Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

After abolishing slavery in 1848, France devised new ways of acquiring unpaid labor in its colonies. Moitt's important new book focuses on child slavery and its aftermath in colonial Senegal, where formerly enslaved children became wards of the state and were subjected to a labor system called tutelle, which survived into the 20th century. Claiming to be protecting child welfare, the state turned these children over to institutions, such as religious orders and the military, and to individuals, both African and European, including former enslavers. However, the state's primary interest was to avoid the labor shortage that inevitably followed slavery's abolition. While earlier scholarship on colonial-era bondage has tended to focus on rural adults during the period before emancipation, Moitt (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) focuses on urban children in the period after abolition. He bases his claims on rich evidence gleaned from archives and libraries in Senegal, France, the US, and Canada. His sources include government documents, newspapers, theses, dissertations, and secondary works. As the first book-length study of this much-neglected aspect of colonialism, this work makes an important contribution to the field.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty.

In Decolonising the Hajj, Heaton (Virginia Tech) takes a careful look at the transformation of the hajj journey for pilgrims from Nigeria, charting its evolution from the colonial to the postcolonial period. Part 1 closely examines the pilgrimage during the colonial period, with sustained attention to the nuances of the overland route, particularly the challenges facing sometimes destitute pilgrims en route to and in Saudi Arabia, as well as British colonial ideology and approaches to managing the difficulties of the hajj and the return journey. A welcome and valuable contribution to part 1 is chapter 2, which engagingly relates the 1921 hajj journey of the Emir of Katsina, Muhammadu Dikko. Part 2 considers the changes and continuities of Nigerians' hajj journeys during the postcolonial period, including both the politics and business of managing the pilgrimage and the transformational nature of the increasing availability of air travel. Overall, this is an excellently researched book that will be of great interest to specialists in African studies and Islamic studies. The book would also work well for specifically focused advanced undergraduate classes and for many graduate courses.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

The central concept in this groundbreaking study is Rwanda's master narrative: the dominant story of genocide that evolved in the first decades after the calamitous mass murders in 1994. Mwambari (KU Leuven, Belgium) explains how that narrative became hegemonic despite some who resisted it. The narrative was shaped by many diverse interests and groups that responded to it in different ways. Reactions to it vary still; many can be generalized as very supportive. Narrative of the genocide was shaped and enforced by many social and governmental activities. Mwambari describes in detail the importance of popular media and artistic activities to this endeavor, as well as the impact of artists, ritualized commemorative activities, and museums like the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which was deliberately modeled on Holocaust memorials. Mwambari's postcolonial perspective on cultural memory studies places Rwanda's genocide and its immediate aftermath in comparative and historical contexts. His impressive methodological approach is based on dozens of interviews and extensive coverage of relevant domestic literature. This research on the memory politics of Rwanda is so extensive and thorough that it should prove valuable to many scholars who focus on the process of political socialization elsewhere.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Development and occult power are two perennial topics in African studies scholarship. This fascinating work examines how beliefs in occult force and development policies meet in contemporary northern Ghana. Mabefam (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia), an anthropologist from this region, uses his insider knowledge and his mastery of the literature on witchcraft well. Rejecting claims that beliefs in occult force are hindrances to social development, he shows how the impact of neoliberal policies led to changes in how and why people were accused of using occult methods to harm others. In northern Ghana, the predominately female and elderly people charged with witchcraft have been forced into settlements for their own protection against their accusers. State and NGO representatives find themselves uneasily balancing personal beliefs in the power of witchcraft with their responsibilities to protect marginalized people and to promote economic growth. People living within these settlements generally oppose leaving, even if development agencies would prefer they reintegrate into their home communities. This analysis serves as a very good introduction to the literature on development and witchcraft, to the point faculty should consider using it in undergraduate and masters-level courses.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.