The Realm of the Word: Language, Gender, and Christianity in a Southern African Kingdom (Social History of Africa Series) [Hardcover]

Paul Stuart Landau (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0435089633 | ISBN-13: 978-0435089634 | Publication Date: August 21, 1995

"The Realm of the Word" is the first study of mission Christianity in colonial southern Africa to treat religion and society as a coherent whole. While previous works have concentrated on the interactions of European missionaries and Africans, Landau shifts the focus to African evangelists, schoolchildren, cattle barons, healers, miscreants, political rebels, and, most of all, Christian women. Drawing as much as possible on the words of Tswana contemporaries, his sources include oral traditions and reminiscences, court reports, and royal and ecclesiastic correspondence in SeTswana, as well as government and missionary archives. The ideologies and practices of Christianity emerge as inseparable from a kingdom's construction of power in central Botswana--a realm of the Word, premised not on Western hegemony, but instead on Tswana self-rule.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Paul Landau's fascinating study . . . is among the best historical accounts of Christianity available for any part of Africa.”–Richard Elphick, Wesleyan University

About the Author

Paul Landau studied African history and southern African languages at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his doctorate in 1992. He engaged in field and archival research in several towns and villages in Botswana. His articles on culture, Christianity, and ecological practice have appeared in various scholarly journals and the Southern African Review of Books. His newest research focuses on representation in the milieu of colonial contact. He is currently teaching at the University of New Hampshire and will be teaching at Yale starting in fall 1995.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (August 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0435089633
• ISBN-13: 978-0435089634
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,343,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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