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Ramon Sarró explores an iconoclastic religious movement initiated by a Muslim preacher during the French colonial period. Employing an ethnographic approach that respects the testimony of those who suffered violence as opposed to those who wanted to "get rid of custom," this work discusses the extent to which iconoclasm produces a rupture of religious knowledge and identity and analyzes its relevance in the making of modern nations and citizens.The Politics of Religious Change on the Upper Guinea Coast examines the historical complexity of the interface between Islam, traditional religions, and Christianity in West Africa, and how this interface connects to dramatic political change. The book unveils a rare history and brokers a dialogue between a long tradition of anthropology and contemporary anthropological debates. A wide range of readers, particularly those with an interest in the anthropology of religion, iconoclasm, the history and anthropology of West Africa, or the politics of heritage, will gravitate toward this work.

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Trends towards 'informalization' are looming large in the world today. African cities have long been characterized by the presence of an 'informal sector' but are now experiencing new waves of 'informalization'. Policies of liberalization and structural adjustment are both changing the conditions under which urban dwellers make a living and encouraging states to abdicate from responsibilities for popular welfare. In this context, urbanites increasingly rely on informal ways of income earning and of social security provisioning. This book is about processes of 'informalization' in the West African city of Bissau in Guinea-Bissau. It begins with a historical account of the way conditions of informality have evolved through the encounter of locally specific forms of informal relations with colonialism and the socialist era.

This is followed by an analysis of how disadvantaged groups who rely on informal ways of provisioning are faring in the context of contemporary changes. The study looks at both the informal income-generating activities and the social networks that urbanites engage in to sustain their income activities and their consumption. It seeks to assess whether these groups are coping with these wider changes or are becoming marginalized from networks of assistance and from activities that provide sufficient incomes. The social relations pervading access to support and livelihood resources as well as the informal rules governing such access are in focus. Forms of regulation in the informal sphere are also discussed. ... Read more

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Explores and elaborates a theme of fundamental significance in the societies of New Guinea--humors and substances of the human body--to illuminate themes of gender relations, witchcraft, ecology, ritual, and the treatment of sickness, all seen within the framework of the wider cosmos. ... Read more

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Olba a Sunda tao larga que huma banda Esconde para o Sul difficultuoso.¿ ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Relevant historical document over the european discovery of Australia
This book is an excelent surprise. Being over 100 years old it reveals some relevant facts, today still rarely known, over the discovery of Australia.

Although some doubts still prevail about who were the first europeans to set foot on Australia, it seems more and more accepted as a fact that Cook was not for sure the first european to achieve it.

Between 1511 and 1536 the portuguese draw maps of the big southern island. Although portuguese maps were lost in 1755 when an earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed national archives, copies of this maps made by the french survived to present days. It is thus clear that more than 200 years before Cook reached Australia, the portuguese (and later the spanish) had already sailed the shores of australia. And it is not even surprising since the portuguese were the masters of the seas in the early 16th century and they had already discovered many island in southwest Asia in their search for the Molucas, the spice islands, the most wanted source of economic revenue for the european economy in those days.

The book is mainly factual and easy to read. An interesting document for those who are curious about the discovery of australia, sailing or the history of europe in the 16th/18th centuries. ... Read more

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An Anthropology of the Subject rounds out the theoretical-philosophical cosmos of one of the twentieth century's most intellectually adventurous anthropologists. Roy Wagner, having turned "culture" and "symbols" inside out (in The Invention of Culture and Symbols That Stand for Themselves, respectively), now does the same for the "subject" and subjectivity. In studying the human subject and the way human culture mirrors itself, Wagner has redefined holography as "the exact equivalence, or comprehensive identity, of part and whole in any human contingency." ... Read more

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"There I was, standing alone, unable to cry as I said goodbye to Sidimé Laye, my best friend, and to the revolution that had opened the door of modernity for me--the revolution that had invented me." This book gives us the story of a quest for a childhood friend, for the past and present, and above all for an Africa that is struggling to find its future.

In 1996 Manthia Diawara, a distinguished professor of film and literature in New York City, returns to Guinea, thirty-two years after he and his family were expelled from the newly liberated country. He is beginning work on a documentary about Sékou Touré, the dictator who was Guinea's first post-independence leader. Despite the years that have gone by, Diawara expects to be welcomed as an insider, and is shocked to discover that he is not.

The Africa that Diawara finds is not the one on the verge of barbarism, as described in the Western press. Yet neither is it the Africa of his childhood, when the excitement of independence made everything seem possible for young Africans. His search for Sidimé Laye leads Diawara to profound meditations on Africa's culture. He suggests solutions that might overcome the stultifying legacy of colonialism and age-old social practices, yet that will mobilize indigenous strengths and energies.

In the face of Africa's dilemmas, Diawara accords an important role to the culture of the diaspora as well as to traditional music and literature--to James Brown, Miles Davis, and Salif Kéita, to Richard Wright, Spike Lee, and the ancient epics of the griots. And Diawara's journey enlightens us in the most disarming way with humor, conversations, and well-told tales.

But, as Diawara relates throughout the book, that didn't happen. Hepainfully recounts how he and his family were forced to leave Guineaand how the country sank into a Marxist-oriented dictatorialnightmare. While not overlooking the horrible historical impact of theslave trade and European colonialism, Diawara also blames internalcorruption and dangerous African ethnic customs, like female genitalmutilation, for his country's underdevelopment. Ultimately, however,he remains confident that this people will one day ascend to theirfull political, economic, and cultural potential: "Our desire to bemodernized has been awakened, and it cannot be denied. Women wantliberation from traditional oppression; we all want access toeducation and material wealth; and we are tired of being ignored bythe world." --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Diawara and Richard Wright
Diawara's book is provocative and important for understanding African critical thinking in the twentieth century.The book is especially important for the "third perspective" it enables us to gain for arereading of Richard Wright's <>. I stronglyrecommend this book to Wright scholars and African Americanists ingeneral.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Lawrence Durgin Profesor of Literature,Tougaloo College ... Read more

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Guinea- Bissau. History of Guinea- Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, Politics of Guinea- Bissau, Regions of Guinea- Bissau, Sectors of Guinea- Bissau, Geography of Guinea- Bissau, Economy of Guinea- Bissau, Demographics of Guinea- Bissau, List of African writers by country, Music of Guinea- Bissau, Outline of Guinea- Bissau, Telecommunications in Guinea- Bissau, Foreign relations of Guinea- Bissau, Military of Guinea- Bissau, Transport in Guinea- Bissau, Corpo Nacional de Escutas da Guiné- Bissau ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is located in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west. It covers nearly 37,000 square kilometres (14,000 sq mi) with an estimated population of 1,600,000. Formerly the Portuguese colony of Portuguese Guinea, upon independence, the name of its capital, Bissau, was added to the country's name to prevent confusion with the Republic of Guinea. The country's per-capita gross domestic product is one of the lowest in the world. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Guinea, is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea (Guinée française), it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbor Guinea-Bissau. Conakry is the capital, the seat of the national government, and the largest city. Guinea has almost 246,000 square kilometres (94,981 sq mi). It forms a crescent by curving from its western border on the Atlantic Ocean toward the east and the south. Guinea shares its northern border with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Mali. Guinea shares its southern border with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. The Niger River arises in Guinea and runs eastward. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! German New Guinea (Ger. Deutsch-Neuguinea) was a former German protectorate from 1884 to 1914, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups. German New Guinea is now entirely part of Papua New Guinea.The main part of German New Guinea was formed by Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the northeastern part of New Guinea. The islands to the east of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland were called the Bismarck Archipelago and consisted of Neu-Pommern (or New Pomerania, now New Britain) and Neu-Mecklenburg (now New Ireland). ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of feet into the air. It caused rain which caused buildings to collapse. 80% of the buildings in Rabaul were collapsed. After the eruption the capital was moved to Kokopo, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) away. Rabaul is continually threatened by volcanic activity due to being built on the edge of Rabaul caldera, a flooded caldera of a large volcano. ... Read more

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From Preface:

"This book is the outcome of an expedition to British New Guinea in 1910, in which, after a short stay among the people of some of the western Solomon Islands, including those of that old centre of the head hunters, the Rubiana lagoon, and a preparatory and instructive journey in New Guinea among the large villages of the Mekeo district, I struck across country by a little known route, via Lapeka, to Ido-Ido and on to Dilava, and thus passed by way of further preparation through the Kuni country, and ultimately reached the district of the Mafulu villages, of whose people very little was known, and which was therefore the mecca of my pilgrimage.

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about 140 kilometres (87 mi) apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres, respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon. Both islands are part of an extinct volcanic mountain range. São Tomé, the sizable southern island, is situated just north of the equator. It was named in honour of Saint Thomas by Portuguese explorers who happened to arrive at the island on his feast day. ... Read more

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Equatorial Guinea, officially theRepublic of Equatorial Guinea is a country located in Central Africa. With an area of 28,000 km2 it is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa. It has a population estimated at half a million. It comprises two parts: a Continental RegionRío Muni, including several small offshore islands like Corisco, Elobey Grande and Elobey Chico; and an Insular Region containing Annobón island and Bioko island formerly Fernando Po where the capital Malabo is situated. Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the east is the mainland region. Equatorial Guinea is bordered by Cameroon on the north, Gabon on the south and east, and the Gulf of Guinea on the west, where the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is located between Bioko and Annobón. Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post independence name is suggestive of its location near both the equator and the Gulf of Guinea. ... Read more