Religion and Society in Central Africa: The Bakongo of Lower Zaire

Politics & Social Sciences

MacGaffey, Wyatt

Social Sciences

Univ of Chicago Pr

Modern Kongo prophets: Religion in a plural society (African systems of thought)

Indiana University Press

This book is a brilliant commentary on the political culture of the BaKongo of Lower Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). MacGaffey analyzes texts written by young Kongo men between 1914 -1916 to explicate KiKongo culture and to question long-cherished anthropological assumptions.

Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular

History

Africa

In his new book, the eminent anthropologist Wyatt MacGaffey provides an ethnographically enriched history of Dagbon from the fifteenth century to the present, setting that history in the context of the regional resources and political culture of northern Ghana. Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers shows how the history commonly assumed by scholars has been shaped by the prejudices of colonial anthropology, the needs of British indirect rule, and local political agency. The book demonstrates, too, how political agency has shaped the kinship system. MacGaffey traces the evolution of chieftaincy as the sources of power changed and as land ceased to be simply the living space of the dependents of a chief and became a commodity and a resource for development. The internal violence in Dagbon that has been a topic of national and international concern since 2002 is shown to be a product of the interwoven values of tradition, modern Ghanaian politics, modern education, and economic opportunism.

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-Singers: History, Politics, and Land Ownership in Northern Ghana

University of Virginia Press

Astonishment &amp; Power: The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi / The Art of Renee Stout

Astonishment & Power: The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi / The Art of Renee Stout

Arts & Photography

Michael D. Harris

David C. Driskell

Sylvia H. Williams

Individual Artists

Smithsonian

Art and healing of the Bakongo, commented by themselves: Minkisi from the Laman collection (Monograph series)

Distributed in North America by Indiana University Press

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Books by MacGaffey, Wyatt