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| Africa - page 2 |
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| No.
76 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-023-9
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| 136
pp. |
| Leiden
1999 |
| Price:
€ 19,20 |
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this book |
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La
Geste de Nankoman. Textes sur la fondation de Naréna
(MALI)
Seydou Camara and Jan Jansen
(red.)
Cet
ouvrage, qui est un premier essai de collaboration scientifique
sur le sujet, montre qu'il existe encore en Afrique de grands
cycles narratifs inconnus et qu'il y a encore beaucoup de
travail à faire en la matière. Il est l'aboutissement
d'un projet conçu et réalisé par deux
chercheurs qui ont bien voulu contribuer à
une meilleure connaissance de l'histoire du Manden et
du fonctionnement de la société mandingue
où la geste est un genre littéraire fort prisé.
Soucieux de la sauvegarde des témoignages oraux, les
auteurs ont entrepris de livrer au public ce que la tradition
a retenu et que les notables et bardes croient être
la vérité historique sur la fondation de Naréna,
localité maninka (malinké) du sud-ouest du Mali.
(In
French, 136 pp.) |
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| No.
75 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-022-2 |
| 236
pp. |
| Leiden
1999 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
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this book |
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A
history of Tigrinya literature in Eritrea. The oral and the
written, 1890 -1991
Ghirmai Negash
This pioneer
study traces the history of Tigrinya literature in Eritrea,
a barely explored field, principally using original sources
and framing it against the background of the country's colonial
history. It treats oral and written literary traditions in Tigrinya
as one literary system, rather than separately.
While taking up the challenge to bring this largely unknown
body of African literature into the 'mainstream' of world literary
history and epistemology, the author initially raises a fundamental
question: why has this literature barely drawn the attention
of the literary establishment? In offering an explanation, he
maintains that the colonial history of Eritrea and the armed
struggle were the main factors, but he also criticises scholars
in the West, whom he reproaches for being scholarly inaccurate
and ideologically subversive in their treatment and representation
of Tigrinya literature. These claims are based on empirical
evidence, but are also sustained by a post-colonial analytical
discourse that is translated into the context of the political,
cultural and linguistic policies of the former Ethiopian regimes
of Haile Selassie and the Dergue in Eritrea.
This is an original study introducing a novel topic and, in
that capacity, it breaks new ground in Eritrean studies.
(In
English, 236 pp.) |
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| No. 65 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-004-8 |
| 338 pp. |
| Leiden
1998 |
| Price:
€ 27,60 |
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this book |
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| Taxonomic-Linguistic
Study of plantain in Africa |
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Gerda Rossel |
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Taxonomic-Linguistic
Study of plantain in Africa presents a new and
multidisciplinary approach of crop history. The two
main components of the study concern the various aspects
of the distribution of plantain (Musa spp. ABB) diversity
and the scientific as well as ethnobotanical classification
and nomenclature of the crop and its cultivars. The
outcomes of these components are combined with historical,
cultural, ecological, agronomical and economical information
and integrated into a theory about the introduction,
spread and diversification of plantain in the African
continent.
(In English, 338 pp., incl. appendices)
‘This
therefore is a volume deserving not only of a wide readership,
but also accolade; it was a deserved winner of the Klinger
Book Award from the Society for Economic Botany.' -
James Lafleur in: JALL 25-1 (2004)
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| No.
59 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-91-4 |
| 336
pp. |
| Leiden
1997 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
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this book |
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Le
Panégyrique Mbíímbi. Étude
d'un genre poétique oral yaka (République Démocratique
du Congo)
N'soko Swa-Kabamba Joseph
Pendant
longtemps le panégyrique dynastique mbíímbi
a été considéré comme un phénomène
curieux dont la pratique était réservée
à la cour de Kyáámbvu, le roi des Bayaka.
Mais, soumis à un examen rigoureux et méthodique,
ce chant d'exaltation est apparu dans sa spécificité.
C'est une littérature officielle au service de l'idéologie
de la minorité dominante, dans une société
yaka où les oppositions entre envahisseurs dominants
Baluwa et autochtones dominés Bayaka, sont encore assez
perceptibles.
Par-delà son caractère propagandiste, cette poésie
de cour draine en filigrane la culture yaka commune aux uns
et aux autres, véhiculant la vision du monde du peuple
yaka. D'autre part, ce panégyrique est une esthétique
verbale. En effet, les chantres dynastiques bavwáala,
spécialistes détenteurs de ce genre littéraire,
portent un soin particulier à l'agencement des mots,
et à un choix riche d'images et de symboles qui ne manquent
pas de fasciner leurs auditeurs.
(In
French, 336 pp., incl. maps, bibl. and indexes) |
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| No.
54 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-81-5 |
| 350 pp. |
| Leiden
1997 |
| Price:
€ 27,60 |
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this book |
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| Land
right, marriage left. Women's Management of Insecurity
in North Cameroon |
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| Adri
van den Berg |
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This
book discusses the mounting insecurity of Giziga in the
region of Mindif, North Cameroon, and the strategies these
women have developed to manage their situation. The case
of Giziga women is particularly urgent, because of three
specific and concurring factors. First, the paradox of
marriage and divorce among the Giziga: while marriage
is the only accepted way for women to acquire access to
resources, more than 60% of the women divorce, often several
times, thereby losing those resources again. A second
factor is the extremely complicated, multi-layered, and
discordant socio-political situation in Mindif, aggravated
by scarcity of natural resources. Thirdly, Giziga women
have to deal with strong male control over female labour,
and a number of other gender inequalities which leave
women with little autonomy and control of resources. Women
follow various concurrent strategies to manage their insecurity.
Although access to land is important for Giziga women
in their daily struggle against insecurity, they often
give priority to the freedom to divorce. Divorce can be
considered a counterstrategy against male control over
women's lives, labour, and resources. In conclusion the
book discusses the idea of temporary security.
(In English, 350 pp., incl. photogr. and figs., with French
summary)
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| No.
53 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-80-8 |
| 138 pp. |
| Leiden
1997 |
| Price:
€ 19,20 |
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this book |
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| The
Kingdom of Allada |
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| Robin
Law |
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The
Kingdom of Allada was, prior to the rise of Dahomey in
the early eighteenth century, the largest and most powerful
kingdom along what used to be called the Slave Coast.
It compromised the southern part of the modern republic
of Benin, West Africa.
The present book uses many sources, most of which recorded
by foreign visitors. Prominent among these are records
of the Dutch West India Company, but there are also Portuguese,
English and French sources.
The history of Allada, as one of the largest and most
important indigenous states of coastal West Africa encountered
by the Portuguese on their arrival in the region at the
end of the sixteenth century, and subsequently as a principal
supplier of slaves for the Atlantic slave trade, is perhaps
of sufficient intrinsic interest in itself to warrant
a detailed study. But in addition, the coincidence in
time of the kingdom's decline and overthrow with the expansion
of the Atlantic slave trade in the region makes it an
illuminating case-study of the impact of the latter on
indigenous African economic, social and political development.
(In English, 138 pp., incl. bibl.) |
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| No.
51 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-75-4 |
| 283
pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
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this book |
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Gender
and Community in the Kabyle Literary Space
Daniella Merolla
What place do women and men have
in their community? This question is examined in a corpus of
oral and written narratives from Kabylia in the north of Algeria.
Kabylia is a Berber-speaking region that has assumed a dissident
role in Algerian literature and policy. The author's analysis
of Kabyle narrative productions reveals the presence of a complex
male/female dialectic and, in the novels by women writers, of
a female project for a renewed community. The enables the author
to question the current interpretations of Maghrebian gender
relationship (male domination versus femininity reduced to procreation).Through
the investigation of gender and community in narratives told
in Kabyle and in novels written in French by Kabyle authors,
this book clarifies the interactions between oral and written
productions as well as historical issues of the relationship
between the Kabyle community and the Algerian nation.
(In
English, 283 pp.) |
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| No.
47 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-68-6 |
| 400 pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
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this book |
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| Towards
redemption. A socio-political history of the Herero of
Namibia between 1890 and 1923 |
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| Jan
Bart Gewald |
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Between 1904 and 1908 Herero society in Namibia was destroyed
in a genocidal war against Imperial Germany. This book
deals with the politics of Herero society prior to its
destruction, and the manner in which this society reestablished
itself after the war. It goes beyond previous accounts
which all see the war as the totality of Herero history.
Rather it charts the context without which the war cannot
be understood.
Essentially this book details the socio-political history
of the Herero of Namibia during the reign of the first
Herero paramount, Samuel Maharero, between 1890 and 1923.
The first half deals with the ways in which the political
structures of Hereroland developed, in the last quarter
of the nineteenth century, but failed to cope with German
imperialism. The second half deals with Herero society
in de aftermath of the Herero-German war, where on the
basis of German militarism and missionary endeavour, Herero
society reestablished itself. By 1923, and the funeral
of Samuel Maharero, Herero society had redeveloped structures
which could and were used to attempt to cope with the
new South African colonial administration, and further
the struggle of the Herero toward redemption.
(In English, 400 pp.) |
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| No. 46 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-63-1 |
| 128 pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 19,20 |
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this book |
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| The
younger brother in Mande: kinship and politics in West
Africa. Selected papers from the Third International Conference
on Mande Studies, Leiden, March 20-24, 1995 |
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| Jan
Jansen and Clemens Zobel (eds.) |
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Sentiments associated with the junior/elder brother relationship
reflect deep-seated, far-reaching realities of Mande society
and politics that are explored for the first time in the
papers collected by Jan Jansen en Clemens Zobel. In the
process of exploring the role of the younger brother in
Mande society, the contributors to this volume introduce
an interesting new perspective on the inner workings of
one of the most dynamic and historically fascinating cultures
of sub-Saharan Africa. Through the discussions involving
the dynamics of fraternal relations, featured not only
in venerable oral tradition but in today's Mande world,
this volume addresses issues central to a very significant
portion of West African society from early times to present.
(In English, 128 pp.) |
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| No.
43 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-60-0 |
| 280 pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
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this book |
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| Etude
comparative des langues ngiri de l'entre Ubangi-Zaire |
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| Motingea
Mangulu |
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Le livre est une étude comparative du point de
vue phonétique et grammatical d'un groupe de langues
bantoues parlées au nord-ouest du Zaîre entre
la rivière Ubangi et le Fleuve. C'est dans cette
région qu'on situe l'origine du lingala. La comparaison,
basée principalement sur de brèves esquisses
antérieurement élaborées pour la
plupart par l'auteur, débouche sur la reconstruction
d'une langue ancestrale nommée ici proto-ngiri
par référence à la rivière
Ngiri qui traverse l'aire géographique considérée.
La comparaison phonologique procède par l'examen
des correspondances dans diverses catégories de
sons. Elle tient compte en outre de leur position à
l'intérieur de la racine. La comparaison morphologique,
éclarée par l'évolution phonologique,
s'efforce avant tout de reconstituer le système
de classes et d'accord. Sont ensuite examinés historiquement
les adjectifs, les formes pronominales et les morphèmes
verbaux avec un essai de reconstruction de principaux
tiroirs de conjugaison. La recherche des innovations en
vue d'aboutir à une sous-classification généalogique
fait découvrir que certaines langues concernées
par la comparaison n'appartiennent pas génétiquement
au groupe de langues ngiri. C'est le cas du lingombe et
de petits parlers localisés à l'extrême
nord-ouest du domaine. Les vrais locuteurs issus de la
communauté dont la protolangue est établie
ici sont les Riverains qui se subdivisent en deux principales
sous-branches: les Motembo et les Bobangi.
Dans une dernière partie de l'etude est présentée
à titre de spécimen l'esquisse d'une langue
ngiri, le mpundza. Un lexique proto-ngiri, un index français-proto-ngiri
de même qu'un vocabulaire comparé de dix
langues ngiri sont repris en annexe.
(En Français, 280 pp.) |
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| No.
40 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-57-0
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| 414 pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 25,20 |
| Order
this book |
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| The
Kana Language |
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| Suanu
M. Ikoro |
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The
Kana Language is the first exhaustive description of Kana,
a Cross River language spoken in the north-eastern fringe
of Ogoniland in south-eastern Nigeria. The variety represented
here is the Babbe dialect, based on the author's speech
as a native speaker of Kana.
The book covers the phonological, morphological and syntactic
features of Kana. Sound symbolism, focus and question
phenomena are also described. A major problem in the description
of Cross River languages is the consonant systems of these
languages. The present author argues that an analysis
which accepts morphological information in the description
of Kana consonants is superior to one that rejects such
information. In the sections on morphology and syntax,
the author shows that even though Kana cannot be described
as an agglutinative language, an earlier morphology of
this type seems reconstructable. Furthermore, the author
argues that in Kana, transitivity should be viewed as
a continuum instead of the traditional 2merolladichotomy
of transitive versus intransitive verbs.
A significant part of the study is the discovery of a
productive system of numeral classifiers, contrary to
popular views that only noun classes, and not numeral
classifiers, occur in African languages.
Discussing data from various parts of Kana grammar, the
book is of interest to the Africanist as well as a general
linguistic readership.
(In English, 414 pp.)
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| No.
39 |
| ISBN
978-90-73782-54-9 |
| 312
pp. |
| Leiden
1996 |
| Price:
€ 22,80 |
| Order
this book |
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Kikuyu
gender norms and narratives
Inge Brinkman
Kikuyu Gender Norms and Narratives
is a book about imagination. It offers an interpretation of
the divergent ways in which Kikuyu gender norms are imagined.
The author maps the divergent views on changing morality, identity
and gender relations. Such views can be found in daily conversations,
scholarly articles, political meetings, newspapers and literature,
to mention but a few examples. This book concentrates on literary
imaginations of Kikuyu gender norms, but explicitly links these
to extra-literary imaginations of Kikuyu gender norms.This combination
of divergent sources enables the author to study imaginations
not as isolated instances, but as processes connecting different
texts, various kinds of literature and a number of contextual
circles. Differences in normative imaginations may be expressed
in texts, but can also become manifest in the interpretation
of literature or the status attributed to it. Images in literary
works are not limited to one text, crosscut different texts
and relate to debates in society. This book shows that texts
and contexts, both in plural, stand in dynamic interaction.
(In English,
312 pp.) |
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| 290 pp. |
| Leiden
2000 |
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| OUT
OF PRINT |
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| Ieder mens wordt als moslim geboren. De sociale identiteiten van de lokale elite in Manduar (Gambia) |
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| Berend
Timmer |
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Ieder mens wordt als Moslim geboren gaat over de stichters
en daarmee ook de dorpselite van het dorp Manduar, de
Bojang. Hun visie, en die van hun voorvaderen, op de
wijze waarop sociale relaties invulling dienen te krijgen,
is van grote invloed op de sociale organisatie van het
dorp. Op grond van de verhalen over het ontstaan van
het dorp presenteren de Bojang zich als de stichters,
als de autochtonen. Dit geldt niet alleen voor de Bojang
die altijd al in Manduar wonen, maar ook de Bojang die
zich recent in het dorp gevestigd hebben. Iedereen die
niet tot de familie van de stichter behoort, wordt als
gast gecategoriseerd, ook al wonen enkelen van hen al
sinds de stichting van het dorp in Manduar.
Sommige van de gasten zijn een hechte relatie aangegaan
met hun gastheren, anderen houden zich afzijdig en weer
anderen accepteren de door de Bojang geclaimde autoriteit
niet en verzetten zich. Hoe komt de relatie tussen gast
en gastheer tot stand en welke factoren spelen hierbij
een rol? Onder welke voorwaarden halen gast en gastheer
de banden met elkaar aan? Hoe ontwikkelen de sociale
identiteiten van de betrokkenen zich onder deze omstandigheden?
Dit boek biedt inzicht in de dynamiek van het sociale
leven door een gedetailleerde beschrijving te geven
van het huwelijksritueel alsook van de naamgevingceremonie,
acht dagen na de geboorte. Daarbij blijkt steeds weer
dat de sociale identiteiten van een persoon in hoge
mate afhangen van diegenen waarmee hij in zijn dagelijks
leven te maken heeft en de wijze waarop hij invulling
wil geven aan hun onderlinge sociale relaties.
(In Dutch, 290 pp., incl. index) |
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