Doing Conceptual History in Africa

Employing an innovative methodological toolkit, Doing Conceptual History in Africa provides a refreshingly broad and interdisciplinary approach to African historical studies. The studies assembled here focus on the complex role of language in Africa's historical development, with a particular emphasis on pragmatics and semantics. From precolonial dynamics of wealth and poverty to the conceptual foundations of nationalist movements, each contribution strikes a balance between the local and the global, engaging with a distinctively African intellectual tradition while analyzing the regional and global contexts in which categories like "e;work,"e; "e;marriage,"e; and "e;land"e; take shape.

Employing an innovative methodological toolkit, Doing Conceptual History in Africa provides a refreshingly broad and interdisciplinary approach to African historical studies. The studies assembled here focus on the complex role of language in Africa's historical development, with a particular emphasis on pragmatics and semantics. From precolonial dynamics of wealth and poverty to the conceptual foundations of nationalist movements, each contribution strikes a balance between the local and the global, engaging with a distinctively African intellectual tradition while analyzing the regional and global contexts in which categories like "work," "marriage," and "land" take shape.

List of Maps, Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsNotes on LanguageIntroduction: Theories and Methods of African Conceptual HistoryRhiannon Stephens and Axel FleischChapter 1. 'Wealth', 'Poverty' and the Question of Conceptual History in Oral Contexts: Uganda from c. 1000 C.E.Rhiannon StephensChapter 2. Conceptual Continuities: About 'Work' in NguniAxel FleischChapter 3. Tracking the Concept of 'Work' on the North Eastern Cape Frontier, South AfricaAnne Kelk MagerChapter 4. Understanding the Concept 'Marriage' in Afrikaans during the Twentieth CenturyMarné PienaarChapter 5. Male Circumcision among the Bagisu of Eastern Uganda: Practices and ConceptualizationsPamela KhanakwaChapter 6. The Concept of 'Land' in Bioko: 'Land as Property' and 'Land as Country'Ana Lúcia SáChapter 7. Conceptualizing 'Land' and 'Nation' in Early Gold Coast NationalismPieter Boele van HensbroekChapter 8. Ujamaa: The Evasive Translation of an Elusive ConceptBo StråthChapter 9. An Untimely Concept: Decolonization and the Works of Mudimbe, Mbembe and NganangPierre-Philippe FraitureIndex