Colonial Rule and Crisis in Equatorial Africa: Southern Gabon, c. 1850-1940 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora) [Hardcover]

Christopher J. Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1580460488 | ISBN-13: 978-1580460484

In the second half of the nineteenth century, two very different practices of territoriality confronted each other in Southern Gabon. Clan and lineage relationships were most important in the local practice, while the French practice was informed by a territorial definition of society that had emerged with the rise of the modern nation-state and industrial capitalism. This modern territoriality used an array of bureaucratic instruments -- such as maps and censuses -- previously unknown in equatorial Africa. Such instruments denied the existence of locally created territories and were fundamental to the exercise of colonial power. Thus modern territoriality imposed categories and institutions foreign to the peoples to whom they were applied. As colonial power became more effective from the 1920s on, those institutions started to be appropriated by Gabonese cultural elites who negotiated their meanings in reference to their own traditions. The result was a strongly ambiguous condition that left its imprint on the new colonial territories and subsequently the postcolonial Gabonese state. Christopher Gray was assistant professor of History, Florida International University

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fascinating study...suitable for upper division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty. --CHOICE Besides offering a solid overview of the political and cultural history of southern Gabon, an area almost entirely ignored by academic scholars, Gray's study offers rich insights for historians and researchers examining the impact of early colonial rule and the formation of ethnic categories in Africa in the last two centuries....A compelling study. --INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORICAL STUDIES No. 2-3, 2002 Gray's book is an important intervention in the growing scholarly literature on colonialism. Its lasting contribution is to invite scholars to think more carefully about space as a key terrain on which the colonial power worked. --JOURNAL OF COLONIALISM AND COLONIAL HISTORY

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Rochester Press (August 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580460488
• ISBN-13: 978-1580460484
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,251,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read even for a lay person like me!, May 22, 2011

By 

Michel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colonial Rule and Crisis in Equatorial Africa: Southern Gabon, c. 1850-1940 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora) (Hardcover)

I knew Christopher Gray. Our home in Mouila Gabon was his base on his frequent research field trips to the Tsogho, Sango, Punu and Nzebi villages of Southern Gabon. I accompanied Chris on one of these trips.
I was therefore delighted to find his book on Amazon and yet sad too knowing that he passed away very prematurely a few years back.

On the book itself: it suffices to say that it was written by a very rigourous historian who draws his knowledge not merely from collating historical evidences here and there, but by leaving with the peoples he is relating the history of. I had serveral 'ahah' moments throughout the book, as many things I knew intuitively (I come from Southern Gabon) were explained in their historical context.

I really enjoyed reading this book.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Caution, June 4, 2005

By 

MTOLincoln - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love and Death in Goethe: One and Double (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture) (Hardcover)

Know before you purchase this book that it presumes you know German as well as English. The author quotes Goethe liberally in German throughtout his text and notes while offering no translation for those not fluent in German. Disregard my rating, however. I haven't read it yet, so can't evaluate it yet. Question is: will I be able to read it at all? I don't speak German.