New Books Network
African Studies
Indian Ocean World November 19, 2020

Diaspora and Nation in the Indian Ocean

Transnational Histories of Race and Space in Tanzania

Ned Bertz

Hosted by Michael Rumore
The vibrant Swahili coast port city of Dar es Salaam—literally, the “Haven of Peace”—hosts a population reflecting a legacy of long relations with the Arabian Peninsula and a diaspora emanating …

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Third World Nationalism November 17, 2020

Making a World After Empire

The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives

Christopher J. Lee

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
In April 1955, twenty-nine countries from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East came together for a diplomatic conference in Bandung, Indonesia, intending to define the direction of the postcolonial world …
African Studies November 13, 2020

A History of the Republic of Biafra

Law, Crime, and the Nigerian Civil War

Samuel Fury Childs Daly

Hosted by Madina Thiam
The Republic of Biafra lasted for less than three years, but the war over its secession would contort Nigeria for decades to come. A History of the Republic of Biafra …
Indian Ocean World November 9, 2020

Pearls, People, and Power

Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds

Pedro Machado

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Pearls, People, and Power: Pearling and Indian Ocean Worlds (Ohio University Press, 2020), co-edited by Pedro Machado, Joseph Christensen, Steve Mullins) is the first book to examine the trade, distribution …
Indian Ocean World November 5, 2020

Conscripts of Migration

Neoliberal Globalization, Nationalism, and the Literature of New African Diasporas

Ian Foster

Hosted by Michael Rumore
In Conscripts of Migration: Neoliberal Globalization, Nationalism, and the Literature of New African Diasporas (UP of Mississippi, 2019) author Christopher Ian Foster analyzes increasingly urgent questions regarding crises of global …
Literary Studies November 3, 2020

Becoming Human

Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World

Zakkiyah Imam Jackson

Hosted by Lee Pierce
In a world where black(ened) flesh, particularly feminine flesh, is considered the ontological zero of humanness, what interventions and complications are available from art and speculative fiction of the African …
African Studies November 2, 2020

Nigeria and World War II

Colonialism, Empire, and Global Conflict

Chima J. Korieh

Hosted by Paul Bjerk
Reading the petitions that resident of colonial Nigeria submitted to the government during World War II, Marquette University historian, Prof. Chima J. Korieh found a unique source for African political …
Indian Ocean World November 2, 2020

Cracks in the Dome

Fractured Histories of Empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897-1964

Sarah Longair

Hosted by Alison Bennett
As one of the most monumental and recognisable landmarks from Zanzibar’s years as a British Protectorate, the distinctive domed building of the Zanzibar Museum (also known as the Beit al-Amani …
Indian Ocean World October 26, 2020

The Swahili World

Stephanie Wynne-Jones and Adria LaViolette

Hosted by Jenny Peruski
The Swahili World (Routledge, 2017) presents the fascinating story of a major world civilization, exploring the archaeology, history, linguistics, and anthropology of the eastern coast of Africa. It covers a …
Literary Studies October 21, 2020

Black Land

Imperial Ethiopianism and African America

Nadia Nurhussein

Hosted by Sharika Crawford
In Black Land: Imperial Ethiopianism and African America (Princeton University Press, 2019), Nadia Nurhussein explores late nineteenth and twentieth century African American cultural engagement with and literary depictions of imperial …
Performing Arts October 20, 2020

Exporting Jim Crow

Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond

Chinua Thelwell

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall
Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020) by Dr. Chinua Thelwell is a rich, well-researched, and sobering investigation of blackface minstrelsy as …
African Studies October 12, 2020

Ethiopia in Theory

Revolution and Knowledge Production, 1964-2016

Elleni Centime Zeleke

Hosted by Madina Thiam
Between the years 1964 and 1974, Ethiopian post-secondary students studying at home, in Europe, and in North America produced a number of journals where they explored the relationship between social …
Indian Ocean World October 12, 2020

The Red Sea In Search of Lost Space

Alexis Wick

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
The Red Sea has, from time immemorial, been one of the world’s most navigated spaces, in the pursuit of trade, pilgrimage and conquest. Yet this multidimensional history remains largely unrevealed …
Indian Ocean World October 8, 2020

Slaves of One Master

Globalization and Slavery in Arabia in the Age of Empire

Matthew S. Hopper

Hosted by Robyn Morse
In this wide-ranging history of the African diaspora and slavery in Arabia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Matthew S. Hopper examines the interconnected themes of enslavement, globalization, and …
Indian Ocean World October 5, 2020

Swahili Port Cities

The Architecture of Elsewhere

Prita Meier

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
On the Swahili coast of East Africa, monumental stone houses, tombs, and mosques mark the border zone between the interior of the African continent and the Indian Ocean. In Swahili …
African Studies September 25, 2020

The Golden Rhinoceros

Histories of the African Middle Ages

François-Xavier Fauvelle

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
What are the African Middle Ages? A place, certainly, and a time period, evidently. But also a “documentary regime,” argues François-Xavier Fauvelle. How do we reconstruct these centuries of the …
African Studies September 24, 2020

Histories of Dirt

Media and Urban Life in Colonial and Postcolonial Lagos

Stephanie Newell

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Stephanie Newell, Professor of English at Yale University, came to this project, which explores the concept of “dirt” and how this idea is used and applied to people and spaces …
African Studies September 23, 2020

Power and the Presidency in Kenya

The Jomo Kenyatta Years

Anais Angelo

Hosted by Susan Thomson
Anais Angelo, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for African Studies at the University of Vienna has written an exceptional book entitled Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta …
Indian Ocean World September 17, 2020

Malik Ambar

Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean

Omar H. Ali

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Omar H. Ali’s Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean (Oxford University Press, 2016), provides insight into the life of slave soldier Malik Ambar. It offers a rare …
African Studies September 11, 2020

Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire

France in the Americas and Africa c. 1750-1802

Pernille Røge

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
In her new book, Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire: France in the Americas and Africa, c. 1750-1802 (Cambridge UP, 2020), Dr. Pernille Røge charts the confluence and reciprocal impacts …