ABSTRACT
Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories brings together intellectuals from a variety of fields, backgrounds, generations, and continents to deepen and reinvigo-rate the theoretical and intellectual integrity of African studies. Building on recent debate within African studies that has revolved around the role of Africanists in the United States as “gatekeepers” of knowledge about Africa and Africans, this volume of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the contested character of the production of knowledge itself. In every chapter, case studies and ethnographic materials, drawn from such regions as South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Malagasy Republic, Angola, Ghana, and Senegal, demonstrate the application of theory to concrete situations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|50 pages
Challenging Modes of Thinking: Making Maps and Mapping History
chapter 1|22 pages
“So Geographers in Africa Maps with Savage Pictures Fill Their Gaps”
part Two|148 pages
Contested Categories: Economy, Politics, and Society
chapter 4|12 pages
Poverty Profile in Sub-Saharan Africa
chapter 6|27 pages
Beyond the State and Civil Society
chapter 8|18 pages
Negotiating Identity in Post-Settlement South Africa
part Three|146 pages
Violence of the Word/Violence Against the Body