Ancient Egypt to the 1730s
- In addition to consulting the African Studies Library, consider contacting Ruth Thomas, librarian for Classical Studies.
Hatshepsut by
The female pharaoh Hatshepsut reigned for nearly twenty years during Egypt’s early New Kingdom in the fifteenth century B.C. First acting as regent for her young nephew/stepson Thutmose III, she in time assumed the title of king and exercised the full powers of the throne as senior co-ruler. In accordance with Egyptian tradition, Hatshepsut was often depicted as a male king. After her death, however, monuments bearing her image were ruthlessly defaced, and her name was erased from historical accounts.Hatshepsut’s rise to power and the nature of her kingship have long been debated by scholars. This fascinating period, one of immense artistic creativity, is illuminated by this volume’s rich presentation of monumental royal sculpture and reliefs, ceremonial objects, exquisite personal items for everyday use, and dazzling jewelry. Essays focus on influences from the neighboring Near East, Nubia, and the Aegean; the innovative architecture built by Hatshepsut; powerful figures in the royal court during her reign; archaeological finds from this period; and mysteries surrounding the destruction of Hatshepsut’s statues and the obliteration of her name.The first in-depth treatment of the subject, From Queen to Pharoah is an important investigation into the impact of Hatshepsut’s reign on the history, culture, and artistic output of Egypt.
Location: Mugar Stacks DT87.15 .H378 2005Publication Date: 2005-11-11
- Diotima (Women in Pharaonic Egypt)Translated primary sources to accompany William Ward's 1995 NEH lecture, "The Egyptian Economy and Non-royal Women: Their Status in Public Life"
The A to Z of Ancient and Medieval Nubia by
The A to Z of Ancient and Medieval Nubia covers the period from the Paleolithic, all the periods of ancient Nubia (Predynastic, Kerma, Dynasty XXV, Napatan, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic) and to the end of medieval Christianity in Nubia (Sudan). This resource focuses on Nubian history through a Nubian perspective, rather than on the more common Egypto-centrism perspective, and the coverage is based on the latest and best archaeological and epigraphic evidence. Newly created maps of the general area and its specific regions and place names and a photospread showing important related features of the region are included. A detailed chronology provides a timeline of historical events, and an introductory narrative shapes the overall history and leads to the main body of the work in the form of a cross-referenced dictionary. The descriptive entries cover the main features of the region in the various periods that are key not only to Nubian events, but also to the important interactions they had with Egypt to the north. Nine appendixes and an extensive bibliography conclude this work. Lobban has been teaching Nubian studies in undergraduate classrooms for 30 years, and this book is a product of his hands-on experiences as well as extensive anthropological fieldwork and travel in Sudanese and Egyptian Nubia.
Location: Mugar Stacks: DT159.6.N83 L63 2010Publication Date: 2010-02-18
Ancient African Civilizations by
Stanley Burstein has researched, compiled, and translated with commentary the most significant Greek and Roman sources concerning black Africa. The result is this work about the people of the southern part of the Nile Valley, the gold mines of Nubia, the Hellenistic city of Meroe, capital of the Ethiopian Empire of Kush with its own highly developed culture (300 BC to 300 AD). Burstein opens the volume with a brief survey of the two kingdoms of Kush and Axum. With introductions and notes he then presents the ancient literary and epigraphical testimony for this region.
Location: Mugar 6th Floor Display Shelf DT159.6.N83 A53 1998Publication Date: 1997-03-01
The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros by Location: Online and In Print: Mugar Stacks BR1725.N42 G33 2015Publication Date: 2015-10-13
The Period of the Slave Trade
- Fontes Para a história De Angola do século XVII byLocation: Mugar Stacks DT611.65 .H44 1985Publication Date: 1985
- John Thornton's African TextsLocation: WebsiteJohn Thornton’s translations of 17th century texts on Congo and Angola. Includes:
Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, “Missione evangelica al Regno de Congo” (MSS Araldi, Modena. - Queen Njinga, 1582-1663: Ritual, power and gender in the life of a precolonial African ruler (Dissertation) byLocation: OnlinePublication Date: 1995
Njinga of Angola by
Though largely unknown in the Western world, the seventeenth-century African queen Njinga was one of the most multifaceted rulers in history, a woman who rivaled Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great in political cunning and military prowess. Linda Heywood offers the first full-length study in English of Queen Njinga's long life and political influence, revealing how this Cleopatra of central Africa skillfully navigated--and ultimately transcended--the ruthless, male-dominated power struggles of her time. In 1626, after being deposed by the Portuguese, she transformed herself into a prolific slave trader and ferocious military leader, waging wars against the Portuguese colonizers and their African allies. Surviving multiple attempts to kill her, Njinga conquered the neighboring state of Matamba and ruled as queen of Ndongo-Matamba. At the height of her reign in the 1640s Njinga ruled almost one-quarter of modern-day northern Angola. Toward the end of her life, weary of war, she made peace with Portugal and converted to Christianity, though her devotion to the new faith was questioned. Who was Queen Njinga? There is no simple answer. In a world where women were subjugated by men, she repeatedly outmaneuvered her male competitors and flouted gender norms, taking both male and female lovers. Today, Njinga is revered in Angola as a national heroine and honored in folk religions, and her complex legacy continues to resonate, forming a crucial part of the collective memory of the Afro-Atlantic world.
Location: Location: Mugar Stacks DT1365.N95 H49 2017 )Publication Date: 2017-02-27
Afro-Latino Voices by
A landmark scholarly achievement . . . With judicious commentary by several of the leading experts in the field, this book dramatically expands the canon of texts used to study the black Atlantic and the African diaspora, and captures the tenor of the 'black voice' as it collectively engaged the power of colonial institutions. In no uncertain terms, Afro-Latino Voices will prove to be a remarkable pedagogical tool and an influential resource, inspiring deeper comparative work on the African diaspora. --Ben Vinson III, Center for Africana Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Location: Request from Another Library through ILLISBN: 9780872209930Publication Date: 2009-11-15
Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americans, 1585-1660 by
This book establishes Central Africa as the origin of most Africans brought to English and Dutch American colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and South America in their formative period before 1660. It reveals that Central Africans were frequently possessors of an Atlantic Creole culture that included adaptation of Christianity and elements of European language, especially names and material culture. It places the movement of slaves and creation of the colonies within an Atlantic historical framework, including showing interactions among Africa, Europe, and all of the Americas. It explores the development of attitudes toward race, slavery, and freedom as they developed in the colonies of England and the Netherlands, and it revises earlier discussions on these issues. The book suggests ways in which this generation of Africans helped lay the foundations for subsequent development of African-American culture in all the colonies of these countries.
Location: Mugar Stacks E29.N3 H49 2007Publication Date: 2007-09-10
Telling Stories, Making Histories by
Through reconstruction of oral testimony, folk stories and poetry, the true history of Hausa women and their reception of Islam's vision of Muslim in Western Africa have been uncovered. Mary Wren Bivins is the first author to locate and examine the oral texts of the 19th century Hausa women and challenge the written documentation of the Sokoto Caliphate. The personal narratives and folk stories reveal the importance of illiterate, non-elite women to the history of jihad and the assimilation of normative Islam in rural Hausaland. The captivating lives of the Hausa are captured, shedding light on their ordinary existence as wives, mothers, and providers for their family on the eve of European colonial conquest.
Location: Mugar 6th Floor Display Shelf DT515.45.H38 B58 2007Publication Date: 2007-03-30
Colonial Regimes to Independence
Marriage in Maradi by
Women's contradictory contributions to social and economic change in the twentieth century can be seen in their improvisations upon the seemingly fixed "traditions" surrounding marriage in Maradi. Cooper finds that women in Maradi have simultaneously advanced their individual interests and undermined protections to women as a whole by redefining the role of "wife" in agriculture, by adopting seclusion in order to find leisure time for trade, by emphasizing hierarchy among wives, unmarried women, and girls, and by transforming the material component in marriage exchange. With the growth of international trade, state employment, and Islamic norms, competing ideals for marriage and the role of women have emerged. The French colonial administration, the independent government of Niger, and individual men have all attempted to redefine local practices in an effort to control women. Both men and women in the region are manipulating, negotiating, and reinterpreting marriage, wedding exchange, and nonmarriage in response to options created by a shifting political economy.
Location: Mugar 6th Floor Display Shelf DT547.45.H38 C66 1997ISBN: 043507413X
The struggle between two great queens, 1900-1901 : Yaa Asantewaa of Edweso, Asante and Victoria of Great Britain[Rev. ed.].. by Location: Mugar Library DT507 .A86 2007Publication Date: 2003
The Women's War Of 1929 by
In 1929, tens of thousands of south eastern Nigerian women rose up against British authority in what is known as the Women's War. This book brings togther, for the first time, the multiple perspectives of the war's colonized and colonial participants and examines its various actions within a single, gendered analytical frame.
Location: Mugar Stacks DT515.45.Y67 O94 1997Publication Date: 2011-10-27
- Come to the African Studies library and search our "J Docs", these are government publications not listed in the online catalog.
- Access African newspapers both online and on microfilm.
Decolonized and Post-Colonial State
In Idi Amin's Shadow by
"In Idi Amin's Shadow" is a rich social history examining Ugandan women's complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship to Amin's military state. Based on more than one hundred interviews with women who survived the regime, as well as a wide range of primary sources, this book reveals how the violence of Amin's militarism resulted in both opportunities and challenges for women. Some assumed positions of political power or became successful entrepreneurs, while others endured sexual assault or experienced the trauma of watching their brothers, husbands, or sons "disappeared" by the state's security forces. "In Idi Amin's Shadow" considers the crucial ways that gender informed and was informed by the ideology and practice of militarism in this period. By exploring this relationship, Alicia C. Decker offers a nuanced interpretation of Amin's Uganda and the lives of the women who experienced and survived its violence.Each chapter begins with the story of one woman whose experience illuminates some larger theme of the book. In this way, it becomes clear that the politics of military rule were highly relevant to women and gender relations, just as the politics of gender were central to militarism. By drawing upon critical security studies, feminist studies, and violence studies, Decker demonstrates that Amin's dictatorship was far more complex and his rule much more strategic than most observers have ever imagined.
Location: Available OnlineISBN: 9780821445020Publication Date: 2014-10-01
A Part of My Soul Went with Him by
Winnie Mandela, one of South Africa's most visible and articulate apartheid foes, spent many years as a banned person in her own country. She lived under virtual house arrest and was forbidden to address public gatherings or meet with more than one person at a time. She endured a forced separation of 27 years from her husband, Nelson Mandela. Here, in interviews and letters, she tells the story of her life and political development.
Location: Mugar 6th Floor Display Shelf DT779.955.M36 A35 1985Publication Date: 1985-11-17
Librarian
Rachel Dwyer
she/ her
Contact:
African Studies Library
6th floor,
Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri 9am - 5 pm
rdwyer@bu.edu
6th floor,
Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri 9am - 5 pm
rdwyer@bu.edu
617-353-3726
Subjects: African Studies