Book Review: Africa: Eastern African History
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500325 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | R. W. Beachey |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
653
during
the
colonial
period."
The
reaction
to
colonialism
was
also
part
of
the
internal
development
of African
communities
and
of
inter-group
relations
in
African
history.
Ajayi's
comments
are
a
salutory
reminder
that
much
synthesis
and
re-interpretation
needs
to
be done;
the
other
contributions however
are
a
testament
to
that
which
has
already
been
accomplished.
With
new
materials,
and a
new
historiography,
the
authors
have
tackled
most
of
the key
issues.
Elizabeth
Colson looks
at
the
accommodation
of
West
Africa's
stable
societies
to
the
European impact,
Colin
W.
Newbury
examines
the
mix
of
trade
and
authority,
African
and
European,
and
a
similar
theme
is
treated
by
John
D.
Hargreaves and John
E.
Flint
who
consider
the
survival
of
West African
polities to
be
the result
of
a
strong
sense
of
ethnic
identity.
Henri
Brunschwig
and Catherine
Coquery-Vidrovitch
deal
with
French
exploration,
conquest,
and
ad-
ministration: it
is
a
subject
unfamiliar
in
full
detail
to
many
English
readers
but
the
story
is
similar-the
mixed
motives
of
government
and
commercial
interests,
the
haphazard pursuit
of money
and
order,
the
uneven
results.
Jean
Stengers
introduces
us
to
the
flefdom
of
Leopold
in
the
Congo
and
concludes,
in
distinction
from
Ajayi,
that
internal
African
influences
were
negligible.
T. 0.
Ranger
examines
the
African
political
initiatives
taken
in east
and
central
Africa.
Other
imperial
domains
and
rationales
are
considered.
D.
W.
Krfiger
has
a
chapter
on
British
imperialism
in
South
Africa, Richard
J.
Hammond examines
the
phenomenon
of
the
persistence
of
Portuguese
holdings
in
the
face
of
metropolitan disinterest, bankruptcy,
and
weakness,
Robert Cornevin
looks
at
each
of
the
German
colonies,
with
particular
emphasis
on
the
African
response
to
the
unusual
case
of
German
East
Africa.
Menelik's
expansion
of
the
Ethiopian
empire
is
seen
by
Harold
Marcus
as pro-
viding
the
momentum,
later
lost,
which
established
the
pre-conditions
of
modernization. Charles
Pelham
Groves
offers
a
sympathetic,
balanced
view
of
the
missionary
and
humanitarian
aspects
of colonialism,
re-
minding
us,
as
do
many
of
the
contributors,
that
no
one view
or theory
will
suffice
to
explain
the
interaction
between
ruler
and
ruled.
If,
to
revert
to
an
earlier
analogy,
this
volume
is
not
a
Lucullan
feast,
it
is
more
than
a
satisfactory
meal.
It
is
a
most
useful
collection
of
materials
and
interpretations,
advancing our
knowledge
and
appreci-
ation
of
what
was begun
a
hundred
years
ago on
the
continent
the
Europeans
called
"dark."
This
light
on
the
subject
is
most
welcome.
York
University
JANE
BANFIELD
HAYNES
Eastern
African History.
Edited
by
D.
F.
MCCALL,
NORMAN
R.
BENNETr,
and
JEFFREY
BUTLER.
New
York:
Praeger
[Toronto:
Burns
&
Mac-
Eachern].
1969.
x,
245pp.
$15.00.
A
compilation
of
eight
specialized
papers,
not
on
East
African
history
in
the
sense
usually
accorded
that
term,
but
with
an
extended
ambit
taking
in the
Sudan,
the
Upper
Nile,
and
Ethiopia, this
is
not
an
easy
book
to
review,
owing
to
the
absence
of
any
unifying
theme.
One
looks
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