The Names of the Python Belonging in East Africa, 900 to 1930 / David L. Schoenbrun.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schoenbrun, David Lee, author.

Series:

Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture

Africa and the diaspora: history, politics, culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Victoria, Lake, Watershed--Ethnic relations--History.

Victoria, Lake, Watershed.

Victoria, Lake, Watershed--Social conditions.

Buganda--Ethnic relations--History.

Buganda.

Buganda--Social conditions.

Bantu-speaking peoples--Victoria, Lake, Region--Ethnic identity--History.

Bantu-speaking peoples.

Ethnic groups--Victoria, Lake, Region--History.

Ethnic groups.

Clans--Victoria, Lake, Region--History.

Clans.

Social groups--Victoria, Lake, Region--History.

Social groups.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University of Wisconsin Press

Summary:

Systems of belonging, including ethnicity, are not static, automatic, or free of contest. Historical contexts shape the ways which we are included in or excluded from specific classifications. Building on an amazing array of sources, David L. Schoenbrun examines groupwork-the imaginative labor that people do to constitute themselves as communities-in an iconic and influential region in East Africa. His study traces the roots of nationhood in the Ganda state over the course of a millennia, demonstrating that the earliest clans were based not on political identity or language but on shared investments, knowledges, and practices.Grounded in Schoenbrun's skillful mastery of historical linguistics and vernacular texts, The Names of the Python supplements and redirects current debates about ethnicity in ex-colonial Africa and beyond. This timely volume carefully distinguishes past from present and shows the many possibilities that still exist for the creative cultural imagination.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Python Imaginaries: Conceiving Ancient Groups beyond the Face-to-Face, 800 to 1200

2. Possessing an Inland Sea: Making Mukasa, 1200s to 1600s

3. Mukasa's Wealth: Belonging and Information, 1500s and 1600s

4. Vigilant Python: A Bellicose Eighteenth Century and Groupwork's Inner Edge

5. Ladies and Slaves: Gendered Groupwork and a Long Nineteenth Century

6. Hiding Clans: Eighteenth-Century Misrule and Twentieth-Century Groupwork

Conclusion

Appendix: Lexical-Semantic Reconstructions

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

African Studies Association: Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize, 2022.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780299332501

0299332500

OCLC:

1246445526