Colonial rule shaped the map of Africa like no other event in history. New borders were delineated; explorers and colonial armies were getting into the interior of the continent in order to grab the "magnificent cake of Africa." Colonialism on the Margins of Africa examines less known and smaller or peripheral areas of Africa which played a significant role in the process of colonization of Africa by European powers. Due to diverse socio-economic, religious, ethno-linguistic, as well as political factors, places like the Somali-speaking territories, the Gambia, or Swaziland were divided between or surrounded by various administrative and political systems with different economic opportunities shaping the way to different futures in the post-colonial period. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African history and colonial and postcolonial politics.

Colonial rule shaped the map of Africa like no other event in history. New borders were delineated; explorers and colonial armies were getting into the interior of the continent in order to grab the "magnificent cake of Africa." Colonialism on the Margins of Africa examines less known and smaller or peripheral areas of Africa which played a significant role in the process of colonization of Africa by European powers. Due to diverse socio-economic, religious, ethno-linguistic, as well as political factors, places like the Somali-speaking territories, the Gambia, or Swaziland were divided between or surrounded by various administrative and political systems with different economic opportunities shaping the way to different futures in the post-colonial period. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African history and colonial and postcolonial politics.

A comprehensive study of recent African history, examining the political, social, and economic effects of colonialism.

Intended for a broad audience, Colonial Mentality in Africa explores the lingering effects of colonization in present day Africa. Despite the independence of all African nations from their former colonizers mental slavery still persists. This new work explores the social climate of Africa and the thriving "colonial mentality". The book explores issues such as matriarchy, religion, tradition and values, law, the influence of Islam, and government.

The coming of colonialism to Subsaharan Africa generated many forces that historians often describe in abstract terms: peasantization, leadership, nationalism and even colonialism. Such terms often hide or overwhelm the individual experiences of those who, in some way, contributed to the development and demise of colonial Africa. These 'agents' of empire - intellectuals and peasants, chiefs and ex-slaves, nationalists and colonial officials - symbolise the ambiguities of and limitations on colonial power. Agency and Action in Colonial Africa attempts to capture their role.

Approaching the legal profession through the lens of cultural history, Wes Pue explores the social roles lawyers imagined for themselves in England and its expanding empire from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Each chapter focuses on a critical moment when lawyers – whether leaders or rebels – sought to reshape their profession. In the process, they often fancied they were also shaping the culture and politics of both nation and empire as they struggled to develop or adapt professional structures, represent clients, or engage in advocacy. As an exploration of the relationship between legal professionals and liberalism at home or in the Empire, this work draws attention to recurrent disagreements as to how lawyers have best assured their own economic well-being while simultaneously advancing the causes of liberty, cultural authority, stability, and continuity.

This work provides insights into important moments in the European colonization project in Africa, and into structural intersections between the active agents of colonialism and the different layers of Africa's socio-political structures. It reveals the indispensability of the African peoples, their pre-colonial establishments, and knowledge of the colonial encounter. The book also clarifies the significant impact that African people's choices, chances, mistakes, and internal politics had in structuring their colonial experience and European dominance. Colonized Africans and colonizing Europeans had to negotiate the nature of their relationship: the grid, nexus, and hierarchy of colonial power and authority were constantly under construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. African Agency and European Colonialism expounds upon these beclouded features of Africa's engagement of colonialism. It is appropriate for students, scholars, political analysts, sociologists, and other professionals interested in the social and political history of Africa. Book jacket.

A comprehensive study of recent African history, examining the political, social, and economic effects of colonialism.

2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In this seminal study, Bonny Ibhawoh investigates the links between European imperialism and human rights discourses in African history. Using British-colonized Nigeria as a case study, he examines how diverse interest groups within colonial society deployed the language of rights and liberties to serve varied socioeconomic and political ends. Ibhawoh challenges the linear progressivism that dominates human rights scholarship by arguing that, in the colonial African context, rights discourses were not simple monolithic or progressive narratives. They served both to insulate and legitimize power just as much as they facilitated transformative processes. Drawing extensively on archival material, this book shows how the language of rights, like that of "civilization" and "modernity," became an important part of the discourses deployed to rationalize and legitimize empire.