Ebook: State Formation in Eastern Africa

This volume is a major contribution to the growing debate on state formation. Its approach is unusual. In colonial times African societies were always thought of as either 'tribal' or acephalous and therefore stateless. This book shows how these societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in fact fulfil the prerequisites and definitions of the state.

Theories on the state originally developed out of European experience and political thought. Machiavelli, Boudin, Rousseau and Marx all linked the concept of state to one or several of the following: territoriality, sovereignty, religion and economy. The contributors to this book have adapted these definitions to relate to the African historical experience and so religion, ritual and the various forms of social organization all play major roles.

The areas described range geographically from Ethiopia in the north, to Malawi in the south, and from the Zairean-Ugandan border in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east. The societies under analysis are Lugbara, Acholi and Bunyoro in Uganda; Balowoka, Chewa and Yao in Malawi; Luo in Uganda and Kenya; Shona in Zimbabwe; Kitutu and Swahili in Kenya; and south-west Ethiopia.

Historians, political scientists, anthropologists and sociologists will find these case-studies a timely addition to the literature on state formation.

List of contributors:
James de Vere Allen, formerly of the Institute of African Studies and Department of History, University of Nairobi
Ronald R. Atkinson, Department of General and African Studies, University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
David W. Cohen, Johns Hopkins University
Eike Haberland, Director, Frobenius-Institut, University of Frankfurt
Ralph S. Herring, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Owen J. M. Kalinga, Department of History, University of Malawi
William R. Ochieng', Department of History, Kenyatta University College, University of Nairobi
Bethwell A. Ogot, formerly of the Departments of History, University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University College
Kings M. Phiri, Department of History, University of Malawi
J. K. Rennie, Department of History, University of Zambia
Ahmed I. Salim, Department of History, University of Nairobi
O. J. E. Shiroya, Department of History, Kenyatta University College, University of Nairobi
Edward Steinhart, formerly of the Departments of History, University of Nairobi and University of Zambia
Bonaventure Swai, Department of History, University of Dar es Salaam