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Category Archives: Africa
Look With Care at the Shape of the Square
I’m reading David Christian’s Maps of Time, which I’ll probably comment on more extensively here soon. One small point that caught my attention while reading, however. Christian claims at one point, without a specific attributed sourcing, that sedentary and early … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Africa
7 Comments
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Was Not Super!
I don’t know how it happened, but an article that is reasonably straight on the factual details somehow slipped past the vigilant demand for error at the Weekly Standard. It’s an article by James Kirchick about the transition between Rhodesia … Continue reading
Posted in Africa
6 Comments
Standards, Weekly and Otherwise
Via Crooked Timber, an article by Ernest Lefever in the Weekly Standard arguing that African independence didn’t amount to much. One of the oldest chestnuts around in academic circles is arguing about whether an author is responsible or culpable for … Continue reading
Posted in Africa
15 Comments
Archives, Nations, Ownership
I have ambivalent feelings about debates over the ownership of physical objects that have sacred or heritage value to one group or institution and knowledge-producing value to another group or institution, such as the struggle over Native American remains held … Continue reading
Fun With Intellectual Property Issues, No. 340 in a Series: Aluka
Regular readers have heard me complain before about the straight-up weirdness of the way the cost of research falls on institutions of higher education. Universities directly or indirectly subsidize faculty to carry out research through a variety of means: sabbaticals, … Continue reading
History 89 Environmental History of Africa
Here’s a draft of a course I’m teaching for the first time this fall. I’m still making specific selections of material from some of these books, and may shift around titles as I find them, as well as likely pare … Continue reading
Posted in Africa
9 Comments
Compulsive Nitpick
Michael Wines has an article about Zimbabwe in today’s New York Times that is a pretty good analysis of how Mugabe stays in power. He maybe overstates the extent to which portions of the ruling party want to boot the … Continue reading
The Problem With the Problem of Zimbabwe
I have some issues with Daniel Davies’ post about Zimbabwe at Crooked Timber (but maybe less of a problem with his post at Aaronovitch Watch on the same subject, if I read it right.) I start by wondering what civil … Continue reading
Posted in Africa
5 Comments
Why Centralization Isn’t the Answer
I continue to be frustrated by the folks criticizing American universities and academic culture who imply (or outright say) that tight central control over public and maybe even private institutions is the solution. My mind especially reels when this comes … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Africa, Politics
8 Comments
Obama and Blackness
The worst job interview I ever had for an academic position included among its memorably difficult moments an interrogator with extremely strong Afrocentric views. She started by asking me what books I had read recently that I found useful or … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Politics
3 Comments