DOCSLIB.ORG

Colonial Literacy and the Socio-Political Dimensions of the History Syllabus in Colonial Botswana

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Colonial Literacy and the Socio-Political Dimensions of the History Syllabus in Colonial Botswana Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal (LICEJ), Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2010 Colonial Literacy and the Socio-Political Dimensions of the History Syllabus in Colonial Botswana Lily Mafela University of Botswana, Botswana Abstract The First National Commission on Education was tasked with the responsibility of ridding the The current Botswana history syllabus still retains Botswana curriculum of its alienating nature [6], to strong traces of its colonial origins. The colonial ensure that it could be used as a vehicle for a history syllabus was part of a broader colonial detribalized and national school curriculum. To this education agenda. Western education amongst end, there have been attempts to come up with other Batswana education began with informal literacy versions of the written history of Botswana, which training focusing on the rudiments of reading and reflect the prevailing socio-cultural revival. The basis writing, to address the basic requirements of for this revival is the growing assertiveness of the so- missionary bodies. It was gradually expanded to called minor ethnic groups, which reflect the global fully-fledged colonial subject-differentiated ideas and global trends in which indigenous curricula. Each subject played a specific ideological minorities, with the involvement and assistance of role in the colonial milieu. In the case of history, the the NGO’s, the UN-wide programs seek to promote syllabus and content were defined by the prevailing inclusiveness in post-colonial discourse. political discourse, which placed imperial history at These (revisionist) historical versions have been the core of the history syllabus and generally partially made possible by the growth of scholarship sidelined local indigenous histories. This was in at the University of Botswana, the autonomy with keeping with the broader socio-political context and which scholars generally operate, and in particular the dynamic relationships between the colonial the BA essays which have been carried out under the government and the dikgosi (chiefs). This auspices of the History Department since the late relationship ensured gradual accommodation of 1970’s. Amongst these essays, there have been some hegemonic Tswana epistemologies into the history that have dealt specifically with the origins of some and social studies curricula. The article places the minority groups, which question prevailing notions history syllabus within the broader dynamics of an of the histories of groups, such as Bakalanga and evolving colonial education policy in colonial Babirwa [5] [19] [14] [25]. These historical accounts Botswana. even go so far as to explore controversial issues, which reflect the conflicts between these subject groups and their overlords [25]. 1. Introduction In spite of the rich data produced as a result of post-colonial historical research, recent historical In many parts of Africa, an inherited colonial accounts have not yet found their way into school curriculum presented serious challenges to post- history textbooks, because the education system has colonial attempts at nation-building. These not been adequately accommodating, due to the challenges included issues of indigenous language wider socio-political tensions, which were inherited marginalization and ethnic tension [1] [16]. In from then past. This situation demonstrates that the Botswana, colonial policies exacerbated existing history curriculum still is, as it was in the past, the ethnic tensions, which manifested themselves in the cornerstone of socio-political engagement and curricula content of specific subject syllabi. tension. This is primarily because history is the most Consequently, in 1966 Botswana inherited a political and culturally sensitive of subjects, because curriculum that was characterized as foreign in of the manner in which it relates to an often highly nature, due to its “strong traces of European origin” politicised public discourse over national identity [7]. Thus, the post-independence post-colonial [27]. Thus, while tensions were created by the Batswana leaders were particularly concerned about colonial curriculum, to some extent they reflected the the role of education in promotion of tribalism and in collaboration between colonial government and the impeding the achievement of nationhood [24]. recognized Tswana traditional leadership of principal groups. These relationships ensured that the histories Copyright © 2010, Infonomics Society 67 Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal (LICEJ), Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2010 of these groups were not completely excluded, to curtail their powers-objectified Tswana ethno- relative to those of the minority groups. In this way, cultural pre-eminence. colonial policy and practice exacerbated the unequal The colonial government recognized only eight relationship between the principal and minority principal ethnic groups, which were given ethnic groups in colonial Botswana. prominence by various colonial practices and The alienating curriculum of the post- policies. For example, the colonial government had independence curriculum gradually developed from a elected to apportion land according to a system of wider colonial education framework, in which reserves, which were assigned to particular dikgosi history served a particular ideological role. In this of the recognized (usually numerically) superior framework, the history syllabus and content were ethnic groups. This system had no inbuilt provision part of a gradually developing literacy that was for recognition of groups that were either had no initiated by missionary bodies in the mid-19th dikgosi, or which were otherwise regarded as century. From the early part of the 20th century, basic “subject” groups even if they had distinct areas of literacy gradually became more defined into an their own land, distinct cultures, traditions and elaborate subject-differentiated curriculum, in line histories. They were simply all lumped for with the emerging colonial needs. administrative convenience, and all deliberations The purpose of this article is to trace the were conducted with the “principal” dikgosi.” development of history as a school subject, and to Although they were a colonized people and had highlight its role in the dynamic socio-political many of their powers circumscribed, Batswana milieu of colonial Botswana. The paper will also dikgosi were partners to, and collaborators with the discuss how these historical developments have colonial government on many issues. Proclamations influenced the current challenges in regard to the number 34 and 35 were particularly far-reaching in Botswana history syllabus. terms of changes to the hitherto unfettered powers of Textual analysis of archival documents including dikgosi. colonial office syllabi and secondary sources were The division of Batswana land into reserves used in this work. It is important to point out that in further consolidated the control and authority of some cases the article relied on secondary analysis of Batswana principal groups over the “subject” groups, some of the texts mentioned here. These were not all where the latter was placed under the custodial over- perused first hand by the author, due to the fact that lordship of the former. Up until 1934 when their these texts, some of which date back to the 19th and powers were curtailed, the dikgosi of the principal early 20th centuries were difficult are particularly groups had enjoyed a period of relative and difficult to trace. Future research should focus on the collaborative engagement with the colonial further search for, and deeper analysis of these government, where few if any stops were placed on works. their over-lordship of other the ethnic groups. The intensification of the cash economy and the 2. Ethnic differentiation and socio- contradictions of the emergent colonial political political domination discourse rearranged relations between the dominant Tswana and the minority groups. This enabled them Ethnic differentiation in Botswana predates to gain political pre-eminence, which gradually colonization of the land of Batswana. As far back as evolved into socio-cultural dominance as well. This the early 1800’s, the Tswana state began undergoing trend was exacerbated by colonial policies generally, transformation of its socio-economic and political which pitted groups against each other. As in many structures, which had important ramifications for parts of Africa, the divide and rule tactics of British ethno-cultural intercourse. Characterized by a colonial administration also exacerbated matters, in common socio-economic dispensation among the addition to the creation of artificial and seemingly principal Tswana groups, there was a general arbitrary colonial boundaries that split ethnic tendency towards entrenchment of class distinction communities. which became conflated within the ethnic The colonial discourse generally placed the differentiation that was taking shape. dominant (royalty) and their functionaries at the While the colonial government did not create centre, whilst minority group epistemologies were ethnic differentiation, colonial political and juridical sidelined. Thus, whilst pre-colonial Tswana society discourse upheld at the least, and exacerbated at the had begun to manifest ethno-cultural differentiation, most the pre-colonial ethno-cultural dispensation. colonial discourse further exacerbated it. To this end, The use of traditional authorities particularly in the colonial authorities
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Botswana As a Role Model for Country Success
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Robinson, James A. Working Paper Botswana as a role model for country success WIDER Research Paper, No. 2009/40 Provided in Cooperation with: United Nations University (UNU), World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) Suggested Citation: Robinson, James A. (2009) : Botswana as a role model for country success, WIDER Research Paper, No. 2009/40, ISBN 978-92-9230-211-5, The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/45082 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Research Paper No. 2009/40 Botswana as a Role Model for Country Success James A.
    [Show full text]
  • State Formation and Governance in Botswana James A. Robinsona,1 and Q
    JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ECONOMIES,VOLUME 15, AERC SUPPLEMENT 1, PP. 100–140 doi:10.1093/jae/ejk007 State Formation and Governance in Botswana James A. Robinsona,1 and Q. Neil Parsonsb,2 aDepartment of Government, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge MA02138 and bDepartment of History, Faculty of Humanities, University of Botswana, Private Bag UB 00704, Gaborone, Botswana Our analysis begins with the puzzle: how did Botswana develop a legal- rational state? We suggest that three key interlinked factors were import- ant. First, during the pre-colonial period the Tswana developed local states with relatively limited kingship or chiefship and with a political structure that was able to integrate people of other ethnic groups such as Kalanga. Second, facing the onslaught first of the Boers, next of the British South Africa Company, and finally of the Union of South Africa, Tswana political elites attempted to maintain a good measure of independence by defensively modernizing. Finally, the political elites in both local states before indepen- dence and the national state at independence heavily invested in the country’s most important economic activity, ranching. This gave them a strong incentive to promote rational state institutions and private property. Moreover, the integrative nature of traditional Tswana political institutions reduced the likelihood that alternative groups would aggressively contest the power of the new unitary state. 1. Introduction The economic performance of African countries since independence has been poor. Despite the many hopes of the independence era many African countries are currently no richer or even poorer than they were in 1960. According to Angus Maddison’s data 1 James A.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis Sci 2020 Mogende Emmanuel.Pdf
    Africa’s ‘miracle state’? the intersection of political leaders and non-state actors in the greening of Botswana through wildlife Emmanuel Mogende Thesis presented for the Degree of DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY Department of Environmental and Geographical Science University of Cape Town February 2020 University of Cape Town The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town DECLARATION I, EMMANUEL MOGENDE, declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that it has not been previously submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution. Signature: Date: 10/02/2020 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would have not been possible to complete this dissertation without the support and assistance of a number of individuals who deserve to be mentioned. I am greatly indebted for the enormous support and wisdom of my supervisor and mentor Prof. Maano Ramutsindela who provided the much-needed guidance throughout the PhD journey. Maano always offered constructive feedback on my writing and ideas and more often encouraged me to sit back and be reflective as I write. This has greatly helped me to improve on my writing as well as strengthen the argument of the thesis. Special thanks also go to the Faculty of Science in the University of Cape Town and the University of Botswana for generously funding my PhD.
    [Show full text]
  • Batswana Dikgosi (Chiefs) and the Incorporation of South West Africa Into the Union of South Africa, 1946: What Business Did They Have in the Issue? Brian T
    Journal of Namibian Studies, 13 (2013): 55 – 77 ISSN 2197-5523 (online) Batswana dikgosi (chiefs) and the incorporation of South West Africa into the Union of South Africa, 1946: What business did they have in the issue? Brian T. Mokopakgosi* Abstract The paper recounts the fascinating story of some African chiefs (dikgosi) in what was then Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) who used their meagre resources in 1946 to block the incorporation of another colonial territory (Namibia) into the Union of South Africa. The paper argues that the action of the Batswana dikgosi was far from being a progressive and selfless act on their part, but a skilful strategy to block the incorporation of their own protectorate. It was in fact part of a long- standing strategy of using anything that would remove the chances of incorporation. The paper further suggests that the campaign may also have been in part the dikgosi’s lawyer Douglas Buchanan, who skilfully weaved the dikgosi’s fear of the incorporation of their own country into the broader regional and international politics. Introduction The close of the Second World War in 1945 brought to an end the League of Nations and in its place was established the United Nations Organisation.1 The government of the Union of South Africa used the collapse of the League of Nations, which had granted it a mandate over South West Africa, as Namibia was then called, as an excuse to request the incorporation of the territory as a fifth province of the Union. The matter had been raised several times before by successive Union governments.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, Bibliography D. Patte, Editor, Vanderbilt University
    The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, Bibliography D. Patte, Editor, Vanderbilt University BOTSWANA. Fidelis Nkomazana Blaikie, W.G. (1910). The Life of David Livingstone. London: John Murray. Brown, J.T. (1926). Among the Bantu Nomads. A Record of Forty Years Spent among the Bechuana.London: Seely Service. Burns, J.H.L. (1962). Hundred Years of Christianity among the Bangwato. Lobatse: Botswana Book Centre. Campbell, J. (1815). Travels in South Africa Undertaken at the Request of Missionary Society, London: Black & Parry. Campbell, R.J. (1939). Livingstone. London: The Livingstone Press. Chapman, J., (1868). Travels in the Interior of South Africa, 1849-1863. Vol. 1. London: Edward Stanford. Chirenje, J.M. (1977). A History of Northern Botswana, 1850-1910. Associated University Press: London. Comaroff, L. & Comoroff, J.L. (1976). Christianity and Colonialism in South Africa. Dachs, A.J. (1971). Khama of Botswana. London: Heinemann. Goodall, Norman (1954). A History of the London Missionary Society, 1895 – 1945. London: Oxford University Press. Gundani, P., & Mijoga, H., eds. (1998). Theology Cooked in an African Pot. Zomba: ATISCA. Haile, E. (1939). Semane: Queen of the Bangwato. London: Shelton Press. Hepburn, J.D. (1895). Twenty Years in Khama's Country. Ed. C.H. Lyall. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Jeal, J. (1973). Livingstone. London: Heinemann. Kuper, A. (1982). Wives for Cattle: Bridewealth and Marriage in Southern Africa. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Lagerwerf, L. (1982). They Pray for You … Independent Churches & Women in Botswana. Interversity Institute for Missiological & Ecumenical Research, Netherlands. Lichenstein, H. (1928). Travels in Southern Africa in the Years 1803 – 1806. Trans. Anne Plumtree. Cape Town: Van Riebeck Society.
    [Show full text]
  • An African Success Story: Botswana1
    An African Success Story: Botswana1 Daron Acemoglu2 Simon Johnson3 James A. Robinson4 July 11, 2001 Abstract: Botswana has had the highest rate of per-capita growth of any country in the world in the last 35 years. This occurred despite adverse initial conditions, including minimal investment during the colonial period and high inequality. Botswana achieved this rapid development by following orthodox economic policies. How Botswana sustained these policies is a puzzle because typically in Africa, “good economics” has proved not to be politically feasible. In this paper we suggest that good policies were chosen in Botswana because good institutions, which we refer to as institutions of private property, were in place. Why did institutions of private property arise in Botswana, but not other African nations? We conjecture that the following factors were important. First, Botswana possessed relatively inclusive pre-colonial institutions, placing constraints on political elites. Second, the effect of British colonialism on Botswana was minimal, and did not destroy these institutions. Third, following independence, maintaining and strengthening institutions of private property were in the economic interests of the elite. Fourth, Botswana is very rich in diamonds, which created enough rents that no group wanted to challenge the status quo at the expense of "rocking the boat". Finally, we emphasize that this situation was reinforced by a number of critical decisions made by the post- independence leaders, particularly Presidents Khama and Masire. 1 We are indebted to many people who gave generously of their time and expert knowledge to help us undertake this project. Our greatest debt is to Clark Leith who helped open many doors in Gaborone and who provided many helpful suggestions.
    [Show full text]
  • Contextualizing Liminality in Botswana Fiction and Reportage
    THE COLLAPSE OF CERTAINTY: CONTEXTUALIZING LIMINALITY IN BOTSWANA FICTION AND REPORTAGE by FETSON ANDERSON KALUA submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject ENGLISH at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROF P D RYAN NOVEMBER 2007 Student No: 3115-208-2 DECLARATION I declare that The Collapse of Certainty: Contextualizing Liminality in Botswana Fiction and Reportage is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. ------------------------------ --------------------- Signature Date (MR FA KALUA) ii Abstract The Collapse of Certainty: Contextualizing Liminality in Botswana’s Fiction and Reportage. This thesis deploys Homi Bhabha’s perspective of postcolonial literary theory as a critical procedure to examine particular instances of fiction, as well as reportage on Botswana. Its unifying interest is to pinpoint the shifting nature or reality of Botswana and, by extension, of African identities. To that end, I use Bhabha’s concept of liminality to inform the work of writers such as Unity Dow, Alexander McCall Smith, and instances of reportage (by Rupert Isaacson and Caitlin Davies), from the 1990s to date. The aims of the thesis are, among other things, to establish the extent to which Homi Bhabha’s appropriation of the term liminality (which derives from Victor Turner’s notion of limen for inbetweenness), and its application in the postcolonial context inflects the reading of the above works whose main motifs include the following: a contestation of any views which privilege one culture above another, challenging a jingoistic rootedness in one culture, and promoting an awareness of the existence of several, interlocking or even clashing realities which finally produce multiple meanings, values and identities.
    [Show full text]
  • Botswana's Success: the Critical Role of Post-Colonial Policy
    Working Paper 41 Explaining Botswana’s Success: The Critical Role of Post-Colonial Policy * SCOTT BEAULIER Abstract Development economists are shifting their focus away from cross-country empirical studies (Barro, 1997) towards case studies and “analytic narratives” (Rodrik 2003; Bates et al. 1998). Instead of trying to explain all of sub-Saharan Africa’s problems in one grand sweep, economists are engaging in more focused studies of particular nations. Their hope is that by clearly understanding the particulars, broader conclusions can be drawn. This paper is inspired by the “analytical narrative” turn in economics. The paper seeks to explain the key determinants of Botswana’s economic miracle. As a landlocked country in the middle of sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana should not be growing; yet, Botswana has been one of the fastest growing countries in the world for the past 30 years. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson (2003) suggest that Botswana’s success can be attributed to Botswana’s “good institutions,” but this explanation begs the question of why Botswana adopted “good institutions” in the first place. To understand why the “good institutions” were established in Botswana, we must look closely at the history of Botswana’s development. By studying the history of Botswana’s development, we can begin to understand what choices other nations must make to truly reform. JEL Classifications: O10, O55, R11 * Scott Beaulier is a PhD candidate in Economics and a Global Prosperity Initiative (GPI) Fellow at the Mercatus Center. He thanks Peter Boettke, Bryan Caplan, Tyler Cowen, Eric Crampton, Benjamin Powell, John Robert Subrick, Richard Wagner, the participants at the 2003 Association of Private Enterprise Education conference in Las Vegas, the participants at the Mercatus Center “brown bag” series, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and criticism.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Botswana Advancing Or Regressing in Its Democracy?
    OCCASIONAL PAPER 1/2004 Is Botswana Advancing or Regressing in its Democracy? by Themba Michael Sokhulu1 Introduction There is wide consensus among academics and political analysts that Botswana has been hailed as one of the “old democracies” in Africa, but that there have been reports of political wrangling in the country. Landsberg2 maintains that the southern African region, of which Botswana is part, is relatively more democratic when compared with the rest of the continent. It is exactly thirty-eight years into Botswana’s democracy and although Botswana has a relative enabling constitutional and legislative framework, there are signs of isolated infringements upon the constitution by the ruling 1. Themba M. Sokhulu is an independent elections consultant based in Durban. 2. EISA Occasional Paper Number 22, July 2004. Themba Michael Sokhulu party. Just before the 2004 elections the Minister of Information and Broadcasting made a directive that state media must only cover the President, Festus Mogae and the Vice-President, Ian Khama. This directive came at a time when all political parties were campaigning and was not well received by electoral stakeholders. It was viewed as an abuse of state resources to the benefit of the ruling party (Sechele, 2004). A similar example of constitutional interference was the electoral administrative chaos in the run-up to the 1999 elections, which nearly threw the country into a serious constitutional crisis, when over 60 000 potential voters were nearly left out of the voters’ roll. The government reacted by declaring a state of emergency for the first time in the history of Botswana.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Structures, Standards of Living, and Income Distribution in Colonial Bechuanaland Protectorate
    Social Structures, Standards of Living, and Income Distribution in Colonial Bechuanaland Protectorate Jutta Bolt University of Groningen; [email protected] Ellen Hillbom Lund University; [email protected] Preliminary version. Please do not quote INTRODUCTION Counting people by occupations or social classes and computing incomes as well as surplus within classes in pre-industrial societies is an underexploited frontier in research on colonial sub-Saharan Africa. The ambition of this paper is to use this method to find a way of analysing social structures and inequality in Bechuanaland Protectorate. Contemporary Botswana is generally hailed as an African growth miracle and primary explanations offered to the last half century of economic progress are good pre-colonial institutions prevailing during an era of limited colonial influence (Acemoglu et al. 2003, 2010, 2012; Masire 2006). Contrary to these arguments, we aim at highlighting standards of living and the distribution of income during the colonial period. We do so by estimating real wages between 1900 and 1960 for the wage earning share of the population, and by constructing social tables for the 1940s, a decade in the heyday of colonial involvement, using various colonial records. The use of social tables allows us to include a large part of the traditional sector into the discussion of standards of living and enables us to hypothesise about non-wage income and wealth. Concretely, we identify social classes based on occupation; we compute the average costs for subsistence consumption; and we estimate mean income, living and tax expenses and share of population per class. This results in an overview of the average (after tax) standards of living for the wage earning part of the population during the colonial period, and insights into the distribution of income and wealth between various groups in society.
    [Show full text]
  • WIDER Working Paper 2015/028 Changing Income
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Hillbom, Ellen; Bolt, Jutta Working Paper Changing income inequality and structural transformation: The case of Botswana 1921 - 2010 WIDER Working Paper, No. 2015/028 Provided in Cooperation with: United Nations University (UNU), World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) Suggested Citation: Hillbom, Ellen; Bolt, Jutta (2015) : Changing income inequality and structural transformation: The case of Botswana 1921 - 2010, WIDER Working Paper, No. 2015/028, ISBN 978-92-9230-913-8, The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki, http://dx.doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2015/913-8 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/126346 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
    [Show full text]
  • The African E-Journals Project Has Digitized Full Text of Articles of Eleven Social Science and Humanities Journals
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Thomas Tlou and Alec Campbell, History of Botswana, Macmillan Botswana, Gaborone, 1984, pp.278, Maps, Illustrations Despite the great advances made in the study of African history over the past twenty-five years, national history still remaInS a neglected area of African historiography. And yet histories of the nation-states that are a legacy of the colonial carve-up of the continent, precipitated by the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885, are of vital importance to natJOnals who seek to establish their identity in terms of their past. For the most part they have had to reply on histories that are a by-product of the old colonial historiography. Few African historians have tackled the difficult task of writing the history of the particular country In which they were born. Even Nigeria, whose historians staff some twenty University history departments, has not yet produced one who has ventured to write a history of his country. A few states have at least been fortunate to have their history written by expatriate historians who are products of the new African historiography, the outstandIng example being John Iliffe's A Modern History of Tanganyika. But many stIlI have to make do with histories written before independence, often by colonIal administrators themselves.
    [Show full text]