Overview
This exceptional study of the Mongo people of the upper Congo River basin focuses on the evolution of Mongo work patterns from the period of the late nineteenth century to 1940, the high-water mark of the colonial period. It brings new evidence from oral histories, anthropological research, and archival records to build on or to correct colonial ethnographic accounts. From this fresh vantage point, Nelson reassesses colonial labor policies and relates them to today's rural poverty and underdevelopment.Synopsis
This exceptional study of the Mongo people of the upper Congo River basin focuses on the evolution of Mongo work patterns from the period of the late nineteenth century to 1940, the high-water mark of the colonial period. It brings new evidence from oral histories, anthropological research, and archival records to build on or to correct colonial ethnographic accounts. From this fresh vantage point, Nelson reassesses colonial labor policies and relates them to today's rural poverty and underdevelopment.
Booknews
Nelson (history, US Naval Academy) combines archival and neglected oral sources with anthropological research to explore the changing patterns of work among the Mongo, a people of the forest regions of the Congo basin, and to reconstruct their experiences under colonial rule. He shows how coercive mobilization of Mongo labor ultimately created the rural impoverishment still existing in Zaire today. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)