This title provides a study of the African intelligentsia in Africa and the diaspora.

A new and expanded volume of optional commemorations of significant figures in the history of the Episcopal Church. This volume replaces the popular Holy Women, Holy Men. By action of the 2015 General Convention, Great Cloud of Witnesses is being made available for devotional or catechetical use and for use in public worship throughout the Church. It reflects the lively experience of holiness, especially on the level of the local community. It is accordingly a useful tool for learning about the history of the church and identifying those who have inspired and challenged us from the time of the New Testament to the present. Each entry includes a biographical narrative of the person or people, highlighting the significance of their lives and witness. A devotional collect is provided in both Rite I and Rite II language and a set of indexing “tags” suggests how the entry fits into the broader scope of Christian history and delineates the Christian gifts and virtues that may have inspired the person’s ministries. This edition is printed on a special synthetic paper coated with a unique clay coating which combines the advantages of paper with the durability of plastic. This paper looks and feels like paper but stands up to water, weather, grease, chemicals and resists tearing in both directions.

In these meditations on the lesser feasts and fasts of the church calendar Sam Portaro asks the question, “What do these saints and commemorations have to say to Christians today?” His answers are often surprising and always thought-provoking, with fresh insights into the lives and teachings of those who have gone before us in the Christian faith. The cycle of the year begins in Advent with St. Andrew and ends in late November with Kamehaneha and Emma of Hawaii. Each reflection looks at the scripture readings for the day and focuses on a distinctive attribute of the saint or feast in the light of contemporary questions of faith, mission, and community. Saints of the distant past such as Columba and Agnes, Cyprian and Augustine, Thomas Becket and Catherine of Siena are included, as well as those closer to our own day—Charles Wesley and Julia Emery, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Evelyn Underhill and Jonathan Daniels. Following the calendar provided in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, meditations on the holy days of the church seasons are also included, such as All Saints and the Epiphany.” Brightest and Best is designed for a variety of Christian education purposes, including adult forums, confirmation classes, seasonal presentations, clergy groups, and groups of students and young adults. It is equally useful for individuals seeking varied and interesting devotional reading. Although based on the church year, each chapter is discrete and readers can focus on any event or person and begin at any season. Since these pieces began as homilies in a college setting, they are useful as a preaching aid and could be the basis of a homily at a midweek service.

This book is not out to condemn or blame any European person, but rather understand the world from its past misdeeds, lest we forget. After all, 'history is the backbone of society, and we cannot hide the past no matter how painful it is. Although there were 'bad intentions' to the mission drive of the 19th and 20th Centuries, we also experienced positive achievements. Sometimes, blessings can come out of the worst situations or encounters. Such missionary activities, coupled with imperialism, are the cause of the global union.' The world is a global family, even with all the differences and inequalities still so visible under globalization. Yet, racism, like white supremacy, was a theme surrounding the 19th and 20th-century European mission to Africa. Perhaps it is good to understand that no other continent has suffered due to racism, a result of Eurocentrism and imperialism as Africa did. Africa lost its culture, people, and resources. The continent and her people have stagnated for decades, even after years of assuming self-rule (own leadership) in most sectors of the society. The reason behind it is that its structures were eroded, and those introduced served one purpose; to satisfy and justify imperialism and its core to 'civilizing mission.' Cases of Rwanda and Burundi genocide are historical seeds of hatred planted by explorers such as Speke's Hamitic theory. The imperialism past of the Democratic Republic of Congo holds a symbol of rape and cruelty despite its vast resources. Nevertheless, we cannot blame everything that contemporary Africa is suffering from on Imperialism and Eurocentrism. The current crop of leaders must take the blame too. Most have seen debts accumulate. The mismanagement of the economies and embezzlement of the resources only replicates the colonial past. The fact is that most do not invest in people but themselves. The majority lack basics in the likes of education, health care, and improvement of knowledge, skills, and technology. They have left Africa to further exploit in the hands of neo-imperialism in terms of globalization, capitalism, cultural imperialism and conditional aid. These bring little to no gain in Africa, and instead, escalate the suffering. This book unearths the legacy of the 'racism mission' and colonialism, a terrible part of Africa history. It is a legacy of dehumanization, wars, and human sufferings. If we ignore such history, we might forget and likely, repeat it. Andrew Ratanya Mukaria (Dr).

Missionary Imperialists? examines the frontiers of empire in tropical Africa and the south-west Pacific in the Mid-Victorian era. Its central theme is the role played by British Protestant missionaries in imperial development and a continuous thread is the interaction between the missions and those in government, both London and in the colonies. An introductory chapter examines the main missionary societies involved in this study. This is followed by six detailed case studies, three from the south-west Pacific (the Pacific labor trade, Fiji, and New Guinea) and three from tropical Africa (the Gambia, Lagos and Yorubaland, and East Africa). The crucial importance of influential missionary supporters in Britain is noted as its missionary involvement in wider campaigning networks with other humanitarian groups. The book argues that where missionaries did aid imperial development it was largely incidental, an imperialism of result rather than an imperialism of intent to use the categories of Cain and Hopkins. It will be seen that although there were a few dedicated imperialists in the missionary ranks, and others gradually became convinced that the future of their particular mission and its people would be most secure under British jurisdiction, the majority had no such enthusiasm. Yet this did not mean that they had no effect on imperial development. Campaigns against both slavery and indentured labor inevitably raised the profile and influence of Europeans on the imperial frontier thus shifting a fragile balance in their direction. Most importantly, by their very presence on the frontiers of empire and as providers of education and European moral and spiritual values, missionaries became incidental and sometimes unintentional but nevertheless effective agents of imperialism.

This book demonstrates that societies experiencing prolonged and severe crises of legitimacy are prone to intense and persistent political violence. The most significant factor accounting for the persistence of intense political violence in Uganda is the severe crisis of legitimacy of the state, its institutions, political incumbents and their challengers. This crisis of legitimacy, which is shaped by both internal and external forces, past and present, accounts for the remarkable continuity in the history of political violence since the construction of the state.