Introduction
The 2010 list of publications from the East and Central Africa region offers a mixed bag of both newcomers and seasoned writers and subjects from the region. From Tanzania, world renowned primatologist Jane Goodall continues to be a subject of biographical publications in this year’s list, a gesture that signals both her immense contribution to wildlife conservation in the region and the increasing mainstreaming of environmental conservation in contemporary debates [see Auto/biography]. Indeed, this increasing concern with environmental conservation is further signalled by T.K. Ronoh, F.S. Barasa and R.M. Matheka’s fascinating study on the use of oral literature in promoting indigenous environmental education among the Ogiek community in the Mau Forest in Kenya and Jean Hartley’s timely study, Africa’s Big Five and Other Wildlife Filmmakers: A Century of Wildlife Filming in Kenya [see General Studies].
Similarly, the intersection between narrative and the African city continues to be a subject of ongoing critical engagement for literary scholarship in the region. Here, this concern is represented by Ranka Primorac’s edited volume African City Textualities, Helene Charton-Bigot and Deyssi Rodriguez-Torres’s Nairobi Today: The Paradox of a Fragmented City and Bernard Calas’ From Dar es Salaam to Bongoland: Urban Mutations in Tanzania [see Research Aids, General Studies and Auto/biographies, respectively]. Across the three studies are attempts to grapple with both the imprint of colonial modernity – to which most African cities owe their genesis – and the ways of inhabiting, shaping and narrating urban life that capture the pulse of the contemporary African city.
Nationalist historiographies remain an ongoing concern in the region and are bound to preoccupy both writers and critics for some time. In addition to several entries engaging with the Mau Mau movement and British colonialism in Kenya, two notable entries in this year’s list are James Giblin’s Maji Maji: Lifting the Fog of War and Heike Schmidt’s “(Re)Negotiating Marginality: The Maji Maji War and Its Aftermath in South-Western Tanzania, ca 1905-1916” [see General Studies]. These are much welcome additions to East African nationalist historiography, considering the critical neglect that the Tanzanian nationalist movement and, particularly, the Maji Maji resistance have suffered. Still in Tanzania, there are several entries on the Tanzanian nation, the most exciting of which is Kjell Havnevik and Aida Isinika’s edited volume Tanzania in Transition: From Nyerere to Mkapa [see General Studies].
Life stories retain their place as a popular genre in the region as more public figures share their reflections on their lives and their involvements in the region’s histories. A striking trend here, though, is the predominance of the so-called “big men” of African politics. Among these are Bingwa wa Mutharika’s African Dream: From Poverty to Prosperity; Julius Edo Nyang’oro’s JK: A Political Biography of Jakaya Mwisho Kikwete; Aili Mari Tripp’s Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid and Olive Kobusingye’s The Correct Line? Uganda under Museveni [see Auto/biographies]. An equally interesting trend of life stories within the region is the increasing number of biographical portraits of institutions and publications. In 2010, this trend is represented by Nation Group’s The Golden Years: The Paper That Walks Tall and Karim Hirji’s Cheche: Reminiscences of a Radical Magazine, based on two important regional publications, the Nation and Cheche magazine respectively [see Auto/biographies]. The self-congratulatory title of The Paper That Walks Tall is, in some senses, well deserved, given the development of the Nation from a daily paper to a powerful institution in the East African mediascape, with a range of dailies, weeklies and a TV station. However, Hirji’s revisiting of the radical University of Dar es Salaam student magazine is equally significant, regardless of Cheche’s short life (it was banned after a year’s existence). For scholars of student activism, the politics of higher education and the general readership broadly, this is an important book which offers a unique glimpse into the connected histories of the East Africa region. Indeed the fact that Cheche managed to attain both national and international recognition within its one year’s existence is in itself a tribute to its radical politics and relevance to the issues of its time.
Following on her earlier project – suggestively titled We Came in Dhows (1996) – Cynthia Salvadori revisits the East African Asian community in her biographical Settling in a Strange Land: Stories of Punjabi Muslim Pioneers in Kenya [see Autobiographies]. Settling in a Strange Land profiles the personal histories of East African Punjabi Muslim families who trace their roots back to the pioneer Punjabi community in the region. The book is divided into four core sections: “Building the Railway”, “Communal Institutions”, “A Punjabi Panorama” and “Ties that Bind”. The sections respectively profile the contributions of the community to the construction of the Kenya-Uganda railway; a range of institutions and communities, such as the Mosque, schools and cultural associations; the entrepreneurial and professional contributions to the region’s economy and, finally, the three key realms of life: marriages, funerals and religious celebrations as key social vectors. This is an important addition to the growing archive of the social histories of the East African Asian community which brings to focus its layered historiography, often marginalized or glossed over by hegemonic nationalist narratives in the region.
2010 also saw the publication of a fine range of scholarly studies on the region’s literature. Among these are Marie Kruger’s Women’s Literature in Kenya and Uganda: The Trouble with Modernity [see General Studies]. This is an excellent study that engages with the work of some key women writers from the region, including Margjorie Macgoye Oludhe, Mary Okurut, Carolyne Adalla and Hope Keshubi among others. Of particular interest is its showcasing of Uganda’s FEMRITE publications, which have not received sufficient critical attention despite having been a landmark element in the region’s publishing landscape for over a decade. Another area of ongoing scholarly interest is multimedia studies which features work that blends elements of cultural and literary studies in reading film, photography and music. This trend forms a strong presence in this year’s list, with some fascinating studies including Laura Fair, Michael Kringgs and Jane Bryce’s work on film and videos in Tanzania, Richard Vokes on photography and postcards in Uganda and Ketebul and Joel Isabirye’s entries on popular music in Kenya and Uganda respectively [see General Studies]. Isabirye’s work on the popular Ugandan musician, Philly Lutaaya’s interventions in HIV/AIDS activism resonates with Marie Kruger’s reading of various novels from the region which engage with HIV/AIDS.
