The Land beyond the Mists: Essays on Identity and Authority in Precolonial Congo and Rwanda

by David Newbury

Overview

The horrific tragedies of Central Africa in the 1990s riveted the attention of the world. But these crises did not occur in a historical vacuum. By peering through the mists of the past, the case studies presented in The Land Beyond the Mists illustrate the significant advances to have taken place since decolonization in our understanding of the pre-colonial histories of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo.

Based on both oral and written sources, these essays are important both for their methods-viewing history from the perspective of local actors-and for their conclusions, which seriously challenge colonial myths about the area.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821418758
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Edition description:	1
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David Newbury is the Gwendolen Carter Professor of African Studies at Smith College. His books include Kings and Clans: A Social History of the Lake Kivu Rift Valley, African Historiographies: What History for Which Africa?, and Paths to the Past: Essays in Honor of Jan Vansina.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Peering through the Mists 1

Part 1 Historiography

Chapter 1 Bushi and the Historians: Historiographical Themes in Eastern Kivu 25

Chapter 2 Recent Historical Research in the Area of Lake Kivu: Rwanda and Zaire 44

Part 2 The Lake Kivu Arena

Chapter 3 Lake Kivu Regional Trade in the Nineteenth Century 65

Chapter 4 Kamo and Lubambo: Dual Genesis Traditions on Ijwi Island 84

Chapter 5 The Campaigns of Rwabugiri 129

Chapter 6 Rwabugiri and Ijwi 142

Chapter 7 King and Chief on Ijwi Island 161

Part 3 The Rwanda Arena

Chapter 8 The Clans of Rwanda: A Historical Hypothesis 189

Chapter 9 Bunyabungo: The Western Frontier in Rwanda, ca. 1750-1850 204

Chapter 10 What Role Has Kingship? An Analysis of the Umuganura Ritual of Rwanda as presented in M. d'Hertefelt A. Coupez, La royauté sacriée de l'ancien Rwanda 229

Chapter 11 Trick Cyclists? Recontextualizing Rwandan Dynastic Chronology 252

Part 4 Perceiving History through the Mists

Chapter 12 Precolonial Burundi and Rwanda: Local Loyalties, Regional Royalties 281

Notes 341

Bibliography 417

Index 437

Editorial Reviews

"The Land beyond the Mists is far more than a 'must read' for everyone interested in the history of Central Africa. It powerfully demonstrates the achievements of Africanist historiography over the last four decades and represents historical work at its best: empirically based, methodologically sophisticated, locally informed, broadly inclusive."--African Studies Review

"The Land Beyond the Mists serves as a fitting testament to a distinguished career of scholarship devoted to unearthing overlooked perspectives into the deep past of an often neglected area of the continent."--Journal of African History

"Newbury's essays ... provide sophisticated approaches to understanding the recent troubled trajectory of the Kivu Rift Valley. ... (A) rich collection that traces (Newbury's) personal intellectual journey as much as it explores the tortuous history of the land beyond the mists."--Africa: The Journal of the IAI

"This collection is a fitting survey of a career dedicated to understanding the history of a place that came to dominate the world's attention for a short period and the drifted back under the radar. The Land Beyond the Mists showcases some of the most innovative work in the field of African History in essays that explore the history of Rwanda, most importantly is western marches, and other pre-twentieth states of the Great Lakes region."--Gregory Maddox, author of Custodians of the Land and In Search of a Nation

From the Publisher