What did it mean to be an African subject living in remote areas of Tanganyika at the end of the colonial era? For the Kaguru of Tanganyika, it meant daily confrontation with the black and white governmental officials tasked with bringing this rural people into the mainstream of colonial African life. T. O. Beidelman's detailed narrative links this administrative world to the Kaguru's wider social, cultural, and geographical milieu, and to the political history, ideas of indirect rule, and the white institutions that loomed just beyond their world. Beidelman unveils the colonial system's problems as it extended its authority into rural areas and shows how these problems persisted even after African independence.

Colonial authority and progress in rural Africa

About the Author

T. O. Beidelman is Professor of Anthropology at New York University. He is author of Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots (IUP, 1982); The Moral Imagination in Kaguru Modes of Thought (IUP, 1986); and The Cool Knife: Metaphors of Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Education in Kaguru Initiation Ritual.

Reviews

Although the Kaguru have been a backwater in world affairs, Beidelman's extensive contributions have made them a major subject of African studies. An important addition to understanding the local and global in anthropology. . . . Highly recommended.

* Choice *

We are fortunate to have this book. Not only is it a very useful addition to colonial studies, but it also demonstrates the value of decades of teaching and writing in assessing the centuries-long trajectory of political institutions in one area of Tanzania.

* Journal of African History *

This volume is a handsome addition to Beidelman's scholarship and serves as a valuable resource for scholars and students of colonialism, anthropology, political science, and African history.

* American Ethnologist *

Spring 2014

* Journal of Interdisciplinary History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253002082
Author T. O. Beidelman
Format Paperback
Page Count 414
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 567g