Majimaji and the Millennium: Abrahamic Sources and the Creation of a Tanzanian Resistance Tradition

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 365-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Sunseri
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
German Colonialism ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Resistance Movement

Writing thirty years ago the historian of the Majimaji rebellion, Gilbert Gwassa, emphasized the purely Tanzanian nature of the uprising, as seen in the ideology which he believed was the inspiration for the widespread war against German colonialism. To Gwassa, southern Tanzanians created an innovative, secular ideology after the turn of the twentieth century which enabled Africans to resist German colonialism supra-ethnically rather than locally. Gwassa was adamant that the Majimaji ideology owed nothing to outside influences.Gwassa's contention has been largely unchallenged despite obvious paradoxes. Majimaji emerged in a region widely permeated with Islamic influences by 1905, the time of the rebellion. Moreover, the Christian colonial power structure had been present in the outbreak region for some twenty years by 1905, while Christian missionaries had been active in Tanzania for almost forty years. By the time the Majimaji historical tradition was being written in Tanzania in the 1960s, the nation included many Muslims and Christians, including many of Gwassa's research informants, who helped shape his interpretation of Majimaji. Aside from these circumstantial suggestions of the possibility of an externally-influenced Majimaji tradition, a close reading of archival sources from the German period, including several documents which have not been considered in the historiographical tradition, suggest that Christian and Islamic influences helped to shape the writing of Majimaji, if not the resistance movement itself. This paper will examine some of these “Abrahamic” sources of the Majimaji tradition, and consider how they might have been used to formulate a Majimaji epic which has become a standard icon of early African colonial history.

The Age of the Witness and the Age of Surveillance: Romani Holocaust Testimony and the Perils of Digital Scholarship

2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 1205-1231
Author(s):  
Ari Joskowicz
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
Digital Scholarship ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract For over half a century, historians have made ample use of witness testimonies. Efforts to preserve the accounts of marginalized people in particular have broadened the range of voices available to us and significantly expanded the field. Yet we have paid too little attention to the potentially disturbing consequences of the creation and distribution of such testimonies. Focusing on the experiences of Romani Holocaust survivors, this essay argues that new practices of surveillance and victim-witnessing developed in tandem, from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Beginning in the 1960s, prosecutors asked Romani survivors to testify about the crimes committed against them under Nazism even as state authorities continued to criminalize and surveil Romanies across Europe. These and related experiences have meant that different Romani witnesses—or potential witnesses—have often had to balance the desire to have their stories heard against the fear of being listened in on. As surveillance becomes increasingly pervasive and as personal information is increasingly monetized, the lessons that European Romanies learned as early victims of targeted policing remain salient for historians today. Despite its potential to empower, victim-witnessing also creates new vulnerabilities—both those we can currently anticipate and those we can’t yet fully imagine.

“A Triumph in Culinary Art”: Epicurean Displays at the Copley Plaza

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-85
Author(s):  
Michelle Tolini Finamore
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Extensive Family

From the early twentieth century through the 1960s, three generations of the Tolini family participated in culinary expositions organized by the Epicurean Society of Boston and Les Amis d'Escoffier. The French gastronomic traditions of Auguste Escoffier and Antonin Carême informed the creation of the elaborate and highly decorative tallow sculptures that were the centerpieces of these displays. Drawing upon an extensive family archive of photographs, menus, and ephemera, the author delves into the history of these extraordinaires, or pièces montées. The article explores the fabrication techniques and aesthetics of the centerpieces through oral history and seminal nineteenth- and twentieth-century culinary books such as The Escoffier Cook Book: A Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery and more obscure works such as Escoffier's Les Fleurs en Cire. The investigation uncovers the original sources of inspiration for the annual competitions, as well as a unique tradition of craftsmanship that was handed down from father to son to grandson.

“Old” Economic History in the United States: 1939–1954

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristel de Rouvray
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S

This paper investigates the actions of a small, yet influential group of American economists who sought to claim economic history for themselves and use it as a springboard to launch a wider transformation of economics. Their actions constitute an episode of dissent in the history of twentieth century economics, albeit an unusual one. These dissenters were not a socially or intellectually marginalized group, but rather a set of privileged scholars who were able to leverage their contacts within the profession and amongst its patrons to further their vision. Their actions could almost be described in Kuhnian terms: they consciously sought to trigger a “paradigm shift” to bring about a social science better suited, in their views, to a world in political and economic turmoil (Kuhn 1962). In spite of the Kuhnian allusion to “scientific revolution,” this paper is not about the 1960s “cliometric revolution,” but about the 1940s and '50s and the little known events that led to the creation of the Economic History Association, the Journal of Economic History, and Explorations in Entrepreneurial History (subsequently Explorations in Economic History).

scholarly journals Accounting for the Nation, Marginalizing the Empire: Taxable Capacity and Colonial Rule in the Early Twentieth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-472
Author(s):  
Eleanor Newbigin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
World War ◽  
National Accounting ◽  
A Site

Modern forms of national accounting are widely understood to have emerged within the context of rivalry between the western powers and attempts to manage the economic fallout of World War I. There has been little consideration of the way in which imperialism shaped debates and approaches to national accounting. Providing a close reading of Indian scholar K. T. Shah’s intervention in debates about how to measure the national economy of the 1920s, this article seeks to shed new light on innovative debates within Indian economics in this period. In so doing, it also seeks to draw attention to the ways in which debates about national economy were themselves a site of contestation, and reaffirmation, of colonial power structures in the interwar years.

scholarly journals The Repertoire and Interpretative Dynamics of Shakespeare’s Dramaturgy in the Twentieth-Century Lithuanian Theatre

Menotyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramunė Marcinkevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Independent State ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Beginnings ◽  
The 1960S

The repertoire and interpretative dynamics of Shakespeare’s dramaturgy in the twentieth-century Lithuanian theatre have shown that despite the fact that the first premiere on a professional theatre stage in Lithuanian took place only in 1924 (Othello), the main European tendencies of the playwright’s directorial narrative (from Romantic rhetoric and retrospectivism to deconstruction or postcolonial practices) were repeated over the course of the century. The author of the article observes that the general turn towards Shakespeare by many Lithuanian theatre artists, not just one director or repertory theatre, reflects and connects various phenomena of major social changes and new beginnings: the creation of an independent state and a professional national theatre in the interwar period; the creation of a more modern theatre and a more relaxed society during the thaw of the 1960s in the wake of the Stalinist regime and its terror; the transformation of the role of theatre in society in the 1990s following the restoration of the country’s independence; the challenges brought about by the new century and the changing generations of artists. This hypothetical parallel between changes in history and in the theatrical discourses distinguishes Shakespeare as a prominent factor of theatre development and puts the Lithuanian professional theatre in the context of the traditions of European Shakespearean theatre repertory choices formed throughout the centuries.

Zoya Il'inichna Glezer – life and scientific achievements

2019 ◽  
pp. 318-323
Author(s):  
Zinaida V. Pushina ◽  
Galina V. Stepanova ◽  
Ekaterina L. Grundan
Keyword(s):  
Western Siberia ◽  
Kara Sea ◽  
European Russia ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
The South ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Scientific Achievements ◽  
South Of European Russia

Zoya Ilyinichna Glezer is the largest Russian micropaleontologist, a specialist in siliceous microfossils — Cenozoic diatoms and silicoflagellates. Since the 1960s, she systematically studied Paleogene siliceous microfossils from various regions of the country and therefore was an indispensable participant in the development of unified stratigraphic schemes for Paleogene siliceous plankton of various regions of the USSR. She made a great contribution to the creation of the newest Paleogene schemes in the south of European Russia and Western Siberia, to the correlations of the Paleogene deposits of the Kara Sea.

Studying Modern Arabic Literature

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
The Face ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Modern Arabic

This book is devoted to the life and academic legacy of Mustafa Badawi who transformed the study of modern Arabic literature in the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to the 1960s the study of Arabic literature, both classical and modern, had barely been emancipated from the academic approaches of orientalism. The appointment of Badawi as Oxford University's first lecturer in modern Arabic literature changed the face of this subject as Badawi showed, through his teaching and research, that Arabic literature was making vibrant contributions to global culture and thought. Part biography, part collection of critical essays, this book celebrates Badawi's immense contribution to the field and explores his role as a public intellectual in the Arab world and the west.

Rewriting the Narrative

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Mixed Media ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
The 1960S

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.

Native Americans and the Third World Strike at UC Berkeley

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
LaNada War Jack
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Third World ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The University

The author reflects on her personal experience as a Native American at UC Berkeley in the 1960s as well as on her activism and important leadership roles in the 1969 Third World Liberation Front student strike, which had as its goal the creation of an interdisciplinary Third World College at the university.

Of Sand or Soil

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadav Samin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Soil P ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Historical Tradition

Why do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia? What compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian tribe? This book looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging have informed the lives of past and present inhabitants of Saudi Arabia and how the Saudi government's tacit glorification of tribal origins has shaped the powerful development of the kingdom's genealogical culture. The book presents the first extended biographical exploration of the major twentieth-century Saudi scholar Hamad al-Jāsir, whose genealogical studies frame the story about belonging and identity in the modern kingdom. It examines the interplay between al-Jāsir's genealogical project and his many hundreds of petitioners, mostly Saudis of nontribal or lower status origin who sought validation of their tribal roots in his genealogical texts. Investigating the Saudi relationship to this opaque, orally inscribed historical tradition, the book considers the consequences of modern Saudi genealogical politics and how the most intimate anxieties of nontribal Saudis today are amplified by the governing strategies and kinship ideology of the Saudi state. Challenging the impression that Saudi culture is determined by puritanical religiosity or rentier economic principles, the book shows how the exploration and establishment of tribal genealogies have become influential phenomena in contemporary Saudi society. Beyond Saudi Arabia, this book casts important new light on the interplay between kinship ideas, oral narrative, and state formation in rapidly changing societies.

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