Authors:Charles G. Thomas; Roy Doron First page: 3 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 3 - 23Since their inception, African studies have endeavored to dispel the harmful racialized stereotypes of the African people. However, these efforts have been uneven and some aspects of African history have remained immersed in colonial dehumanized tropes. The sub-discipline of African military history has been one such aspect due in part to structural issues involved in its generation. However, with these structural issues slowly being overcome by advances in the discipline, the development of African institutions, and the expansion of historical inquiry, there are now a multitude of African military historical inquiries that might be successfully pursued. In turn, these inquiries will help transform the understanding of African military practices from a racialized discussion of slave raids and massacres to a nuanced examination of a complex socio-political practice. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:John Laband First page: 24 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 24 - 40African military history has only recently come into its own as an acknowledged and viable academic field of considerable variety, scope and sophistication. This study attempts to situate it in the broader context of historical writing. It is argued that African military history is the product of several converging and overlapping fields of history, each with its own trajectory and characteristic source base. These are War Studies including both the traditional or “old” military history along with the “new military history” which has been gaining traction since the 1980s, imperial history, and African history itself. The suggestion is made that two related elements of the new military history are particularly pertinent to the military history of Africa: military culture and masculinity. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:Eginald P.A.N. Mihanjo; Oswald Masebo First page: 41 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 41 - 71As we come to an end of the celebration of a centenary and ten years since the end of the Maji Maji War against German colonialism, it is apparently clear that the historiography on the Maji Maji War focuses on appreciation of the Ngoni heroism against German cruelty and colonialism, as well as the loss of life caused by hunger, casualties of the war and German atrocities. It is however, noted that this view of nationalist historiography is outdated and needs to be corrected because it has outlived its usefulness as local histories and identities reveal the Ngoni atrocities, militarism, and wars against local inhabitants similar to the German rule between 1850–1890s. The nationalist historiography, like colonial historiography, pays little attention to history of victims, rather is the story of powerful state formation, states, and statism. In the nationalist case, historical investigations pay little attention on the Ngoni aggression and plunder or on this aggression’s effects on the conditions of life and the demographic dynamics on Lake Nyasa area and East to Indian Ocean from 1850s to 1907. In particular, these wars had a profound effect on the shaping of relations between 1850s and 1907. The article analyses war, militarism, and atrocities of the Ngoni on the conditions of life in East Lake Nyasa to Indian Ocean region between 1850 and 1907. The article demonstrates that during this period the people of area were harassed by Ngoni attacks and slave trade conflicts which disrupted their ways of life. And that after the German subdual of the regional powers including the Ngoni, Yao and Arab traders, relative peace and stability were restored briefly until the Maji Maji war brought further war calamities, instability and confusions. All in all, the Ngoni warlordism and militarism played large part in shaping history of modern southern Tanzania. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:Manuel Barcia First page: 72 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 72 - 92Using case studies extracted from primary sources produced predominantly in Brazil and Cuba, this article contends that West African military commanders and troops in both regions during the first half of the nineteenth century exhibited an ethical behavior associated with war, which was strongly tied to their cosmologies of the world. Since these actions were all staged against either slavery or enslavement, it argues that the central ethical issue of whether it was right to take arms and kill people they considered enemies (jus ad bellum), was a non-issue from the moment the protagonists’ and participants’ plans took shape. Further ethical issues that could and would arise once each of these armed movements was underway, which were more ambiguous, are also considered in this article. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:Alicia C. Decker First page: 93 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 93 - 111This essay uses feminist scholarship to engender African military history. It begins by examining the ways in which gender has—or has not—been integrated into African military history over the last ten years. Next, it analyzes some of the most influential feminist scholarship on gender and militarism in Africa today. Although most of this literature has not been produced by historians, it has much to teach us about how gender can be critically interrogated within our own work. The penultimate section considers the importance of cultivating a feminist curiosity and discusses what this type of critical thinking can bring to African military history. And finally, the conclusion reflects upon the future of the field, describing what needs to be done and how we might get there. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:John K. Thornton First page: 112 Abstract: Source: Volume 1, Issue 1-2, pp 112 - 119While discussions of the military are notably absent in academic African History, it doesn’t mean that the subject is absent from the history left by the Africans. Sources that have been used for generations contain extensive discussions of the organization, arming, training, and utilization of military forces in Africa by Africans, but these aspects of the sources are largely ignored or interpreted within the frame of other violent activity, such as slave raiding. However, simply by their existence, these sources offer future generations the opportunity to expand and finally tell the story of formal military activity in Africa. This in turn will allow for the creation of a more complete record of African political, social, and even state-building activity before the advent of European colonization. PubDate: 2017-09-06T00:00:00Z
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
