The difficulties of exploring African history, especially for earlier periods, have spurred the development of a wide range of methodologies and approaches, such that Wyatt McGaffey once termed it "the decathlon of the social sciences." Historians have long utilized archaeology, ethnography, historical linguistics, and oral traditions in their study of the continent, but are only beginning to explore the possibilities of genetics or many of the techniques used by modern archaeology and other emerging sciences. And as digital sources-from historical documents and statistics to cartographic, climatic, demographic, and environmental modeling-proliferate, so do the problems in using them. The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources examines how these developments have influenced the scholarship that historians produce. Such methods continue to evolve, demanding that historians develop basic understandings of them. Thus, the two-volume Encyclopedia builds a theoretical foundation for the field, expanding the ways that Africa can be studied, and recovering the histories of the continent that often appear outside of the documentary record.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources

History

Spear, Thomas

Africa

Oxford University Press

Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land and Agricultural Development in Arusha and Meru

This is the first extended study of one of the most historically and culturally interesting regions of Tanzania in East Africa. Mountain Farmers is a detailed comparative history of two ethnic groups who share one mountain home—the Meru are traditionally farmers; the Arusha cattle-herders related to the Maasai. Thomas Spear's engaging study, based on recent archival and field research, ranges across several centuries of political and economic history, comparing the responses of these very different peoples to the settlement of Mount Meru, to colonial conquest, and to increasing land shortages. Spear moves away from models of social history that tend toward economic determinism, and instead seeks to understand the role of culture in socio-economic change.As he traces the history of settlement on Mt. Meru since the seventeenth century, Spear focuses on the coming of colonizers and missionaries and local resistance to them; the transition from German to British colonial rule; colonial struggles over land, taxes, forced labor, coffee cooperatives, Christianity, education, and more. In addition, Spear explains the background to one of the most famous episodes in Tanzanian political history, the Meru Land case.

University of California Press

This is the first extended study of one of the most historically and culturally interesting regions of Tanzania in East Africa. Mountain Farmers is a detailed comparative history of two ethnic groups who share one mountain home—the Meru are traditionally farmers; the Arusha cattle-herders related to the Maasai. Thomas Spear's engaging study, based on recent archival and field research, ranges across several centuries of political and economic history, comparing the responses of these very different peoples to the settlement of Mount Meru, to colonial conquest, and to increasing land shortages. Spear moves away from models of social history that tend toward economic determinism, and instead seeks to understand the role of culture in socio-economic change. As he traces the history of settlement on Mt. Meru since the seventeenth century, Spear focuses on the coming of colonizers and missionaries and local resistance to them; the transition from German to British colonial rule; colonial struggles over land, taxes, forced labor, coffee cooperatives, Christianity, education, and more. In addition, Spear explains the background to one of the most famous episodes in Tanzanian political history, the Meru Land case.

"As an introduction to how the history of an African society can be reconstructed from largely nonliterate sources, and to the Swahili in particular, . . . a model work."—International Journal of African Historical Studies

The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 8-15 (The Ethnohistory Series)

Nurse, Derek

University of Pennsylvania Press

The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500 (The Ethnohistory Series)

Everyone “knows” the Maasai as proud pastoralists who once dominated the Rift Valley from northern Kenya to central Tanzania. But many people who identity themselves as Maasai, or who speak Maa, are not pastoralist at all, but farmers and hunters. Over time many different people have “become” something else. And what it means to be Maasai has changed radically over the past several centuries and is still changing today. This collection by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists examines how Maasai identity has been created, evoked, contested, and transformed from the time of their earliest settlement in Kenya to the present, as well as raising questions about the nature of ethnicity generally.

Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity In East Africa (Eastern African Studies)

Ohio University Press

Christianity has been spread in Africa by Africans. It is the story of peoples seizing control of their own spiritual destinies—rather than the commonplace notion that the continent's Christian churches represent colonial and capitalist powers that helped subdue Africans to European domination. In short, once introduced, Christianity took on a powerful life of its own and spun out of the control of those who would retain ownership of doctrine and practice.East African Expressions of Christianity examines the experiences of African Christians as they explored the new faith, interpreted it in the context of their own values, appropriated it for themselves, and forged their own distinctive churches. Prominent Tanzanian and American historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and church people examine the translation of religious meanings across cultural boundaries; the religious and social appeal of the new faith; and the vital roles played by African evangelists, teachers, and translators in the spread of Christianity and the development of an African church.

East African Expressions of Christianity (Eastern African Studies)

Christianity has been spread in Africa by Africans. This book probes deeply into the experiences of African Christians as they explored the new faith, interpreted it in the context of their own cultural values, appropriated it for themselves, and forged their distinctive churches. The studies included in Eastern African Expressions of Christianity are by prominent Tanzanian and American historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and church people. They examine a complete set of historical issues regarding the translation of religious meanings across cultural boundaries; the religious and social appeal of the new faith; and the vital roles played by African evangelists, teachers, and translators in the spread of Christianity and development of an African church.

East African Expressions of Christianity: Of Christianity (Eastern African Studies)

This work examines the struggle between the Meru and Arusha peoples and their German and British rulers over the issue of land and agricultural development on Mount Meru in northern Tanzania. It shows how the Meru and Arashi, faced with an iron ring of land alienated by European settlers successfully intensified their own irrigated agriculture to bring about what has been termed an indigenous agricultural revolution. Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota

Business & Money

Economics

James Currey

Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missions Blat: Extracs on Arusha

Religion & Spirituality

Univ of Wisconsin Madison African

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Spear, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Spear, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Spear, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources

Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land and Agricultural Development in Arusha and Meru

Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land and Agricultural Development in Arusha and Meru

The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 8-15 (The Ethnohistory Series)

The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500 (The Ethnohistory Series)

Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity In East Africa (Eastern African Studies)

East African Expressions of Christianity (Eastern African Studies)

East African Expressions of Christianity: Of Christianity (Eastern African Studies)

Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land and Agricultural Development in Arusha and Meru

Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missions Blat: Extracs on Arusha