The gun in central Africa : a history of technology and politics / Giacomo Macola.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macola, Giacomo, author.

Series:

New African histories series

New African histories

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Firearms--Africa, Central--History.

Firearms.

Firearms--Social aspects--Africa, Central--History.

Firearms--Social aspects.

History.

Central Africa.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 249 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Why did some central African peoples embrace gun technology in the nineteenth century, and others turn their backs on it? In answering this question, The Gun in Central Africa offers a thorough reassessment of the history of firearms in central Africa. Marrying the insights of Africanist historiography with those of consumption and science and technology studies, Giacomo Macola approaches the subject from a culturally sensitive perspective that encompasses both the practical and the symbolic attributes of firearms. Informed by the view that the power of objects extends beyond their immediate service functions, The Gun in Central Africa presents Africans as agents of technological re-innovation who understood guns in terms of their changing social structures and political interests. By placing firearms at the heart of the analysis, this volume casts new light on processes of state formation and military revolution in the era of the long-distance trade, the workings of central African gender identities and honor cultures, and the politics of the colonial encounter. Book jacket.

Contents:

Firearms and the history of technology in Africa

Power and international trade in the savanna

The domestication of the musket on the Upper Zambezi

The warlord's muskets : the political economy of Garenganze

Gun societies undone? The effects of British and Belgian rule

"They disdain firearms" : the relationship between guns and the Ngoni

Of "martial races" and guns : the politics of honor to the early twentieth century

Conclusion: gun domestication in historical perspective.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-241) and index.

ISBN:

9780821422113

0821422111

9780821422120

082142212X

9780821445556

0821445553

OCLC:

931226922