Alcohol

There are no single-volume studies that address the whole topic of alcohol in Africa or its modern history. Globally, fermented alcohol has a very ancient history, with archaeological findings documenting such drinks many thousands of years ago. Given the relative lack of archaeological work in sub-Saharan Africa, the evidence for the ancient consumption of fermented drinks on the continent is thin, but the earliest records in combination with ethnographic research point to a very long history and to the ubiquity of fermented drinks. Virtually every African society produced one or more kinds of fermented drinks, whether it was palm wine in coastal regions, various wines made from honey or local fruits such as bananas, or, especially, beers produced from millet and sorghum and later maize. In Muslim societies, these fermented drinks, often classified as foods by local peoples, were not seen to violate Qurʾanic prohibition. Ethnographic studies often include detailed accounts of the complex processes through which such drinks were produced and the equally complicated social practices related to drinking. Such drinks were often bought and sold through local trade networks, but fermented drinks are expensive to transport and until the development of modern bottling technology had very short shelf lives. Distillation technology dates only to the 11th century and its spread was closely connected to international trade. During the 20th century, alcohol regulation emerged as a critical element in colonial hegemony, and the importance of alcohol to state revenue persists to the present day. Following independence, with the end of international prohibitions on distilling, industrial brewing and distilling grew rapidly in many African countries, generally led by international enterprises. South African Breweries ultimately emerged as a major international player, with large stakes across the continent. Racist thinking dominated colonial policy on alcohol sales and consumption across much of eastern, central, and southern Africa, and colonial states in those regions used revenue from alcohol monopolies to reinforce racial segregation and domination. This thinking incorporated a racially defined view of collective dependency and abuse which was fueled by colonial expediency and in turn shaped public perceptions and response to African alcohol consumption. Such perspectives have persisted in “expert” discourse in postcolonial Africa. Yet alcohol consumption has been, for men, among the most important leisure activities in many African societies, and in the 20th century, drinking establishments emerged as very important sites of popular culture.

Horn of Africa and South Asia

The Horn of Africa and South Asia have shared a vibrant, multidimensional relationship since ancient times. A number of factors enabled this relationship, including: the Indian Ocean monsoons; the location of coastal northeast Africa on trade routes between India, Egypt, and the Mediterranean; and a complementarity of resources and economic needs and wants. The Indian Ocean World (IOW) has been described as the first global economy. Trade also played roles in the spread of plants, animals, and religious and other cultural beliefs and practices across the IOW. For these and other reasons, it is surprising that the IOW has only been a frame for research and an object of study in its own right for a few decades. The dual status of the Horn of Africa as a component of both the African and IOW makes it a contact zone par excellence. It also provides fertile opportunities to advance understanding of the historiography of oceans, islands, port towns, and hinterlands. Many important lessons learned from scholarly study of relations between the Horn of Africa and South Asia have wider applicability, such as the need for new ways of thinking to tackle biases apparent in area studies, and ubiquitous Eurocentrism. Recent investigations have begun to address the neglected history and agency of indigenous communities and endogenous historical processes, such as the importance of short trading journeys by multitudes of local entrepreneurs, and the diverse histories of Sidis—Indians of African descent. Sidi studies continues to shed new and valuable insights into many other matters, including slavery, diaspora, and identity. The Portuguese intensified ties between Ethiopia and India. Portuguese colonies in Goa, Daman, and Diu became bases for Portuguese relations with Ethiopia. Although the Portuguese interlude in Ethiopia was relatively short, its legacy included Indian influences on material culture, including religious painting and architecture. Small numbers of Europeans visited the interior of the Horn of Africa over the next two and a half centuries, but Indian traders mostly conducted their business from Red Sea and Indian Ocean ports. Following the opening of Anglo-Ethiopian relations in 1897, Indian merchants ventured into the interior. Indian craftsmen were also to leave their mark. Most Indians left Ethiopia during the Italian Occupation between 1935 to 1941. Postwar, Emperor Haile Selassie focused on reconstruction and reform, which included recruiting large numbers of Indian school teachers. A new generation of Indian entrepreneurs also arrived. Following partition, India–Africa relations initially focused on political solidarities. With the beginning of economic liberalization in India in 1991, economic relations were foregrounded, with India becoming a significant trade and investment partner.

Cocoa

Cocoa production has, over the years since its discovery, assumed an important role in shaping the economic, social, and political structures of cocoa-producing countries, particularly in West Africa. Not only has it done so at a local level, but it has also defined the place of West African producing countries in the global economy. Over the years, cocoa evolved to become an integral part of many cultures. Generally, cocoa is produced in the tropical and subtropical regions. It is distinctly selective to climate and soil and is very susceptible to pests and diseases. This regional exactitude significantly shaped global cocoa marketing and consumption during the course of the evolution of the industry, in which cocoa was produced for markets in temperate countries. The dynamics that triggered and were triggered by cocoa production at all levels—locally, regionally, and globally—offer essential analytical pathways in approaching the development debate in Africa. Various scholarly works examine the origins and significance of cocoa production in West African societies, economies, and politics. They engage debates on the impact of cocoa production on capital accumulation, class formation, regional economic integration, gender relations, and the environment.

Economic History

The study of Africa’s economic past has experienced phases of growth and decline. In the 1960s to 1980s scholarly interest in African economic history surged. Major themes, such as slavery and the slave trades, agricultural development, colonial economic policy, demography, poverty, and growth and structural change, invited discussion and sometimes heated debate. Dependency and Marxist perspectives dominated the literature of the 1970s and 1980s and the influential “formalist-substantivist” debate within economic anthropology addressed the validity of Western, capitalist models of rational economic behavior to study non-Western or non-capitalist societies. The early literature did much to recover the making by Africans of their own economic histories, including in internal trade (and commodity currencies) before colonial rule, and in researching the initiative/agency of Africans in expanding agricultural production for the market, especially in West Africa from “legitimate commerce” onward. It also laid the foundation for quantitative approaches, which are currently expanding in many directions. Growing numbers of historians from Africa, Europe, and North America inspired the foundation, in 1974, of the field journal African Economic History, published by the African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1990s the field coped with diminishing interest, and Marxist perspectives lost terrain. Many of the leading scholars of the “first generation” retired or branched off into other emerging fields, such as global history. Historians in the United States turned their backs on number-crunching economic historians. The field may also have suffered from rising pessimism concerning Africa’s economic future. Whatever the causes, the fading attention given to African economic history occurred at a time when Africans themselves were overcoming a period of intensive political and economic distress (see Hopkins 2009, cited under The “New” African Economic History). The foundation of the African Economic History Network in 2011 marked a renaissance within African economic history that became evident in the late 2000s. Scholars of The “New” African Economic History developed new quantitative and comparative approaches, using new data sources. They tended to make lesser use though of anthropological approaches and the rich ethnographic literature of Africa than earlier scholarship had done. Methodologically, the field saw a divide between scholars who combine the qualitative and quantitative approaches common in economic history and a new branch—often referred to as “historical economics”—that leans strongly toward the methods of applied economics, with an increasing emphasis on “causal identification.” Chances that the current wave of interest in the economic past of Africa will wither away again appear much lower these days. International development agencies are focusing increasingly on sub-Saharan Africa as the front line in their fight against global poverty. Climate change, demographic growth, Africa’s “green revolution,” new trade agreements (e.g., the African Continental Free Trade Area [AfCFTA]), and the shifting gravity centers of the global economy in general all forge a broad public interest in the long-term dynamics of African economies. Moreover, contrary to the 1990s, renewed optimism has emerged regarding the opportunities of African economies to outgrow poverty. This article focuses mainly, though not exclusively, on the work produced by economic historians, most of whom are united in the African Economic History Network (AEHN), that can be associated with The “New” African Economic History. This bibliography gives little attention to North Africa, but it does include some key references on the economic history of South Africa.

Congo Wars

Following the global upsurge in conflict in the late 1980s and early 1990s, no confrontation turned out to be more devastating than the Great African War, which led to mass excess mortality with estimates ranging between 2.7 million and 5.4 million people dead in the 1998–2007 period. Unlike the First World War, with which it is often compared because of the multitude of states which battled each other on Congolese territory, Africa’s Great War cannot be defined by unambiguous start and end dates. The violence since the 1990s is perhaps more usefully thought of in analogy with Europe’s Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century or, as some historians argue, the cataclysmic conflict centered on Eurasia that encompassed both World Wars, separated only by a failing truce between 1919 and 1937. With not only alliances changing regularly in the Great African War but also a whole cast of participants joining and leaving the battlefield and the frontlines gradually blurring to the point of becoming virtually indefinable, many scholars prefer using “Congo Wars” to refer to a series of regularly interlinked but sometimes also clearly distinct conflicts—local, national, regional—waged on the territory of what was formerly known as Zaire and now as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Thus, while a narrow definition separates out a “First Congo War” (beginning in September or October 1996 [once again, depending on one’s definition!] and ending on 17 May 1997) from the “Second Congo War” (the Great African War “proper,” from 2 August 1998 to 17 December 2002), other perspectives date the start of the conflict(s) back to the Rwandan genocide and argue that the Congo Wars, in parts of the territory like North and South Kivu and Ituri, are still ongoing. This bibliography takes a relatively expansive view of the conflagration, focusing publications analyzing the central events between 1996 and 2002, but acknowledging the impressive body of scholarship that not only scrutinizes the consequences of six years of catastrophic violence but also traces ongoing localized and/or transnational conflict in the DRC. At the time of writing (summer 2019), some optimism is taking hold after the peaceful (if controversial) handover of presidential power by Joseph Kabila to Felix Tshisekedi in January 2019 following elections in December 2018; violent confrontations among militias and between rebel groups, the MONUC/MONUSCO UN force, and the state still occur regularly, but not since 2013 have insurgents (i.e., the M23 rebellion) credibly threatened to take over an entire province, let alone seek to oust the president in Kinshasa: progress by Congolese standards. Although foreign actors still meddle in Congo’s politics, they do not do so as overtly and probably also not as profusely and effectively in the 2000s. The task will fall to historians a generation from now to assess whether the Congo Wars really have been coming to an end, twenty-five years after they began raging, or whether the current moment merely turned out to be a relatively peaceful interlude separating one set of violent outbursts from another.

Economic Anthropology

Anthropology has a long and complicated history in Africa, and its study of economic life is no exception. In the early days of the discipline, in the 1930s and 1940s, anthropologists like Audrey Richards, Meyer Fortes, and E. E. Evans-Pritchard all departed for Africa to conduct fieldwork. In general, early British social anthropology was committed to holistic studies of small-scale societies, and thus what counted as “economic anthropology” was subsumed within broader studies of kinship and sociopolitical organization. Though later criticized by Manchester School anthropologists for their “bounding” of specific peoples, and by Marxist anthropologists for their neglect of “modes of production,” from a contemporary vantage point these early studies made the same point that anthropologists working in the substantivist tradition of Karl Polanyi also would: that the economy is embedded in social relations and practices. The growing influence of Marxist approaches from the 1960s, as well as growing sympathies between social anthropology and the historical study of Africa, introduced an appreciation of historical processes in the formation of local and regional economies. Feminist approaches expanded the frame of inquiry by demonstrating the gendered character of African economic life, and of the crucial role of women and households to markets and production. New analytical tools borrowed from political economy paved the way for studies of colonial economies—for instance, how the emergence of cash crop production shaped labor migration and land ownership, as well as the shift toward cash itself. The contemporary anthropological study of economic life in Africa has been transformed by pressing events in the latter part of the century—structural adjustment and economic liberalization, not to mention scholars’ identification of the “informal economy”—as key terrain for anthropological research. New attentiveness has been given to how Africans imagine and conceive of economic change, as well as the new types of wealth, credit, and debt brought about via access to foreign capital. The era of economic liberalization has transformed cities and African expectations of the future, sometimes in terms of improved living standards and “middle class” lifestyles, but also a growing disparity between rich and poor. Moving away from the narrative of crisis, newer work seeks to explore African attempts to pursue “the good life” amid ongoing economic turbulence. While anthropologists remain attuned to the effects of economic change, what continues to characterize their approach is an understanding of economies embedded in regional contexts, including their values and established practices.

LGBTI Minorities and Queer Politics in Eastern and Southern Africa

LGBTI embodies diverse life experiences of the groups included, with different levels of knowledge about and understanding of each group contributing to varying degrees of acceptance and inclusion. Notwithstanding these experiences, the anti-gay rhetoric of many African leaders, anti-homosexuality legislation in a number of African countries, and harassment of sexual minorities throughout Africa raise vital issues and important lessons, including ample reasons for optimism. Probing these issues provides important and wide-ranging perspectives on how political and social systems work, including processes, barriers, and opportunities for social change more generally. Numerous accounts of traditional “cultures of discretion” surrounding same-sex practices debunk the myth that homosexuality is a decadent un-African import designed to corrupt African societies. Even though, traditionally, “looking the other way” was widely accepted, it is inadequate in complex contemporary settings. Many scholars argue cogently that it is not homosexuality that is un-African, but homophobia and the rigid dichotomy between what is today regarded as heterosexuality and homosexuality. Some refer to “homophobias” to emphasize the multiple ways in which discrimination, anxiety, and hatred are directed toward sexual minorities. Heterosexuality encompassed a broad range of relationships that flourished in stark contradiction to widely stated claims about homogeneous African heterosexuality. The role of religion in fueling anti-homosexuality rhetoric is also more nuanced than generally portrayed, with numerous examples showing that religion can play positive roles in (re)building Africa as a continent accepting of sexual diversity. Same-sex issues intersect with many matters, including gender, race, and class, creating openings for exploring how, for instance, same-sex marriage advances understandings of changing gender relations, and the price paid by those who do not conform to patriarchal and heteronormative expectations. Literature on activism includes descriptions of how sexual minorities have strategically managed visibility and invisibility to make LGBTI rights intelligible as African rather than foreign, and used other concerns and campaigns to advance their interests. However, enormous challenges remain. For example, South Africa became the first country to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities in its constitution. Yet vicious homophobic hate crimes and persistent heteronormative values and practices in education systems illustrate how same-sex-friendly legislation is necessary but not sufficient. Sexual minorities have been well represented in literature and the arts, often before anti-gay rhetoric appeared. This includes biographies illustrating the great diversity and fluidity of lives, including multiple forms of agency and strategic resistance, and the ways that sexuality and faith have sometimes been reconciled.

Sexualities in Africa

Human sexuality is a highly complex phenomenon that involves the ways we feel, think, and act (or not) sexually, all subject to change over time in relation to our physical bodies as they age, and to the political economy and culture in which we live and relate to others. Nature (genetics, hormones, physical endowments) interacts with nurture (childhood socialization, culture, law) in ways that are not predictable and indeed often only rudimentarily understood. Scholars thus often prefer the term “sexualities” to reflect the contingent and changeable plurality of human sexual behavior, and the ways in which sex is conceived in relation to the wider worlds, seen and unseen. Yet in Africa, political and religious leaders frequently assert or imply that “African sexuality,” as distinct from “Western sexuality” or “Arab sexuality,” exists as a distinctive, timeless, and singular phenomenon, often in ways that promote harmful stereotypes. “Homosexuality is un-African,” to give one notorious example, is a widely made claim that has been made to justify vigilantism and state repression against sexual minorities throughout the continent. Certain features of Africa’s modern political economy, in conjunction with inherited gender, ethnic, and other aspects of culture and identity, have meanwhile facilitated the emergence of seemingly distinctive expressions of sexuality on the continent, or among specific peoples from regions within. For instance, high levels of male migration together with low levels of male circumcision and a long-standing culture of having multiple concurrent sexual partners have combined to abet the spread of HIV in southern Africa to a far greater extent than elsewhere, particularly in contrast to Muslim-majority regions. Such distinctions bear important social, health, and human rights implications. The study of how local or regional sexual cultures within Africa arose can thus potentially address harms, like HIV transmission, that are linked to stigma, stereotypes, secrecy, and shame around sexuality. This essay introduces some of the key issues as revealed through a range of literatures primarily in the social sciences and humanities. The various headings chosen for this article are for convenience only—the works cited in most cases transcend easy categorization, much as sexuality itself transcends neat heuristic borders. Note as well that the number of studies devoted to the topic has exploded since the late 1990s to shed light on an ever-widening circle of factors pertinent to understanding sexualities (alcohol and drug use, pornography, asexuality, cults, and social media, for example). I have included a small number of references to material in French but there are bound to be further rich sources in Arabic, in indigenous African languages, and in other former colonial languages like Portuguese that await future research projects.

Law and the Study of Sub-Saharan Africa

In all societies, law together with social norms act to maintain the social order by creating rules and expectations about human interactions and exchanges. Changes, however, do occur. Debates about the content and meaning of social norms and about the law, legal statuses, and legal rights and expectations in African societies predated colonialism, were accelerated by the colonial encounter, and persist to this day. The long history of human contact and social and cultural change on the continent introduced new ideas and practices for resolving disputes both between members of different groups and within groups, often yielding forms of legal pluralism. Pluralistic legal thought, institutions, and practices were shaped by the spread of Islam in Africa from the 8th century and the arrival Europeans from the 15th century. Recent research on legal pluralism underscores the need to focus not only on the establishment of formal legal institutions, but also on how litigants used the multiple arenas created by overlapping systems of dispute settlement. The most useful way to think about legal pluralism is as a form of encounter between dynamic, local processes of change in indigenous societies that predated colonial conquest and continued after it and dynamic and changing forms of European colonialism. Identifying African norms, enshrined as custom, and producing customary law were essential strategies of colonial rule based on legal traditions associated with the establishment of protectorates, which separated, in principle, external and internal sovereignties. African customary law constituted a foundation of internal sovereignties associated with various forms of indirect rule. In all cases, however, African customary law was subject to colonial interventions when particular customs were considered detrimental to European assumptions about “civilization” and good governance. Metropolitan legal traditions also influenced the practice of law in colonial societies. It is important to distinguish common law as applied in colonies influenced by British practice and the civil law tradition applied in those influenced by legal systems of continental European colonial powers. South Africa forms an anomaly in that its legal system developed from a Roman-Dutch legal inheritance, a superimposed British colonial practice, and constructed African customs. Although North Africa experienced many of the same pressures from colonialism and decolonization as sub-Saharan Africa, this article does not engage fully with this region. We recognize that this is a significant gap that has colonial and postcolonial geopolitical roots and look forward to future research that better integrates these subregions. The end of colonialism accelerated the processes of legal change as independent nations both incorporated colonial law into their independent judiciaries and revised colonial-era laws to reflect changing regional and international ideas regarding human rights. Significant legal debates persist in many parts of Africa regarding gender equality, Muslim family law, criminal law, and human rights enshrined in international law.

Education

Education in Africa refers to a number of social institutions and teaching practices, including government-run systems of schooling, religious instruction, and childhood socialization. Government-run systems of schooling follow a standardized timetable, curriculum, and examination system. European colonizers established schools to instruct and “civilize” Africans and, later, to educate a cadre of civil service personnel who would staff colonial offices. After independence, which occurred for most countries between 1956 and 1964, secondary school graduates and university-educated Africans often became government leaders of their countries. Religious instruction, as well as the many forms of child socialization and inculcation in Africa, pre-date government systems of schooling but increasingly have come to run parallel to them. Today, religious forms of schooling generally follow a timetable and include secular subjects. Literacy rates have improved, as has gender parity in primary schools, in that the number of girls and boys enrolled and able to read and write is roughly equal. Higher education is expanding rapidly in Africa, and student politics and student activism on campuses remain powerful forces, as they were in colonial times, for questioning political authority and foreign influences. As in all parts of the world, adults in Africa socialize children and youth into norms and practices, both through explicit instruction and through learning-by-doing everyday activities. The cultural forms these lessons take often derive from age-old rituals and stories that vary considerably across the continent. On the other hand, children and young people socialize themselves into new communities, often using social media to do so.