University of Chicago Press: New Titles in African Studies

Place That Matters Yet

Sara Byala — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

A Place That Matters Yet unearths the little-known story of Johannesburg’s MuseumAfrica, a South African history museum that embodies one of the most dynamic and fraught stories of colonialism and postcolonialism, its life spanning the eras before, during, and after apartheid. Sara Byala, in examining this story, sheds new light not only on racism and its institutionalization in South Africa but also on the problems facing any museum that is charged with navigating colonial history from a postcolonial perspective.

Drawing on thirty years of personal letters and public writings by museum founder John Gubbins, Byala paints a picture of a uniquely progressive colonist, focusing on his philosophical notion of “three-dimensional thinking,” which aimed to transcend binaries and thus—quite explicitly—racism. Unfortunately, Gubbins died within weeks of the museum’s opening, and his hopes would go unrealized as the museum fell in line with emergent apartheid politics. Following the museum through this transformation and on to its 1994 reconfiguration as a post-apartheid institution, Byala showcases it as a rich—and problematic—archive of both material culture and the ideas that surround that culture, arguing for its continued importance in the establishment of a unified South Africa.

Africa in Europe

Eve Rosenhaft; Robbie Aitken — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

Africa in Europe goes beyond the still-dominant American and transatlantic focus of disapora studies, examining the experiences of black and white Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and African Americans in Western Europe, Britain, and the former Soviet Union from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. Exploring a huge range of border-crossing experiences across and within Africa and Europe, it examines topics such as ethnic and cultural boundaries, working across the color line, and the limits of solidarity. With contributions from scholars in social history, art history, anthropology, cultural studies, and literary studies, as well from a novelist and a filmmaker, it offers a broad look at the intersection of Africa and Europe at all levels, from family and community to culture and politics.

Normality of Civil War

Teresa Koloma Beck — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

In The Normality of Civil War, Teresa Koloma Beck uses theories of the everyday to analyze the social processes of civil war, specifically the type of conflict that is characterized by the expansion of violence into so-called normal life. She looks beyond simplistic notions of victims and perpetrators to reveal the complex shifting interdependencies that emerge during wartime. She also explores how the process of normalization affects both armed groups and the civilian population. A brief but smart analysis, The Normality of Civil War gets at the root of the social dynamics of war and what lies ahead for the participants after its end.