious artifacts—would shape Egyptian politics, the field of archaeology, and how museums honor the past for years to come.

On today’s episode, we discuss the legacy of early twentieth-century Egyptology to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

First, we welcomed Bob Brier—one of the world’s foremost Egyptologist, and an expert in mummies who is one of a few scholars who have had the opportunity to investigate Tutankhamun’s mummy—as he discusses his new book Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World and the 100 years of research that have taken place since the tomb’s discovery. We then spoke with Peter Der Manuelian, the author of Walking Among Pharaohs: George Reisner and the Dawn of Modern Egyptology, to discuss Reisner’s life, the rise of American Archaeology in Egypt, and the archeological field’s involvement in nationalism and colonialism.

Check out Episode 77 of The Oxford Comment and subscribe to The Oxford Comment podcast through your favourite podcast app to listen to the latest insights from our expert authors.

Recommended reading

To learn more about the themes raised in this podcast, we’re pleased to share a selection of free-to-read chapters and articles:

Earlier on the OUPblog, we shared an interactive map showing some of Reisner’s and Carter’s key discoveries. Included in the map are photos of some of the amazing artefacts as well as excerpts from Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World and Walking Among Pharaohs: George Reisner and the Dawn of Modern Egyptology.

From The Oxford Handbook of Egyptology, read about the nature of history and Egyptology.

You can read about the exploration of the Valley of the King’s prior to the late Twentieth Century in The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings.

To learn more about the phenomenon of Egyptomania that has spread through the 20^th and 21^st centuries, you can read a chapter from Ian Shaw’s book Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction.

Learn more about the discovery of Howard Carter’s letters confirming the theft of artefacts in this recent piece from The Guardian.

The greywacke statue of King Menkaura and the painted coffin of Djehutynakht, two of George Reisner’s discoveries mentioned by Peter Der Manuelian, can be viewed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Lastly, Bob Brier mentioned one of the most famous Saturday Night Live skits, Steve Martin’s “King Tut” song from 1978:

_{Featured image: “Howard Carter in the King Tutankhamen’s tomb, circa 1925” by Harry Burton, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.}

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Howard Carter and Tutankhamun: a different view

For Egyptologists the year 2022 is a special one—not one but two momentous anniversaries are on tap. Two hundred years ago, on 27 September 1822, French scholar Jean-François Champollion leapfrogged over his peers to crack the “code” of hieroglyphs—scholars could finally read ancient Egyptian inscriptions, and Egyptology was established as a new discipline. On 4 November 1922, exactly 100 years later, Englishman Howard Carter, excavating on behalf of his patron Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle (now best known as the setting for “Downton Abbey”) acted on a “hunch” and discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in a previously neglected part of the Valley of the Kings, setting the world at large on fire, archaeologically speaking. “King Tut’s tomb” and the (much older) Pyramids of Giza: have any other monuments come to symbolize ancient Egyptian civilization—and archaeology—better?

Howard Carter is celebrated as a folk hero in some circles today. Egyptologists commend his meticulous documentation of more than 6,000 objects cleared from the four small chambers of Tutankhamun’s tomb, enriching the Egyptian collection in Cairo today, and, as I write this, they are moving from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to just north of the Giza Pyramids where they will be exhibited in the sprawling Grand Egyptian Museum/GEM, set to open soon. One shudders to think how these objects might have fared had their discovery occurred two or even just one century prior to Carter’s 1922 field season.

But Howard Carter was no angel. By most accounts an often abrasive personality, he made his great discovery during an outburst of Egyptian nationalism against the British occupation that had stifled Egyptian independence since 1882. Archaeology does not exist in a vacuum, and both foreigners and Egyptians quickly pounced on the Tutankhamun find to suit their own political agendas. Carter and Carnarvon sold exclusive newspaper coverage to The Times of London, incensing their Egyptian hosts. The Egyptian Antiquities Service (Service des Antiquités), by colonialist tradition in the hands of a Frenchman, tried to rein in Carter while ensuring responsible treatment of the tomb’s treasures. Tensions flared, and, for a time in 1924-25, Carter was locked out of the tomb, with the sarcophagus lid hanging precariously by ropes in mid-air. 

At the Giza Pyramids, west of Cairo, a very different approach to archaeology was in evidence during these years. George A. Reisner was Egypt’s premier archaeologist of his era, and he was excavating the pyramid field at Giza while living on-site at “Harvard Camp” just west of the site. Since 1899 he had directed the Hearst Expedition (funded by American philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst) and then the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Eventually he explored 23 different sites in Egypt, Nubia (modern Sudan), and Palestine. 

While Carter received no formal education in his field, George Reisner obtained his BA, MA, and PhD degrees from Harvard University (1889, 1891, and 1893 respectively). This training was in the comparative philology of Semitic languages, but postdoctoral work in Berlin introduced him to Egyptology. Carter took an adversarial view of his Egyptian hosts; Reisner, with his fluent Arabic, demonstrated greater affinity for the local population, especially his workforce from the Upper (southern) Egyptian town of Quft. Years earlier, Carter ran afoul of some unruly French tourists at Saqqara, and the ensuing row cost him his inspector job. Reisner by contrast followed all the rules, whether issued by local Egyptian omdas (head men), the French authorities at the Service des Antiquités, or by the British governmental officials. Carter dealt in the antiquities trade on behalf of Western collectors, a practice Reisner studiously avoided. And no one would call Carter a founding father of modern scientific archaeology, while Reisner, augmenting and improving on his British predecessor Flinders Petrie’s methods, was precisely that. His focus on stratigraphy (layers of deposits), strict documentation of every phase of the excavation process, and the creation of typologies for every type of object and monument discovered, set him apart from all other archaeologists of his day. Largely due to Reisner, one could claim that during the first half of the twentieth century, Egyptian archaeology was at the forefront of world archaeology in general.

Reisner viewed Carter with his impolite behavior as the bull destined to ruin the archaeological china shop for all the other expeditions. In 1922, the partage system, providing for a 50-50 division of finds between Cairo and an expedition’s home institution, was already ending; by 1927 foreign scholars feared they would be excluded entirely from the Service des Antiquités. The machinations around the “Tooten-Carter” tomb, as Reisner called it, spelled trouble for all concerned.

Reisner claimed confidentially that he had heard the Egyptian government possessed evidence of Carnarvon and Carter engaging in illicit excavations, instigating thefts from sites, and smuggling antiquities: “The record is one of the most disgraceful things that has happened in our time. They are also accused of having instigated thefts from the Cairo Museum, an act of which I have long suspected them; and the proof of that may be forthcoming at any time.” In correspondence with his superiors back in Boston, Reisner reported that such damning evidence might be published if Carter did not accept the government’s terms for returning to work. Through it all Reisner had steered clear; despite Carter’s earlier visits to his excavations at Giza, he had not spoken to him since 1917 and “never accepted [Carter] or Carnarvon as a scientific colleague nor admitted that either of them came within the categories of persons worthy of receiving excavation permits from the Egypt Government.” Swallowing particularly sour grapes, Reisner even pooh-poohed the Tutankhamun find, lamenting the lack of any historical texts found in the tomb to provide answers for some of the larger questions of Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian history and chronology. Carter for his part once returned the “favor” by refusing to allow Reisner’s assistant Dows Dunham to visit the tomb, doubtless due to Dunham’s affiliation with the Harvard-MFA Expedition. During Carter’s “exile” from the tomb, he embarked on a lecture tour in America, but mocked the reception he received in Boston, thanks to Reisner’s associates there making “asses of themselves.” No love was lost between the two men.

Later conversations between Carter and some of his confidants revealed that he had known all along where to search for the tomb of Tutankhamun, based on earlier finds of a colleague in the Valley of the Kings back in 1914 which had not been followed up. Carter’s professed “hunch” and archaeological acumen in locating the tomb were in fact fictions.

Carter’s talented but difficult character, Reisner’s disdain (and envy?), and the political tensions surrounding archaeology, colonialism, and nationalism, made for a heady mixture in 1920s Egypt. We might wonder how differently the Tutankhamun clearance would have proceeded under Reisner rather than Carter. For starters, there would have been no acrimony with the Egyptian authorities. Secondly, Reisner would have worked much more slowly, as he proved in 1925 when he spent 321 days on one tiny royal burial chamber—with deteriorated contents—belonging to Queen Hetep-heres at Giza, amassing 1,490 photographs and 1,701 pages of notes. Tutankhamun’s tomb by contrast contained four chambers packed with complete objects. 

The boy-king’s own history, at the center of a religious schism perpetrated by his father, the pharaoh Akhenaten, will forever be tied to the career of the gifted but mercurial Howard Carter. But Reisner had even trained Carter’s best assistant, Arthur Mace, and so we should not forget Carter’s archaeological contemporaries on the banks of the Nile. The greatest among these archaeologists, the golden glitz of Tutankhamun’s tomb notwithstanding, was George Reisner. 

Listen to Peter Der Manuelian discuss George Reisner’s life, the rise of American Archaeology in Egypt, and nationalism and colonialism in archaeology on The Oxford Comment podcast.

_{Featured image by Badawi Ahmed via The Giza Project at Harvard University, public domain}

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Unmanly men and the flexible meaning of kinaidos in Classical antiquity

The kinaidos (cinaedus in Latin) was the homosexual “bogeyman” of Greco-Roman literature: a man so willing to be sexually penetrated by other men that scholars think he was perhaps just an imaginary figure. Reading more broadly, however, we can see that men bearing this identity marker did exist in antiquity. Financial records, letters, and even a dedicatory message on a temple wall complicate our understanding of this ancient sexual and social deviant.

In fourth-century BCE Athens, the orator Demosthenes is labelled a kinaidos in the courtroom by his opponent in order to besmirch his masculinity and accuse him of shameless conduct. In the Gorgias, Plato cites the “life of the kinadoi” as being the prime example of hedonistic living. Roman authors are more detailed as to what exactly makes the cinaedus’ behaviour so wretched: Catullus, Martial, and Juvenal all portray cinaedi as desiring sexual penetration by other men and often as displaying extreme effeminacy.

The word “cinaedus” also occurs frequently in insulting graffiti on the walls of Pompeii. Appearing more than 30 times, it is often accompanied by the name of the specific individual it mocks. On occasion a little more information is provided. For instance, a graffito uncovered recently reads: NICIA CINAEDE CACATOR. Nicia, or Nicias, is a personal name, that it is Greek suggests it may have belonged to an enslaved person who had subsequently been manumitted. A cacator is a person who defecates. Therefore, this slur, “Nicias, a cinaedus and a crapper,” bluntly attacks an individual as being filthy in his social, sexual, and digestive behaviour.

Yet if we turn to Egypt during Ptolemaic and Roman rule, the word kinaidos is used in very different contexts and so takes on a rather different meaning. Instead of being used as a negative slur, the term appears in several financial documents as a way of identifying particular individuals. A pot sherd and a papyrus survive in which kinaidoi are recorded as paying tax contributions. More interesting, however, are the documents in which payment is made to kinaidoi and which demonstrate that they provided some form of valued service. Since their appearance in these documents is accompanied by mention of pipe players it can also be inferred that they were hired to provide some kind of entertainment be that song, dance, or some combination of the two.

The notion of the kinaidos as a specific kind of performer is corroborated elsewhere. The Roman poets Martial and Juvenal specifically associate this individual with a particular form of dance in which the cinaedus wiggles his buttocks salaciously. He is also connected with a particular kind of poetic speech that is noted by the ancients for its racy rhythms and is employed for parodic, and sometimes pornographic, content. However, in a letter to a friend complaining about such tawdry entertainment, Pliny the Younger states that such performances (though not to everybody’s taste) ought to be tolerated at other people’s parties. He writes that although “in no way does it please me if something effeminate is performed by a cinaedus”. . . “let us pardon the amusements of others so we may obtain the same pardon for our own” (9.17).

Frustratingly, all of these mentions are examples where the term kinaidos is applied externally. Only two examples of men self-identifying as kinaidoi exist in the ancient record. As with the financial documents mentioned above, this evidence comes from Egypt: at the temple of Isis at Philae located at the southern-most edge of the Roman world. In around 5 CE two kinaidoi left their names in messages scratched amongst countless others left by pilgrims to the site. Their words read: “Tryphon son of the same, the god’s kinaidos I came to Isis of Philae,”“Strouthion the kinaidos I came with Nikolaos” (I.Philae II 154–5). The names of these two individuals are also quite telling. Tryphon derives from the Greek word, tryphē, meaning “daintiness” and Strouthion from strouthos which can mean either sparrow or ostrich. Such names certainly give an impression that their bearers could have been somewhat effeminate or extravagant.

If Greco-Roman authors single out the kinaidos as a bad example of masculine behaviour across a spread of centuries, this does not necessarily provide a complete picture. As noted, graffiti from Pompei corroborate this term as being negative and carrying with it a sense of shame. However, by reading around our extant sources, another type of figure comes into view: one who pays taxes and therefore sits officially within a fiscal framework; one who is renumerated (and most likely valued) for his appearance alongside pipe players in performance settings; and finally one who exhibits a sense of pride in completing his pilgrimage to the temple of the extremely popular goddess Isis in the early years of the Roman empire. 

_{Feature image: Isis temple from lake, Philae Island, Egypt, by Rémih from Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 1.0}

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The top 10 history blog posts of 2021

Travel back in time to the recent past and explore the OUPblog’s top 10 history blog posts of 2021. From dispelling Euro-centric myths of the Aztec empire to considering humanity’s future through the lens of environmental history, think outside the box with the latest research and expert insights from the Press’s history authors.

1. Native conquistadors: the role of Tlaxcala in the fall of the Aztec empire

The Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica, leading to the collapse of the Aztec empire, would have been impossible were it not for the assistance provided by various groups of Native allies who sensed the opportunity to upend the existing geopolitical order to something they thought would be to their advantage. No group was more critical to these alliances than the Tlaxcaltecs.

In this blog post, David M. Carballo, author of Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain, explores the history of the Tlaxcaltecs to dispel long-held Eurocentric narratives of the “conquest of Mexico.”

Read the blog post ->

2. Thirteen new French history books [reading list]

Bastille Day is a French national holiday, marking the storming of the Bastille—a military fortress and prison—on 14 July 1789, in an uprising that helped usher in the French Revolution. In the lead up to the anniversary of Bastille day, we shared some of the latest French history titles for you to explore, share, and enjoy.

Explore the French history reading list ->

3. Seven new books on environmental history [reading list]

The reciprocal relationship between humanity and nature may define the future of our life on this planet, but it is also an inescapable force in our history. To discover how the natural world has impacted the course of history, explore these seven new titles on environmental history.

Browse the environmental history reading list ->

4. The three greatest myths of the Fall of Tenochtitlán

13 August 2021 marks the moment, exactly five hundred years ago, when Spanish conquistadors won the battle for Tenochtitlán, completing their astonishing conquest of the Aztec Empire, initiating the three-century colonial era of New Spain. At least, that is the summary of the event that has since predominated.

In recent decades, scholars have developed increasingly informed and complex understandings of the so-called Conquest, and opinions in Mexico itself have become ever more varied and sophisticated.

Read more from Matthew Restall, author of Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, as he seeks to dispel the three greatest myths of the Fall of Tenochtitlán.

Read the blog post ->

5. Mapping the great battles [interactive map]

Certain battles acquire iconic status in history. The victors have been celebrated as heroes for centuries, the vanquished serve as a cautionary tale for all, and nations use these triumphs to establish their founding myths.

In this interactive map, you can explore the legacy of 10 key battles dating back to 480 BC through World War II. Each battle is featured in our Great Battles collection, a growing series telling the story of some of the world’s most iconic battles.

Explore the interactive map ->

6. Mexican independence from Spain and the first Mexican emperor

Mexico had been battling its way towards independence from Spain for some years when, in 1820, the Mexican-born officer, Agustín de Iturbide y Arámburu, proclaimed a new rebellion on behalf of what he called the Plan of Iguala. This called for Mexican independence, a constitutional monarchy with the Spanish king or another member of the Bourbon dynasty at its head, the Catholic religion as the only religion of Mexico, and the unity of all inhabitants, no matter what their origin, ethnicity, or social class.

In this blog post, Professor Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, author of Projecting Imperial Power, details the rise and fall of Agustín de Iturbide y Arámburu, the first Mexican emperor, and his part in Mexican independence from Spain.

Read the blog post ->

7. Black History Month: celebrating 10 people who made British history

Observing UK Black History Month in 2021, we curated a collection of Oxford Dictionary of National Biography articles exploring the lives of people of Black/African descent who had an impact on, or a connection to, the UK during their lifetime and the ways in which they made history – from Gustavus Vassa to Beryl Agatha Gilroy to Jimi Hendrix.

Explore the profiles ->

8. The kings of Prussia become German emperors and Berlin becomes an imperial city

On 16 June 1871 the Prussian army, 42,000 strong, entered Berlin in triumph. Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, had been proclaimed German Emperor five months before in Versailles. Painted canvases lined the army’s route, on one of which was depicted the myth of Emperor Barbarossa. He was said to have been asleep for 700 years inside the Kyffhäuser mountain with his red beard growing down through the table he was sitting at, waiting for the time when he could awake. Ravens circling overhead indicated the site of his long slumber. He could now arise, since his empire had been founded anew by Prussia.

Learn more about this moment in Prussian history from Professor Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, author of Projecting Imperial Power.

Read the blog post ->

9. Archaeology, architecture, and “Romanizing” Athens

The question of whether Athens was a Greek or Roman city seems straightforward, but among scholars there is some debate.

Read the blog post by Ian Worthington, author of Athens After Empire, for an analysis of the archaeological evidence that might provide an answer to this enduring scholarly question.

Read the blog post ->

10. Beyond history and identity: what else can we learn from the past?

History is important to collective identity in the same way that memory is important to our sense of ourselves. It is difficult to explain who we are without reference to our past: place and date of birth, class background, education, and so on. A shared history can, by the same token, give us a shared identity—to be a Manchester United fan is to have a particular relationship to the Munich air disaster, the Busby babes, George Best, Eric Cantona, and so on.

Read the blog post from Michael Braddick, author of A Useful History of Britain, to consider the roles shared experience and personal memories play in establishing our cultural identities – and the challenges this can bring.

Read the blog post ->

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An empire of many colours? Race and imperialism in Ancient Rome

Romans sometimes worried that you couldn’t tell enslaved and free people apart. Seneca told a story that the senators once debated requiring all slaves to wear a particular costume, until they realised it would show the slaves how many of them there were in Rome. Pliny described an embarrassing encounter in the baths when a senator—naked, of course—was mistaken for a slave. These are the characteristic paranoias of slave-owners. It was no easier to tell Romans apart from their provincial subjects. By the second century CE, many senators were descended from Gauls and Iberians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Syrians—the very peoples Romans had conquered as they extended their empire. Many more were descended from the Italian peoples defeated even earlier. A few senators were even said to be descended from slaves—but who could tell?

So, was the Roman empire unusually inclusive? Or even a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic civilization? None of that seems very likely. A people that celebrated their divinely approved rule over the world, that awarded triumphs to generals if they had killed enough enemies, that examined slaves under judicial torture and condemned criminals to death in the arena or the mines, are an unlikely role model. Most historians believe Rome ruled through fear instilled by spectacular displays of violence, as when the escaped gladiators who had followed Spartacus were crucified along the Appian Way, the main route into the city of Rome from the south. Roman politics was bloody, and not just during the civil wars of the Republic. As the Dutch Historian Fik Meijer put it in the title of his book: Emperors don’t die in bed.

It used to be thought that there were almost no people of colour in the ancient world. (Some very unsavoury political groups today still insist that the Greeks and Romans were uniquely white.) But look more closely at classical art, at Greek and Latin literature, and even at the evidence of ancient DNA and stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains, and it is immediately clear that the 60 million-odd inhabitants of the empire certainly did not look alike. This is no surprise when we consider that the Mediterranean Sea is the meeting place of three continents, that there were ancient routes into Africa across the Sahara and down the Nile, that the frontiers to the north were easily crossed, and that in the east Rome connected easily to Persia and central Asia and to the Indian Ocean too. Physiologically, the peoples that Rome conquered were already diverse. Plus, under the emperors, tens of thousands of enslaved people were brought into the empire every year, mostly from northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

Romans did have their own ideas of race: their greatest poet Vergil once called his people “the toga-ed race,” the people who wear a toga. Roman poets and orators constantly ridiculed the strangeness of other peoples, picking out what they wore (Gauls in trousers for heaven’s sake!), or ate (too many things if they were Egyptians, too few if they were Jews), who they had sex with and how, their accents and body language, and so on. Those senators of provincial or servile origin had to learn the “proper” way to behave and speak, at least in public and in Rome. But these attacks did not single out skin colour, nor the kind of hair people had, nor the shape of their features, nor their height, nor any of the other physiological signs that mean so much (too much) to us.

Greeks and Romans knew about that kind of difference of course. Scientific writers wondered if Ethiopians had darker skin because they lived closer to the arid zones of the world. But that did not make them less human in their eyes. On the contrary, the Ethiopians, and their more imaginary northern counterparts the Hyperboreans, were actually treated with some awe in classical texts. Homer’s Iliad begins with the gods dining as the guests of the Ethiopians, and their king, Memnon, was one of the Trojans’ most powerful allies.

There are not many historical societies that we would consider egalitarian. Rome is certainly not one of them. The case of Rome shows how arbitrary are the differences on which racist regimes are founded. Prejudice, cruelty, and discrimination were all central to Roman rule, but what we consider the most obvious markers of race hardly mattered to them. And if their definition of difference seems arbitrary to us, perhaps we should think again about our own.

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Ten empowering books to read in celebration of Black History Month

Anna J. Cooper once said: “the cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.”

In observance of Black History Month, we are celebrating our prize-winning authors and empowering scholarship spanning a variety of topics across African American history, the civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, and more. Explore our reading list and update your bookshelf with the most recent titles from these eminent authors.

1. The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans by Jonathan Scott Holloway

Jonathan Scott Holloway considers how, for centuries, African Americans have fought for what the Black feminist intellectual Anna Julia Cooper called “the cause of freedom.” At a moment when political debates grapple with the nation’s obligation to acknowledge and perhaps even repair its original sin of slavery, The Cause of Freedom tells a story about our capacity and willingness to fully realize the country’s founding ideal: that all people were created equal.

2. The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights by Thomas C. Holt

Thomas C. Holt provides an informed and nuanced understanding of the origins, character, and objectives of the mid-twentieth-century freedom struggle, shining a light on the aspirations and initiatives of the ordinary people who built the grassroots movement. This groundbreaking book reinserts the critical concept of “movement” back into our image and understanding of the civil rights movement.

3. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea, Updated Edition by Christopher J. Lebron

In this updated edition, Christopher J. Lebron presents a condensed and accessible intellectual history that traces the genesis of the ideas that have built into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In a bid to help us make sense of the emotions, demands, and arguments of present-day activists and public thinkers, this edition includes a new introduction that explores how the movement’s core ideas have been challenged, re-affirmed, and re-imagined during the white nationalism of the Trump years, as well as a new chapter that examines the ideas and importance of Angela Davis and Amiri Baraka as significant participants in the Black Power Movement and Black Arts Movement, respectively.

4. The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart

Jeffrey C. Stewart offers the definitive, Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award–winning biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of Locke’s life and on interviews with those who knew him personally. Stewart’s thought-provoking biography recreates the worlds of this illustrious, enigmatic man who, in promoting the cultural heritage of Black people, became—in the process—a New Negro himself.

5. Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel

The unforgettable saga of one enslaved woman’s fight for justice—and reparations—by Pulitzer Prize-winning author W. Caleb McDaniel. This book tells the epic tale of Henrietta Wood, who survived slavery twice and who achieved more than merely a moral victory over one of her oppressors. A portrait of an extraordinary individual as well as a searing reminder of the lessons of her story, this book establishes beyond question the connections between slavery and the prison system that rose in its place.

6. Straighten Up and Fly Right: The Life and Music of Nat King Cole by Will Friedwald

One of the most popular and memorable American musicians of the 20th century, Nat King Cole is remembered today as both a pianist and a singer, a feat rarely accomplished in the world of popular music. In this complete life and times biography, author Will Friedwald offers a new take on this fascinating musician, framing him first as a bandleader and then as a star. This chapter explores the musical output of the King Cole Trio in the peak years of 1943 to 1946 and breaks down the different kinds of songs they favored.

7. The History of Jazz: Third Editionby Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia’s The History of Jazz has been universally hailed as the most comprehensive and accessible history of the genre of all time. Acclaimed by jazz critics and fans alike, this magnificent work is now available in an up-to-date third edition that covers the latest developments in the jazz world and revisits virtually every aspect of the genre, bringing the often overlooked women who shaped the genre into the spotlight and tracing the recent developments that have led to an upswing of jazz in contemporary mainstream culture.

8. Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film by Kevin Whitehead

Author and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers a feast for film fanatics and movie-watching jazz enthusiasts. Spanning 93 years of film history, this book is a comprehensive guide to films (and other media) from the perspective of the music itself. Explore this chapter to learn more about jazz in film, from early talkies through the birth and development of the swing era.

9. Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong by Ricky Riccardi

Utilizing a prodigious amount of new research, author Ricky Riccardi traces Armstrong’s mid-career fall from grace and dramatic resurgence. Featuring never-before-published photographs and stories culled from Armstrong’s personal archives, Heart Full of Rhythm tells the story of how the man called “Pops” became the first “King of Pop.”

10. Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Jewish Familyby Laura Arnold Leibman

While their affluence made them unusual, the Moses’s story represents that of a largely forgotten population: families of mixed African and Jewish ancestry, that constituted as much as 10% of the Jewish communities. This story of siblings sheds new light on the fluidity of race—as well as on the role of religion in racial shift—in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Explore the full Black History Month collection here.

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The language gap in North African schools

When children start school in an industrialized country, their native language is for the most part the one used by the teachers. Conversely, in many developing countries, the former colonial languages have been proclaimed languages of instruction within the classroom at the expense of native indigenous languages. A third scenario is something in-between: The language used at school is related to the home language but is a significantly different variety. This is the case in the Arabic-speaking world where the native dialects are used at home and on the street while Modern Standard Arabic is used in education and in other formal domains. In the latter two cases, the stakes are higher for the students from the very onset of their learning journey: They must acquire a second linguistic system and develop literacy skills, both at the same time.

In North Africa, students acquire their native Arabic dialects at home before starting school. Some students also acquire Berber in the areas where it’s still transmitted naturally. Since the Arabic vernaculars aren’t standardized or officially recognized by the state, they’re not taught at schools and there aren’t any textbooks or dictionaries aimed at native speakers. As a result, students must develop literacy in Modern Standard Arabic, a language that diverges to a significant extent from the native vernaculars. There are different words that refer to the same things and even aspects of the grammar are different. For example, while Tunisian Arabic has seven subject pronouns (eight in some varieties), Modern Standard Arabic has twelve, including the dual pronouns that don’t exist in vernacular Arabic. As a result, Tunisian students have to make a conscious effort not only to develop literacy in the standard variety of Arabic, but also to learn how to speak it extemporaneously in order to communicate successfully in the classroom.

In addition to Modern Standard Arabic, schools in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco introduce French as a second language, usually in elementary school. In Tunisia, the instruction of French starts around the age of eight, before French becomes a language of instruction for many subjects starting in middle school.

Both in the educational system and on the local job market, a divide exists between students who pursue their studies primarily in Modern Standard Arabic and those who do so in French. STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), including computer science, is delivered in French in Tunisian high schools. Students who choose tracks that focus more on these subjects will develop higher levels of proficiency in French than students who choose the humanities stream, which has more hours of instruction in Modern Standard Arabic. The result of this added exposure to either language creates a gap in levels of proficiency that stratifies the Tunisian population according to their comfort using Modern Standard Arabic and/ or French. This has implications for social mobility, as both languages have different and competing symbolic, cultural, and material capitals in the Tunisian linguistic market.

Proficiency in French is often used as a proxy metric for educational attainment, professional competence, and overall higher socioeconomic status. Modern Standard Arabic on the other hand is closely associated with the national religious and cultural heritage and pan-Arab ideologies. With this rivalry between Modern Standard Arabic and French in the background, the local Arabic vernacular, Tunisian Arabic, is gradually acquiring more capital and starting to be used by private citizens and public authorities alike on multiplatform media. This is more so since the 2011 Revolution. Additionally, the turn of the century has brought with it an increased presence of English as a global language. Thanks to the vast amounts of materials available for the acquisition of English, increasing numbers of Tunisians are developing higher levels of proficiency in this language and employing it.

While there are public discussions about which languages to use at school, conflicting ideologies make it hard for real change to happen. For the time being, it appears that North African students will continue to develop initial literacy in Modern Standard Arabic and use French in many STEM subjects throughout their educational trajectory. This affects school attainment for many school children who may fall behind, not necessarily because the subject matter is challenging, just because they aren’t always fully comfortable with the language of instruction.

Featured Image Credit: Lindstedt via Unsplash

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Exploring the seven principles of Kwanzaa: a playlist

Beginning the 26th of December, a globe-spanning group of millions of people of African descent will celebrate Kwanzaa, the seven-day festival of communitarian values created by scholar Maulana Karenga in 1966. The name of the festival is adapted from a Swahili phrase that refers to “the first fruits,” and is meant to recall ancient African harvest celebrations. Karenga drew upon traditional African philosophy to select the seven organizing principles (the Nguzo Saba) that structure the observance of Kwanzaa: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity), and imani (faith). Each day of Kwanzaa celebrates one of these principles, chosen for their emphasis on strengthening bonds of family, culture, and community among people of African descent.

In anticipation of Kwanzaa, the editors of Oxford Music Online and the Oxford African American Studies Center have put together a short playlist that celebrates the festival’s seven principles. Although these songs are not specifically tied to the Nguzo Saba, we feel that each piece embodies an important aspect of its corresponding principle. We could, of course, expand the list with hundreds of other tracks that are equally pertinent to the philosophy underpinning Kwanzaa. This selection is merely a starting point.

“Happy Kwanzaa”—Teddy Pendergrass (2001)

Our first pick, Teddy Pendergrass’s “Happy Kwanzaa,” provides an overview of the principles of the festival, and is one of the few Kwanzaa-specific songs ever produced by a major recording artist. The track is a smooth, buoyant R&B jam that not only lists the seven Nguzo Saba, but also expresses the joy to be found in celebrating them.

“Nation Time (Part 1)”—Joe McPhee (1971)

Joe McPhee’s funky free jazz classic “Nation Time” shares a title with a 1970 Amiri Baraka poem and captures the spirit of umoja (unity) that undergirded Baraka’s dream of black nationalism. (See below for more on Baraka.) In the early years of the Black Power movement, “nation time” referred to an ideal of African American political and economic cooperation that would result in a new black nation.

McPhee’s composition, recorded live at Vassar College, begins with a short call-and-response between the saxophonist and the audience: “What time is it? NATION TIME!” The band then launches into a fast-paced, densely-layered 18-minute piece that manages to showcase saxophone, piano, trumpet, bass, and organ, evoking Coltrane, soul jazz, early funk, and R&B in equal measure. However, the genius of the arrangement lies in the way in which all of these disparate elements are held together—unified—in an engaging, melodic fashion.

“Ain’t Got No, I Got Life”—Nina Simone (1968)

Nina Simone’s “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” is the perfect embodiment of the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination). The song is divided into two parts, the first part using a minor-inflected groove to underlay lyrics written from the perspective of someone who has nothing in the way of family, love, or possessions. After a brief bridge in which the energy builds and the lyrics ask “why am I alive anyway?”, the second part begins, using a major-inflected groove to underlay a triumphant enumeration of what the person does have: arms, legs, ears, freedom—but, most importantly, life.

“What’s Happening Brother”—Marvin Gaye (1971)

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Happening Brother” asks questions central to the principle of ujima (collective work and responsibility) within the context of someone (purportedly Gaye’s younger brother Frankie) returning home from the Vietnam War. The music itself is full of chromatic twists and turns, slickly navigating the central key and its related modes, as the song’s protagonist finds his way back into home life.

“Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”—James Brown (1968)

The principle of ujamaa (cooperative economics) is perhaps not one that lends itself easily to expression in music, but it probably wouldn’t find a clearer statement than in James Brown’s anthemic “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” The entire second verse of the song addresses systemic economic exploitation (“But all the work I did was for the other man”) and a solution that entails both personal agency and economic cooperation: “Now we demand a chance to do things for ourselves/We’re tired of beating our head against the wall/And working for someone else.” There’s definitely more to this song than its eminently-shoutable chorus.

“The World Is Yours”—Nas (1994)

Nas’s seminal “The World Is Yours” finds him rapping about the demands and tragedies of urban life in New York City, seemingly a million miles away from the fundamental Kwanzaa principle of nia (purpose). But while Nas doesn’t seem to hold out much hope for himself (“Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne”), he envisions a future in which his as-yet-unborn son will learn from his father’s mistakes and make the world his own. “My strength, my son, the star, will be my resurrection,” Nas says, confident in the knowledge that his son will find a purpose that will uplift them both. Pete Rock’s chorus (“It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine/Whose world is this?”) on the track is unforgettable, too, keeping nothing back in promising the world to those who endeavor to take it.

“Black Art”—Amiri Baraka (1965)

Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art” addresses the principle of kuumba (creativity) directly, but rather than engage with traditional ideas of beauty or aesthetics, the piece focuses, at least initially, on art’s ability to upset and destroy. In one of the poem’s early stanzas, for example, Baraka declares with a shout, “We want ‘poems that kill.’/Assassin poems, Poems that shoot/Guns.” The poem is a raw expression of outrage, full of anger and violence, that can be painful to listen to today.

“Black Art” ends, however, with a burst of positivity:

Let Black people understand/that they are[…]/
[P]oems & poets &/all the loveliness here in the world/
We want a black poem. And a/black world.

This coda comes across as an unexpected, inspirational call to unity. Nevertheless, the social implications of Baraka’s “black poem,” as delineated in the piece’s vicious early verses, have the potential to leave the listener severely troubled.

In this recording, Baraka speaks over an improvised track performed by an all-star avant-garde jazz band that included Sunny Murray on drums, Don Cherry on trumpet, and Albert Ayler on tenor sax. Ayler’s staccato bursts and Murray’s cymbal washes fill the spaces that surround Baraka’s words to create a thick, disorienting sonic cloud that amplifies the tension generated by the poem.

“Keep Ya Head Up”–Tupac (1993)

The seventh principle of Kwanzaa is imani (faith), which encourages African Americans to believe in the righteousness of the struggle for equality. Tupac Shakur’s “Keep Ya Head Up” is an anthem to strength and resilience in the face of devastating tragedies in life—but the title of the song keeps returning: no matter how impossible it seems, you have to keep fighting for what’s right.

Kwanzaa playlist

Featured image credit: “candles” by Myriams Fotos. CC0 via Pixabay.

An older version of this article was published on the OUPblog on 26th December 2013 here.

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How the Ebola crisis affected people’s trust in their governments

Legitimacy and trust fundamentally determine a state’s ability to effectively implement policies. Without legitimacy, governments cannot rely on citizens to voluntarily comply with centrally mandated policies, making their implementation costly and the provision of public goods inefficient. This is particularly true in the case of public health interventions, where adherence to recommendations of governments determines the success of policies.

Large scale public health responses during epidemics can strongly affect the perception of states within a short period of time. Specifically the Ebola epidemic that raged in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2015 may have actually improved trust in governments in regions where government intervention was effective while undermining trust where this was not the case. Compared to pre-epidemic years, trust in government entities increased relatively more in regions that saw an intense transmission of Ebola. In Guéckédou, for example, the region in which the epidemic started and subsequently experienced high transmission rates, trust in government strongly increased. These results reflect changes in perceptions induced by the governments’ response to the epidemic rather than by the exposure to the disease itself. That is, in regions where central governments effectively worked to contain the epidemic, citizens began to trust their governments more.

Underlying the increase in trust are multiple causes. People who lived in places with high Ebola transmission rates valued government-led eradication efforts more compared to people who lived in less affected regions. Furthermore, legitimacy especially rose in regions where the majority of population belongs to ethnicities that are politically alienated. Within Guinea, for example, trust particularly rose in remote areas, such as above-mentioned Guéckédou, that have no strong representation in parliament. This suggests that the ability to eradicate a highly infectious disease may have helped excluded groups feel more confident in the quality of their central governments. The epidemic required central governments to involve and coordinate with local leaders and communities in their eradication efforts. This likely increased its legitimacy. If this effect persists, this has positive implication for economic development as legitimacy is an important determinant of state capacity. Greater legitimacy, for example, improves citizen’s tax compliance and thereby enhances the government’s capacity to provide public goods and administer its territories effectively. While this has positive implications for economic development in the longer run, the short-run effects of the epidemic have certainly been devastating. In addition to the strong impact on morbidity and mortality, economic growth has also been affected. A World Bank report, for example, shows that GDP growth has dropped significantly in all three affected countries as a result of the epidemic.

Ebola-induced changes in perceptions also entail political rewards. In the post-epidemic presidential elections, support for the incumbent party disproportionately increased in regions that saw a more intense transmission of the disease.

Taken together, this suggests that by reacting effectively to situations of emergency, governments can increase trust among citizens. In the context of weak states and developing countries, this leaves an important role for international organisations. By providing technical and financial support to governments, they cannot only help eradicate diseases, but also promote state legitimacy. The effectiveness of international relief efforts thereby crucially depends on the involvement of local leaders as well as consideration of local institutions and culture. Simple top-down approaches lack legitimacy and can even result in community resistance.

Featured image credit: Safety suits for the decontamination team by DFID (UK Department for International Development). CC by 2.0 via Flickr.

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A forgotten African satirist: A.B.C. Merriman-Labor

In 1904, twenty-six-year-old A.B.C. Merriman-Labor stamped the red dust of Freetown’s streets from his shoes and headed for London. There he intended to prove his literary skill to the world. The Sierra Leone Weekly News had assured him that his color would no obstacle there, and he could “go anywhere, wherever his merits, either intellectual or social, will take him.”

Freetown’s robust literary community, its clubs, library, and lectures had nurtured him and encouraged his literary dreams. Already he had published a novella, produced a play, and given lectures that were published in the U.K. then distributed worldwide. But it was his 1898 essay on the Hut Tax War that had made his name.

He knew the ideas in the essay would be dismissed if he spoke as the Krio A.B.C. Merriman-Labor, a junior clerk in the Colonial Secretary’s office, so he signed it “an Africanised Englishman Twenty Years in British West Africa.” In the piece, he slyly promised a dashing war story that would make “pleasurable reading … for every loyal English subject…of the British Empire,” then daringly described an out-of-touch colonial administration that understood very little of what was happening in the vast land it governed. The true hero of the war in his telling was the Temne chief Bai Bureh, a plucky leader of wit, cunning and honor, who outwitted the British forces at every turn. The exposé quickly became a sensation in West Africa.

For the next six year, Merriman-Labor saved every penny as he worked his way up the civil service ladder. Then, in 1904 he left his respectable government job and headed to the center of the empire.

London, it turned out, was not as perfect as he had been led to believe. Its streets were not paved with gold, but rather, he joked, “plastered over with mud and something…left behind by the hundreds of thousands of horses.” This gap between the idealized Sierra Leonean vision of the metropolis and its stark realities inspired Merriman-Labor’s London writing. First came the articles for the Sierra Leone Weekly News, then the 10,000-mile lecture tour around Africa called “Five Years with the White Man,” and finally his only surviving full-length book Britons Through Negro Spectacles. 

Merriman-Labor was determined to speak important truths but knew as a black man he could not speak those truths directly. In Britons, he disguised himself as comedian to make his words more palatable to his white readers. “Considering my racial connection,” he wrote, “I am of the opinion that the world will be better prepared to hear me if I come in the guise of a jester.”

Part travelogue, part reverse ethnology, and part spoof of books by ill-informed “Africa experts,” Britons camouflages its radical ideas with jokes, puns, satire, burlesque, and lampoon. It describes a walk around London with Merriman-Labor acting as a guide to a newly arrived African friend. As they pass landmarks, observe people, and discuss British manners, the city’s famous clocks toll, marking the passing day. Nine years before James Joyce strolled Leopold Bloom around Dublin and sixteen years before Virginia Woolf ambled Clarissa Dalloway through the West End, Merriman-Labor walked arm-and-arm with Africanus from Poultry Street to Hyde Park.

On the surface, the silly jokes offer the stuff of fun, providing, as the Dundee Courier concluded, an “hour or two of quiet amusement.” But its purpose is much more daring than its comical pose. By acting as an ethnographic observer, Merriman-Labor asserts the right of being the observer, not the observed. In Britons, the white Europeans are the exotic others who need to be explained.

No wonder it provoked strong negative reactions. As a criticism of English institutions, The Law Journal declared, “it is valueless.” The Daily Expresscharacterized its comic portrait of British life as “low jests” from a “crude pen.” Its audacity was palpable in Africa. F. Z. S. Peregrino, founder of Cape Town’s first black newspaper, saw its irreverent jibes as so inflammatory, he prevented Britons from being circulated.

In the end, Merriman-Labor was made to pay for his audacity. Britons Through Negro Spectacles was a commercial failure. Its costs sunk him so deep into debt, he was forced into bankruptcy.

Ultimately, life in London led him to cast off his British identity as yet another disguise. Disgusted with the country that had claimed him, educated him, and then disowned him, he discarded his British name and became Ohlohr Maigi. It was an identity he only possessed for a few years until overwork in World War I munitions factory led to an early death at age forty-two.

Merriman-Labor’s work floated into obscurity, but not oblivion. His clever, irreverent, joyful voice rings through Britons Through Negro Spectacles, reminding us that for those willing to listen, voices from the margins have important things to teach us.

Featured image credit: Typewriter by Tama66. CC0 via Pixabay

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Black History Month: a reading list

February marks the celebration of Black History Month in the United States and Canada, an annual celebration of achievements by Black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in US history.

The first variation of Black History Month was initiated by Dr. Carter G. Woodson (founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life) in 1926 titled Negro History Week, which took place during the second week of February. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History later expanded the February celebration in the early 1970’s, renaming it Black History Month. However, it was not until 1976 that the month of February was designated as Black History Month by President Gerald Ford, continuing to be observed every year.

To help you celebrate Black history this month and throughout the rest of the year, we’ve put together a reading list to get you started.

1. The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, Jeffrey C. Stewart
   The National Book Award winning biography of Alain Locke, using previously unavailable primary sources and oral interviews with those who knew Locke personally to advance the work of gay and gender ambiguous artists in the Harlem Renaissance and other artistic movements. In announcing a New Negro in the creative industries of American modernism, Locke shifted the discussion of race from the problem-centered discourses of politics and economics.
2. Some of These Days: Black Stars, Jazz Aesthetics, and Modernist Culture, James Donald
   Some of These Days provides a cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance’s vast influence abroad, moving beyond simple biography to recreate the rich community of artists who interacted with-and were influenced by world’s first two major African American stars, Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson.
3. Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists, Lisa E. Farrington
   Creating Their Own Image offers the first comprehensive history of African-American women artists, spanning from slavery to the Harlem Renaissance and the tumultuous civil rights era, right up to the present day. Weaving together an expansive collection of artists, styles, and periods, Lisa Farrington argues that for centuries African-American women artists have created an alternative vision of how women of colour can, are, and might be represented in American culture.
4. I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, Edited by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
   This collection of Lorde’s personal and political writing features many never-before-published works, including Lorde’s landmark 1988 essay, A Burst of Light. With personal reflections by Alice Walker, bell hooks, and others, I Am Your Sister offers new insights into Lorde’s writings.
5. Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America’s Music and Its African American Roots, Maurice Peress
   American conductor, Maurice Peress, recounts American music in the twentieth century and explores its African American roots. Midway through, Peress himself becomes part of the story as he describes his work with George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Leonard Bernstein.
6. An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden, Mary Schmidt Campbell
   Mary Schmidt Campbell offers readers an enlightening insight into one of the most important and underappreciated visual artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden. Bearden’s work provides an exquisite portrait of memory and the African American past; according to Campbell, it also offers a record of the narrative impact of visual imagery in the twentieth century, revealing how the emerging popularity of photography, film and television depicted African Americans during their struggle to be recognised as full citizens of the United States.
7. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora, Joanna Dee Das
   Joanna Dee Das makes the argument that Katherine Dunham, was more than just a dancer and choreographer – she was an intellectual and activist committed to using dance to fight for racial justice. As an African American woman, she broke barriers of race and gender, most notably as the founder of an important dance company that toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades.
8. Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field, Mark Burford
   Drawing on previously unexamined archival and media sources, Mark Burford explores Mahalia Jackson’s journey from church singer in New Orleans to celebrity gospel singer.
9. The African Imagination in Music, Kofi Agawu
   In this accessible introduction, The African Imagination in Music breaks down the key elements of sub-Saharan music and invites general readers to participate in the scholarship surrounding it.
10. Between the Lines: Literary Transnationalism and African American Poetics, Monique-Adelle Callahan
    Between the Lines examines the role of women poets of African descent in shaping the history of the Americas. Focusing on three women whose poetry wrestled with the sociopolitical predicaments of the late nineteenth century, Between the Lines ventures a broader definition of African American literature by placing it in a hemispheric context. This represents the first extended/comprehensive study of Cuban poet Cristina Ayala and includes previously undisclosed translations of her poems.
11. The Transformation of Black Music: The rhythms, the songs, and the ships of the African Diaspora, Sam Floyd, Melanie Zeck, and Guthrie Ramsey
    The Transformation of Black Music explores the dynamic musical practices of the past thousand years that emerged in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora. With an emphasis on the value of black music, this book takes readers on a journey that has never before been attempted in a single volume alone.
12. African Affairs Journal
    The top ranked journal in African Studies, African Affairs takes an interdisciplinary approach to the politics and international relations of sub-Saharan Africa. A virtual issue is dedicated to the February 2019 political elections in Nigeria.

Featured image credit: “Knowledge” by Alfons Morales. Public domain via Unsplash.

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Animal of the month: 10 facts about lions

Lions have enchanted humans since early Antiquity, and were even represented in European cave paintings from 35,000 years ago. They are regularly the main characters in folklore and allegory, appearing everywhere from African folktales to the Bible. It is not hard to see why lions are so ubiquitously revered. Their fearsome yet stunning appearance, combined with their endearing hunting tactics and formidable roar, answers any questions as to why early societies named the lion ‘King of the Beasts’, and indeed explains why this name is still used today. Lions have pervaded a plethora of aspects of today’s society, regularly featuring in films and documentaries, appearing as statues, and having English pubs named after them.

We wanted to share some lesser-known facts about these well-known beasts, which, despite their constant appearances in popular culture, you may not have known about them.

1. Extended family

Lions belong to the felidae family, and are one of the five species of the genus panthera. The felidae family includes all extant and extinct cats, whose notable characteristics include large brains, powerful jaws, and skeletons specialized for leaping.

Their panthera family members are tigers, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards. Lions share their habitat with leopards, although their diets differ enough for them to not cross paths very often.

2. Immediate family

Groups of lions, called prides, usually consist of large groups of adult females, cubs, and one or two adult males. Male lions stay in pairs for most of their lives, growing up together as cubs in a pride before leaving the pride to lead a nomadic lifestyle. In their lifetimes they range from pride to pride, breeding, living with their cubs, and protecting the pride from intruders. Sometimes, males will not have the chance to grow up with other male cubs, so must therefore become solitary nomads. Once they begin their nomadic lifestyle, they usually search for another solitary nomad, with whom they can pair up.

3. What they eat

Lions eat large hoofed animals, such as gazelles, zebras, antelopes, wildebeest, giraffes, and wild hogs, and they will also eat the young of larger mammals, such as elephants and rhinos – if they can get past their parents. Lions seem to prefer eating zebras and wildebeest, although the former in particular can often prove very difficult to catch.

Lions have also been known the eat rodents, hares, small birds and reptiles. Lions living in the Kalahari Desert also regularly eat porcupines!

4. Where do lions come from?

Lions have been on quite a journey throughout their existence. Archaeological evidence has determined the widespread presence of lions in Europe and North America until around 10,000 years ago. Aristotle speaks of lions in Greece around 300 BCE, and those partaking in the Crusades frequently reported encounters with lions from the 1st century onwards CE. However, due to human expansion and hostility towards them, lions were slowly but surely wiped out from most of the world by the early 1900s. A small population of the Asiatic lion remains in the Gir Forest in India, but lions only otherwise live out of captivity in Africa.

5. Fission-fusion

Whilst most would assume that lions live together in their prides 24/7, this is not actually how they work. Lions are an example of a fission-fusion group dynamic – each lion may spend days or weeks living on its own or in a small subgroup. One reason for this is to take part in hunting their food. Lions, contrary to popular belief, do not always hunt in groups, only doing so when prey is particularly difficult to catch – such as when they are based in harsh environments, or if the animal is much larger than them.

6. Lions in the Bible and in Architecture

Lions are frequently mentioned in the Bible, and are often used as symbols of strength, fortitude, and courage. The character of the lion was altered slightly in the middle ages to include attributes such as magnanimity, watchfulness, and vigilance, using this vigilance to detect and defend against sin. It is for this reason that lions are often featured in Christian architecture, particularly in Italian churches.

Lions are also seen as a symbol of the Resurrection, as the Physiologus use them in an allegory for the event. In the book, the lion’s cub is born dead and remains dead for three days, before the father breathes on it and it receives life.

7. Roaring

Although lions are often depicted as fearsome beasts standing boldly and roaring for no reason, lions actually have many reasons for belting out a roar. Lions can recognise each other’s roars like humans can recognise each other’s voices, and use them as a means of communication over long distances. Males often, for example, roar when they are patrolling their territory in order to reassure females that they are safe. Roaring is a truly excellent means of communication, as lion roars can be heard up to 8km away from the lion itself!

8. Lions + rain = success

Climate change has had an impact on lion populations, except, not in the way that you might expect. Studies have shown that climate change has led to increased rainfall in the Serengeti, during which wildebeest, on which lions feed, tend to stay within the forests of the savannah. This is, conveniently, where the lions are based, so prey is much easier to access. As a result, cubs have much more food, and are therefore likelier to survive into adulthood.

9. Threats to their home

On the other hand, while climate change may not be having too much of an adverse effect on lions, humans are still threatening lions’ survival. The booming agricultural businesses of Africa demand large expanses of land to be cleared and cultivated, which is inconsistent with the large territories required by lions to hunt in. The range of the Asian lion was reduced to a single reserve in less than a century, and a similar pattern may soon take place in Africa.

10. Three Lions

Lions have been featured as emblems in heraldry since the early 1100s. The arms of England feature three lions passant gardant, i.e. walking and showing full face. The first lion represents Rollo, Duke of Normandy, and the second that of Maine, which was added to Normandy. These were borne by William the Conqueror and his descendants. Henry II added the third lion to represent the duchy of Aquitaine, which came to him through his wife Eleanor.

You didn’t think we weren’t going to make a reference to the almighty 3 Lions by the Lightning Seeds, did you? Fun fact: the lyric ‘it’s coming home’ is a reference to the fact that the game we now know as association football was first codified in England.

Featured image credit: ‘Lion cubs on the Masai Mara’ by Christopher Michel. CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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In celebration of twentieth century African American literature

Since the first poems published by former slaves Phyllis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammon around the time of the American Revolution, African American literature has played a vital role in the history and culture of the United States. The slave narratives of figures such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Wilson became a driving force for abolitionism before the Civil War, and the tumultuous end of Reconstruction brought about the exploration of new genres and themes during the height of the Jim Crow era. The Harlem Renaissance was a particularly vibrant time for African American writers, and the mid-twentieth century saw a creative spell that has yet to wane. Most significantly, African American women have been front and center during this period.

In honor of Black History Month, we have collected facts about nine of the most important African American writers of the past century, with the hope that their works retain their pivotal place in the American literary canon.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

In 1993, Angelou was chosen by former US President Bill Clinton to be the poet at his inauguration, making her the first African-American and the first woman to assume this role. Her performance of “On the Pulse of the Morning” saw the largest audience for poetry in history, and increased the sales of Angelou’s acclaimed autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by 500 percent.

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical novel, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1954; in a later interview, Baldwin said he had been told he didn’t win because Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man had won the previous year, and America was not ready for two consecutive black winners.

Octavia Butler (1947-2006)

Voracious reader Butler turned to writing in her childhood after watching Devil Girls from Mars, a “silly” science fiction movie about Martian women attempting to colonize Earth. She determined she could write better stories herself, thus beginning her career as a preeminent science fiction writer.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

Sociologist Du Bois, one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), famously described the NAACP’s periodical The Crisis in 1910 as an “organ of propaganda” that would bring about “one of the most effective assaults of liberalism upon prejudice, and reaction that the modern world has ever seen.” In 1916, he led efforts to boycott D.W. Griffith’s controversial film Birth of a Nation in the first formal anti-propaganda campaign in African American history.

Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)

National Book Award recipient Ellison was given the middle name Waldo because his father, a construction foreman, wanted to name his son after Ralph Waldo Emerson in the hope that he would grow up to be a poet.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Hughes’ poetry often drew on the African American musical tradition for form and style. He experimented with jazz in Montage of a Dream Deferred and cast other poems in blues form or as spirituals. His works appeal to composers of different musical genres and have been set to music over 200 times.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Folklorist Hurston thrived during the Harlem Renaissance, though her more conservative political beliefs, such as her opposition to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, contributed to her exclusion from literary circles at the end of her career. She died in obscurity and was buried in an unmarked grave. Alice Walker revitalized interest in Hurston’s works in 1975, after they had been out of print for thirty-five years.

Toni Morrison (1931- )

In 1993, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison attained the highest literary accolade possible: the Nobel Prize in Literature. Morrison was the first African-American recipient and only the eighth woman in the world to receive this honor.

Alice Walker (1944- )

Walker’s 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy garnered controversy for its depiction of female circumcision, with critics arguing she was an outsider interfering with African culture. Walker defended her book, claiming she understood how it felt to be physically maimed as she had been partially blinded as a child by her brother’s BB gun. She called her blinded eye and the wounds borne by women suffering from female circumcision “warrior marks.”

Featured Image credit: Maya Angelou reciting her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Of microbes and Madagascar

Microbes are everywhere.

On door knobs, in your mouth, covering the New York City Subway, and festering on the kitchen sponge. The world is teeming with microbes—bustling communities of invisible organisms, including bacteria and fungi. Scientists are hard at work cataloging the microbial communities of people, buildings, and entire ecosystems. Many discoveries have shed light on how culture and behavior shape these communities. For example, we now know some interesting things about human skin microbes: hand microbes can be transplanted to other people and objects, wearing deodorant changes the microbes that live in our armpits, and people are more similar (in terms of microbe composition) to their own dogs than to other dogs.

Indeed, microbes are everywhere.

However, the majority of what we know about human-microbe interactions comes from studies in industrialized settings like the US and Europe, where people spend most of their time indoors and disconnected from the natural environment. This lifestyle is drastically different from those of early humans. Whereas we used to run across the savanna to hunt game, we now run on the treadmill to burn off that extra slice of pizza. Because our culture evolves faster than our bodies, we can become mismatched to our new environment, which often has direct consequences for our health. It is easy to imagine that our contact with the outside world, and its microbes, has changed since the era of our ancestors. What is less clear, though, is if these changes create microbial mismatches that influence health.

Many human populations still live in close contact with the natural environment, and skin microbe communities in these settings often reflect regular interactions with the outdoors. Studies of these communities are important for considering mismatch, as this setting more closely resembles the environment in which humans evolved. With this in mind, I traveled to Mandena, a rural village in Madagascar, to investigate how contact with the natural environment affects skin microbes. Here, rice and vanilla farming is common, and many farmers use zebu (domesticated cattle) to work in the fields. We wondered if humans in close contact with zebu display a “microbial fingerprint” of interacting with livestock, similar to what would be expected in Westerners that interact closely with pets.

To research this question, we obtained skin swab samples from twenty men living in Mandena, supported by Duke University’s Bass Connections and the Duke Global Health Institute. We sampled four sites on each person (back of hand, outside of ankle, inside of forearm, and armpit) and the back of each zebu. We predicted that the skin microbes of the ten men who work with zebu would be different than those of the ten men who do not. We also expected to find differences in skin microbe communities across body sites. For example, dry, bare feet that are exposed to the outside environment should harbor different microbes than warm, unexposed armpits.

We were surprised to discover that despite close contact with zebu, the skin microbe communities of zebu owners were not markedly different from those of men who did not own zebu. It may be that other factors, such as host genetics and skin pH, are important in determining whether or not a given body site is a good home for microbes. However, there were clear differences in microbe communities across body sites. Ankle samples were the most similar to zebu samples, which is likely due to the shared environment of zebu and human feet (often without shoes) in the fields. Sure enough, zebu owner ankles harbored soil bacteria, including taxa that include pathogens for humans, plants, and animals.

We also tested the hypothesis that there would be microbial similarities between a given zebu and its owner (remember the dog study?). Interestingly, we found that a zebu was no more similar to its owner than to other owners. We think these results indicate a type of environmental mismatch. Aspects of the built environment, like the use of cleaning products and air conditioning units, affect which microbes are present alongside humans and their indoor pets. The variability across home microbial communities likely amplifies microbial similarities within each cohabiting dog-owner pair. In other words, you and your dog are exposed to the same indoor microbes, which are likely different from the ones that your neighbor contacts in his home. In contrast, all homes in Mandena are constructed from plant material and more closely resemble the outside “home” environment of zebu. Thus, it is likely that all humans and all zebu have ample opportunities to contact similar types of environmentally-derived microbes.

Our results indicate that contact with the environment, not solely with zebu, is one driver of skin microbial communities in Mandena. Thinking about lifestyle differences that influence contact with environmental microbes can help to tackle issues of health disparities. If certain microbes are linked to disease, are people living or working in environments rich with those microbes more susceptible to getting sick? If so, how can we use our understanding of microbes and mismatches to tackle these problems? Incorporating the microbiomes of non-industrialized populations can help us understand how associated health outcomes differ across the world, especially in populations that are typically targeted for other global public health initiatives. Answering these types of questions is critical if we wish to use microbiome research to improve health, and will require interdisciplinary efforts across microbial ecology, evolution, and global public health.

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What Mubarak’s acquittal means for Egypt

On 13 March 2017, the legal saga of the trial of Hosni Mubarak ended. The deposed autocrat, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his complicity in the killing of hundreds of demonstrators and embezzlement on a grander scale, was acquitted by Egypt’s Court of Cassation and freed from his detention. “The trial of the century”, as Egyptians have dubbed Mubarak’s prosecution, began soon after millions of Arabs took to the streets all over the Middle East, and it was concluded against the backdrop of the deep frustration of most from the results of the Arab Spring. This legal ordeal is but one prominent manifestation of the decisive role that the legal system played during the struggle over the reign of power following the toppling of Mubarak.

Mubarak’s trial symbolizes the deep divide between the revolutionaries who demand a fundamental change, and those who support the continuation of the regime that the ousted president inherited from his predecessors, Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abd al-Nasser. The latter, who led the Free Officers coup (23 July 1952), strove to establish a democratic system of government that raised the banner of equality and justice. Their social and political achievements notwithstanding, Nasser and his confederates laid the foundations for an authoritarian government that would reign well into the next century.

During the transition stage of the July Revolution, the government made intensive use of decrees, laws, and constitutional declarations. Two special courts, conferred with exceptional powers, prosecuted more than one thousand of the junta’s opponents—the majority of whom were members of the Muslim Brothers, but also liberals and communists. Although the Revolution’s Court and the People’s Court were dissolved at the end of the 1950s, the long-standing Egyptian practice of adjudicating citizens before special tribunals would reach new heights in the decades to come. The widespread use of these tribunals, including the military variety, turned this exception into the rule.

As the popular uprising against Mubarak gained momentum, a riveting public discourse took shape in Egypt that compared the revolution of July 1952 to that of January 2011. In both cases, a strongman’s ouster raised hopes among many Egyptians that a “new beginning” was just around the corner. Additionally, each of the attendant transition phases was undergirded by the following developments: a military council assumed control over the daily running of the state; a national state of emergency was declared; and a fierce political struggle erupted over the contours of the new dispensation. What is more, the acting governments took extraordinary measures, foremost among them suspending the constitution and disbanding parliament. Similar to the July Revolution, the judicial system and the courts have indeed loomed large in the on-going struggle over the new dispensation, including summarily arresting over 30,000 political rivals. Many of the detainees were ultimately prosecuted by military courts, which meted out harsh punishments on them.

Six years after the impressive civil uprising that demanded “the overthrow of the regime,” Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi allegedly reflects the complete return of the authoritarian regime. However, the 2011 popular uprising and the toppling of Mubarak were just the beginning of a transition phase, the fate of which no one can predict. On the very day of 14 July 1789, when the Bastille was taken, or on 23 July 1952, when King Faruq was ousted, no one could have known that a Great Revolution was born in France, just as a revolution in Egypt.

All told, the January Revolution jolted the political awareness of millions of people from different walks of life, not least Egyptian Millennials. Many of them oppose the restoration of the authoritarian regime and fear that President Sisi is but a contemporary pharaoh. Although the field marshal’s meteoric rise to power constitutes a major milestone, it is doubtful that this was the last tidal wave of the January Revolution.

The current dramatic developments in Egypt show that political trials that take place throughout a transition phase generate rhetoric that plays a crucial role in the denouement of political struggles, nourishes the creation of new historical narratives, and help shape both the regime and opposition’s public image.

Featured image credit: Egypt-8A-090 by Dennis Jarvis. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr.

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African military culture and defiance of British conquest in the 1870s

The Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 is undoubtedly the most widely familiar of the Victorian campaigns of colonial conquest, those so-called “small wars” in which British regulars were pitted against foes inferior in armaments, operational sophistication, and logistics. It is also by far the most written about, some would say to the point of exhaustion.

Yet, in poring over military minutiae, historians of the Anglo-Zulu War have all too often failed to note that it was not fought in isolation. In 1879 the Zulu kingdom was only one among several African polities in southern Africa forced to defend their independence when faced by the accelerating British determination to unify the sub-continent in a confederation of states under imperial control.

There was no place in this design for sovereign African states. So, to neuter their military capabilities and shatter their political coherence, imperial strategists embarked on a concerted, interrelated, and sometimes overlapping series of campaigns against them. Some historians now regard this offensive as the First War for South African Unification, the second being the Anglo-Boer (South African) War of 1899–1902.

Within the concentrated span of three years, the British crushed the Ngqika and Gcaleka amaXhosa in the Ninth Cape Frontier War of 1877–1878, subjugated the Griqua, Batlhaping, Prieska amaXhosa, Korana, and Khoesan in the Northern Border War of 1878, shattered the Zulu kingdom in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, and extinguished Bapedi independence in the First and Second Anglo-Pedi Wars of 1878 and 1879.

In one sense, there was nothing new about these conflicts. Intermittent, piecemeal colonial encroachment had begun with the Dutch in the Cape in the mid-seventeenth century, and tough and often skillful African resistance had frequently delayed or even staved it off. But in the late 1870s, African rulers were unprepared for the unrelenting determination of the British offensive. In this crisis, all the indigenous armies of the sub-continent, vary as they might in everything from numbers and armaments to customary tactics, faced the same urgent challenge. How were they to adapt their traditional ways of war (honed effectively enough for combat against each other) to the ever-growing European military threat?

Despite differing responses ranging from set-piece battles to guerrilla warfare, and from a reliance on traditional sharp-edged weapons to the adoption of firearms, there was a connecting thread that ran through the interwoven pattern of the resistance of these southern African societies to the British assault. That was a commonly held military culture through which notions of military honour and manhood inspired and sustained African warriors in their doomed defence of their homes and independence.

Although African military culture differed in detail from society to society, a generally accepted system of military values defined the warrior’s place in the social order and legitimized aggressive masculinity and the violence of war in which face-to-face, heroic combat was the ultimate test of courage and manliness. Indeed, masculine virtue and honour (as in many other parts of the world) were closely bound up with the prowess of military heroes, and were the binding myths of the state itself, the cultural focus around which the community adhered.

Bearing in mind this cultural universe, it is hardly surprising that African rulers in southern Africa entirely subscribed to the pervasive warrior ethos and notions of honour. Whether under threat of attack by an African or European foe, the issue for a king was always more than a question of sovereignty or expediency: it was a matter of honour. A king was a war leader, first and foremost; his warriors were raised from birth to war and its stern demands. Rather than surrender like a coward without a fight, even in the face of hopeless odds, it was considered best by far to die honourably on the battlefield as befitted a true man and warrior.

This warrior ethos was fully shared by the African allies, levies, and auxiliaries serving with the British in the South Africa campaigns of 1877–1879. (There was nothing unusual in this, for the colonial conquest of Africa was substantially the work of locally raised indigenous forces commanded by European officers.) In undertaking military service with their colonial masters against fellow-Africans these, black forces were not merely looking after their own interests by choosing what seemed likely to be the winning side. Many of them also saw it as a means of maintaining their warrior traditions and sense of masculine honour under the colonial aegis. It was this military culture which inspired and sustained them, just as it did those Africans against whom they fought.

Featured image credit: The Battle of Gingindlovu on 2 April 1879, image from the Illustrated London News. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Nat Turner’s legacy

Nate Parker’s movie The Birth of a Nation, which opens in Europe this month, tells the semi-fictionalized story of Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a short-lived rebellion in rural southeast Virginia in August 1831. The movie focuses on Turner’s life before the rebellion; demonstrating one man’s breaking point sparked by the witnessing of extraordinary brutality. In the movie version, Nat Turner was a baptist minister, hired out to plantation owners to preach sermons of obedience to the enslaved communities. The Birth of a Nation showcases the roots of Black revolutionary thought at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement is in full force. It also begs acknowledgement to the legacy of the rebellion as it relates to the eventual abolition of slavery. Taking the long view, was the rebellion successful? What questions does the film raise, and how can we use the film as a catalyst for honest reflection and progress?

The movie invites timeless questions such as why did most enslaved people obey their owners instead of rebelling? What legitimate options did slaves have given that they had no say in the laws holding them in brutal bondage? Was Turner a Freedom Fighter like those heroes of the American Revolution whom we venerate? What is the history and legacy of Black freedom fighting? Yet, we do not hear Turner say much about this. For the movie depicts the defeat of the Turner rebels and then—after some weeks in hiding—it has Turner surrendering and being executed. The movie leaves out what has come to be known as his Confessions and his trial. That is, Turner has an important legacy in the debate he sparked. That legacy of debates about the morality and expediency of slavery is not explored in the powerful movie.

Much of what we know about the rebellion and Nat Turner himself comes from the pamphlet called The Confessions of Nat Turner, which was published by a local lawyer, Thomas Gray. The Confessions purport to be a statement made by Turner to Gray, but for decades scholars have debated how much of it is Turner’s thoughts and how much Gray’s. The Confessions suggest that Turner was unrepentant and believed himself divinely inspired and justified. There are sections that sound unmistakably different from the main narrative, which leads many scholars to believe that Turner’s voice is indeed there—but edited—by Gray.

There is another, longer story of the rebellion’s aftermath, too. For the rebellion inspired Quakers to petition the Virginia legislature to end slavery. Some legislators from western Virginia, where slaves were relatively few, took up the cause. They looked back to enlightenment ideas of freedom that circulated in Virginia during the days of the American Revolution and urged the adoption of a gradual abolition scheme. But the ideas that property and slavery were twin pillars of civilization, that Virginians could not afford to give up slavery, and that slavery was a key ligament of society were more popular.

After the debates ended Thomas Dew, a young William and Mary professor, summarized the arguments in a pamphlet called Review of the Debates in the Virginia Legislature. Dew’s pamphlet covered well the pro-slavery case, from the near ubiquity of slavery in history, to the impracticality of deporting freed slaves, to the centrality of slavery to the southern, indeed American, economy. Turner, thus inspired one of the most important pro-slavery treatises ever written. And Dew silently responded to other African Americans as well. Where David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World proclaimed that “we Coloured People of these United States, are, the most wretched, degraded, and abject set of beings that over lived since the world began,” Dew responded, without deigning to mention Walker, “A merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe than the negro slave of the United States.” Others built out Dew’s ideas. For instance, Georgia lawyer Thomas Cobb wrote An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in 1858, which contained pro-slavery arguments drawn from history, economics, and ethnography. But subsequent authors worked within the arguments Dew first used. They say a lot about why southerners would not give up slavery without a fight and a big one.

Though only a few dozen slaves participated in the rebellion and it was largely over in two days, the rebellion marked a turning in proslavery thought and set the nation on the road towards Civil War—and the extinction of slavery through that war. Black revolutionary thought is a long established ideology throughout the African Diaspora, and Turner’s rebellion is without question one of the pillars of this tradition.

Featured image credit: “Black chain” by lalesh aldarwish. Public Domain via Pexels. 

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Cuba’s intervention in Africa during the Cold War

When Nelson Mandela visited Havana in 1991, he declared: “We come here with a sense of the great debt that is owed the people of Cuba. What other country can point to a record of greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations to Africa?”

In all the reflections upon the death of Fidel Castro, his contribution to Africa has been neglected—because most Americans are unaware that Castro’s Cuba changed the course of southern African history. While Americans celebrated the peaceful transition of apartheid South Africa to majority rule and the long-delayed independence of Namibia, they had no idea that Cuba—Castro’s Cuba—played an essential role in these historic events.

During the Cold War, thousands of Cuban doctors, teachers, and construction workers went to Africa, while almost 30,000 Africans studied in Cuba on full scholarships funded by the Cuban government.

US officials tolerated Cuba’s humanitarian assistance, but not the dispatch of Cuban soldiers to Africa. There had been small Cuban covert operations in Africa in the 1960s in support of liberation movements, but the trickle became a flood in late 1975, engulfing Angola.

That Portuguese colony was slated for independence in November 1975, but civil war broke out several months earlier among the country’s three liberation movements—the MPLA, the FNLA, and UNITA. American officials were alarmed by the communist proclivities of the MPLA, but even they admitted that it “stood head and shoulders above the other two groups” which were led by corrupt men.

South African officials were also alarmed by the MPLA because of its implacable hostility to apartheid and promise to assist the liberation movements of southern Africa (UNITA and FNLA had proffered Pretoria their friendship).

By September 1975, the MPLA was winning the civil war. Therefore, Pretoria invaded Angola, encouraged by Washington. Secretary of State Kissinger hoped that success in Angola—defeating a pro-communist regime—would boost US prestige and his own reputation, pummeled by the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975.

The South Africans were on the verge of crushing the MPLA when 36,000 Cuban soldiers poured into Angola.

The intervention, the CIA concluded years later, had been “a unilateral Cuban operation designed in great haste.” The Agency was correct: Castro dispatched the soldiers without consulting the Kremlin. Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev, who was focused on detente with the United States, opposed Castro’s policy, and refused—for two months—to help transport the Cuban troops.

Castro’s decision also derailed his secret negotiations with Washington to normalize relations. Had Castro been pursuing Cuba’s narrow self-interest, he would not have sent troops to Angola.

What, then, motivated Castro’s bold move? The answer is provided by Kissinger. Castro, he wrote in his memoirs, “was probably the most genuine revolutionary leader then in power.”

The victory of the Pretoria-Washington axis, the installation of a regime in Luanda beholden to the apartheid regime, would have tightened the grip of white domination over the people of Southern Africa. Castro sent his soldiers to join the struggle against apartheid, a fight he deemed “the most beautiful cause.”

The Cuban troops turned the tide of the war, pushing the South Africans back into neighboring Namibia, which Pretoria illegally occupied.

“Black Africa is riding the crest of a wave generated by the Cuban success in Angola,” exulted The World, South Africa’s major black newspaper. “Black Africa is tasting the heady wine of the possibility of realizing the dream of total liberation.”

In Angola, the Cuban-backed MPLA government welcomed guerrillas from Namibia, South Africa, and Rhodesia. It became a tripartite effort: the Cubans provided most of the instructors, the Soviets the weapons, and the Angolans the land.

For apartheid South Africa it was a deadly threat. Therefore, for over a decade, Pretoria continued to battle the MPLA, attempting to install in its place the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, a man whom the British ambassador in Luanda labeled “a monster.”

The Angolan army was weak. Even the CIA conceded that the Cuban troops were “necessary to preserve Angolan independence,” but for the United States—under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan—the Cubans were an affront.

Reagan joined Pretoria in supporting Savimbi. He tightened the embargo against Cuba and demanded that the Cuban soldiers leave Angola. Castro refused. It was a stalemate.

Until 1988. It was the Iran-Contra scandal that broke the logjam. Before that imbroglio weakened Reagan, the Cubans had feared a US attack on their island. But in its wake, Castro decided it would be safe to send Cuba’s best planes, pilots, anti-aircraft systems and tanks to Angola to push the South Africans out of the country, once and for all. “We’ll manage without underpants in Cuba if we have to,” Raul Castro told a Soviet general. “We will send everything to Angola.”

Once again, Fidel had defied the Soviet Union. Gorbachev, bent on detente with the United States, opposed escalation in Angola. “The news of Cuba’s decision … was for us, I say it bluntly, a real surprise,” he told Castro. “I find it hard to understand how such decision could be taken without us.”

In early 1988 the Cuban troops gained the upper hand in Angola. They were strong enough to cross the Namibian border, seize South African bases, “and drive South African forces further south,” the Pentagon noted. The situation was “one of the most serious that has ever confronted South Africa,” the country’s president lamented.

Pretoria gave up. In December 1988, it agreed to Castro’s demands: allow UN supervised elections in Namibia and terminate aid to Savimbi. Pretoria’s capitulation reverberated beyond Angola and Namibia.

In Mandela’s words, the Cuban victory over the South African army “destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor … [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa. [It] was the turning point for the liberation of our continent—and of my people—from the scourge of apartheid.”

Featured image credit: guards at the tomb of José Marti in Santiago, Cuba by PRA. CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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Ending violence against children

Earlier this year, the first-ever nationally representative study of child maltreatment in South Africa revealed that over 40% of young people interviewed reported having experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, or neglect. This figure is high, but it is not unusual: similar studies on violence against children have been conducted across 12 other countries, with many revealing equally high rates.

Last year the UN General Assembly committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, which include ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against children, and setting a number of goals targeting the risk factors for maltreatment (for example, goals for good health, quality education, and gender equality). Just over one year after the adoption of these Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative that global leaders consider these figures and understand the urgent need to take decisive action to keep children safe.

However, while the current statistics are bleak, there is hope that with reliable data, national leaders have the opportunity to make real progress in improving the well-being of children. Provided with better data on the problems, countries may now draw on the growing body of evidence that has deepened our understanding of violence and how to prevent it, learning lessons about how to turn scientific evidence into effective policy. With the right support and investment, middle-income countries are well-positioned to lead the way.

Take the case of South Africa. Like many countries, it has excellent laws and a national action plan to prevent, and respond to, violence against children; it has a clear indication of political will. However, laws and policies on their own are not enough: without enforcement, they are meaningless. This child maltreatment is where South Africa, like many others, falls down. For instance, corporal punishment is banned in South African schools – yet half of its students report having experienced corporal punishment at the hands of an educator. The study also found that young people tend not to report instances of maltreatment, and that when they do, the services – social, police, criminal justice, and health services – are not as efficient or effective as the policies clearly intend them to be.

While these facts are troubling, they also build a case for the path forward. What is needed is a clear protocol across the myriad agencies involved for the treatment, referral, and management of cases of child abuse, as well as support for the victims as they make reports. Such a protocol would improve service delivery; making it easier and more likely that young people would report maltreatment, and go a long way to preventing recurrences.

The study also provides a roadmap for how South Africa can ensure that young people who have been victimised will not go on to experience disabling consequences. It reveals that young victims of maltreatment are twice as likely as other young people to suffer anxiety or depression; three times as likely to report post-traumatic stress disorder; and more likely to report problems in schoolwork, high-risk sexual behaviour, and substance misuse. All of these can have serious long-term impacts on young lives. However, appropriate treatment through health and mental health services can make all the difference, either by preventing the consequences of violence, or providing early treatment before they develop into serious, intractable problems. Schools can be a key referral pathway here, by attending to young people who have sudden changes in their schoolwork and referring them on to professionals.

Finally, the study identified how strong action could prevent the maltreatment of children from happening in the first place. Parents are a key focus for prevention efforts as children who reported victimisation were far more likely to have parents who misused drugs and alcohol than children who did not; and children whose parents had warm relationships with them, and who knew where they were and who they were with, were far less likely to report maltreatment. This suggests that scaling up substance abuse prevention, treatment efforts, and effective, evidence-based parent skills training programmes would go a long way in preventing violence against children.

Now that it has a better understanding of the problem, South Africa and the other countries with nationally representative studies have the opportunity to take a range of concrete actions to prevent violence against children and demonstrate how progress may be made. In doing so, these countries may be inspired by a growing community of international and national leaders who recognise and embrace the critical challenge of preventing violence against children and the necessity of investing political capital to make that happen. In July, a new global partnership to End Violence Against Children was developed by the World Health Organization and other partners; launched to catalyse action, it calls for pathfinder countries to demonstrate the way forward by implementing a set of strategies proven to reduce violence and its impact on the lives of children. These strategies (known collectively as INSPIRE) include promoting parenting skills and empowering families economically, as well as improving the emotional development of children and their access to health care. It also includes recommendations for laws and social norms that protect children, as well as challenging the gender stereotypes that can normalize violence.

Preventing violence against children has been a neglected issue, but today we have reached an unprecedented point of opportunity. We now have better data than ever before on the full extent of the problem, and a growing base of evidence on what needs to be done to prevent it. It is time for action.

Featured image credit: School chairs by Alex Serafini for Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention. Used with permission. 

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10 surprising facts about Ancient Egyptian art and architecture

Ancient Egyptian art dates all the way back to 3000BC and provides us with an understanding of ancient Egyptian socioeconomic structures and belief systems. The Ancient Egyptians also developed an array of diverse architectural structures and monuments, from temples to the pyramids that are still a major tourist attraction today. But how much do you know about Ancient Egyptian art and architecture? Christina Riggs, author of Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction, tells us ten things we need to know about Ancient Egyptian art and architecture:

1. A common preconception is that Ancient Egyptian art all looks the same. In reality, it is very diverse and the style and symbolism of the art depends on the region.
2. When Egyptian art does look the same, it is for a very good reason; it is often based on religious beliefs.
3. A lot of the artists or architects from Ancient Egypt are unknown and remain anonymous.
4. Some forms of art were created purely for sacred or magical purposes.
5. Much of Ancient Egyptian art was not meant to be seen by ‘normal people’. The art was created in secret to be viewed by the elite and it was “too powerful to be viewed by the general public.”
6. A lot of the buildings you can see and visit in Egypt, such as temples, pyramids, and tombs, would have only been seen at the time by very few people.
7. We think of Mummies as an Ancient Egyptian burial ritual but they were actually very sacred objects. Only very few people were ever mummified in Ancient Egyptian history and only the Priests were allowed to see them.
8. It was only modern studies on race and racial differences that made Mummies become “medical objects.”
9. Ancient Egypt isn’t necessarily more interesting than other ancient empires. Perhaps it is seen as more exotic by Europeans because it is so different to our modern culture, whereas we still see similarities between our culture and Ancient Greece for example.
10. You will see Ancient Egyptian art and architecture everywhere, and not just in Egypt. Ancient Egyptian art and architecture continues to inspire and influence modern designers all around the world.

Featured image credit: “Hieroglyphics”, by niki_vogt. Public domain via Pixabay.

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African studies: a reading list

African Studies focuses on the rich culture, history and society of the continent, however the growing economies of African countries have become an increasingly significant topic in Economic literature. This month, The Centre for the Study of African Economies annual conference is taking place in Oxford. To raise further awareness of the growing importance of the study of African economics, we have created this reading list of books, journals, and online resources that explore the varied areas of Africa and its economy.

Made in Africa by Arkebe Oqubay

Made in Africa presents the findings of original field research into the design, practice, and varied outcomes of industrial policy in the cement, leather and leather products, and floriculture sectors in Ethiopia. It explores how and why the outcomes of industrial policy are shaped by particular factors in these industries.

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics: Volume 1: Context and Concepts edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

This handbook opens up the diverse acuity of commentary on exciting topics, and in the process challenges and stimulates the quest for knowledge. Wide-ranging in its scope, themes, language, and approaches, this volume explores, examines, and assesses economic thinking on Africa, and Africa’s contribution to the discipline. Read a free chapter from Oxford Handbooks Online.

The Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics: Volume 2: Policies and Practices edited by Célestin Monga and Justin Yifu Lin

This volume aims at reassessing the economic policies and practices observed across the continent since independence. It offers a collection of analyses by some of the leading economists and development thinkers of our time, and reflects a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints—even on the same topic. Read a free chapter from Oxford Handbooks Online.

Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction by Elleke Boehmer

As well as being a remarkable statesman and one of the world’s longest-detained political prisoners, Nelson Mandela has become an exemplary figure of non-racialism and democracy, a moral giant. Set within a biographical frame, this Very Short Introduction explores the reasons why his story is so important to us in the world at large today, and what his achievements signify. Read a free chapter from Very Short Introductions Online.

Capital Flight from Africa, Causes, Effects, and Policy Issues edited by S. Ibi Ajayi and Léonce Ndikumana

A comprehensive thematic analysis of capital flight from Africa, it covers the role of safe havens, offshore financial centres, and banking secrecy in facilitating illicit financial flows and provides rich insights to policy makers interested in designing strategies to address the problems of capital flight and illicit financial flows. Read a free chapter from Oxford Scholarship Online.

Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa, Current and Emerging Issues edited by Andrew McKay and Erik Thorbecke

This volume discusses long-standing, but central, economic issues in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the nature of growth-poverty-inequality relations, agriculture, the labour market and openness, and globalization. Read a free chapter from Oxford Scholarship Online.

The Journal of African Economies

In advance of the CSAE 2016 conference plenary session on 25 years of the Journal of African Economies, revisit some of the best it has to offer in this special 25th anniversary collection, featuring articles on conflict, education, aid ‘dependency’, and more.

African History: A Very Short Introduction by John Parker and Richard Rathbone

Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa’s past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa’s history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent. Read a free chapter from Very Short Introductions Online.

African Affairs

African Affairs has collected some of the most insightful and influential articles that it has published on Africa’s International Relations and made them free to download as part of a virtual issue. The virtual issue also features an exclusive online-only introduction by the journal’s newest Co-Editor, Dr. Carl Death.

Featured image credit: Serengeti sunrise by Yoni Lerner. CC by 2.0 via Flickr.

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