The land beyond the mists
Subtitle: essays on identity and authority in precolonial Congo and Rwanda
By: David Newbury ; foreword by Jan Vansina.
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 444
ISBN-13: 9780821418741; 9780821418758
Subjects: Ethnology -- Kivu, Lake, Region (Congo and Rwanda); Ethnology -- Congo (Democratic Republic); Ethnology -- Rwanda; Kivu, Lake, Region (Congo and Rwanda) -- History; Kivu, Lake, Region (Congo and Rwanda) -- Historiography; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History; Congo (Democratic Republic) -- Historiography; Rwanda -- History; Rwanda -- Historiography
Description: 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 c
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 417-435) and index.
Table of contents: title: Bushi and the historians : historiographical themes in eastern Kivu; title: Recent historical research in the area of Lake Kivu : Rwanda and Zaire; title: Lake Kivu regional trade in the nineteenth century; title: Kamo and lubambo : dual genesis traditions on Ijwi Island; title: The campaigns of Rwabugiri; title: Rwabugiri and Ijwi; title: King and chief on Ijwi Island; title: The clans of Rwanda : a historical hypothesis; title: Bunyabungo : the western frontier in Rwanda, ca. 1750-1850; title: What role has kingship? An analysis of the Umuganura ritual in Rwanda as presented in M. d'Hertefelt and A. Coupez, La royauté sacrée de l'ancien Rwanda; title: Trick cyclists? Recontextualizing Rwandan dynastic chronology; title: Precolonial Burundi and Rwanda : local loyalties, regional royalties.