Africa - African Peoples - East Africa, Africa - Ethnic & Race Relations, Christianity - General & Miscellaneous, Ethnic & Minority Studies - Africa, Africa - Social Conditions, Religion - Africa, General & Miscellaneous East African History
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
Rather than seeing ethnicity as an exogenous construction or as a product of persistent rivalries between groups, Bill Bravman focuses on the internal dimensions of ethnic identity, seeing the emergence of ethnicity as a reflection of debates within an African society. Proselytizing Christian missionaries, male labor migration, and British colonial impositions in the Taita area of Kenya presented challenges to the status quo as young men, Christian converts, and a number of women tried to evade the rule of elders and their control over resources. Elders and these progressive factions engaged one another in a struggle of cultural politics over definitions of proper "Taita" identity and behavior. Ethnicity became the means through which prior struggles were reframed and continued.Editorials
Booknews
Examines the emergence of a Taita ethnic identity in early 20th- century Africa, the historical and new resources from which it was created, and the continual remaking of it. Analyzes how social groups in Taita formed and changed over a long period of time, and how the groups' social outlooks and beliefs coalesced and changed. Draws on interviews conducted during the 1980s and 1990s with older Taita men and women, as well as missionary documents and personal papers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Book Details
Published
October 23, 1998
Publisher
Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1998.
Pages
284
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780325001050