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  3. Kingship and State
  • Cited by 64
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
January 2010
Print publication year:
1996
Online ISBN:
9780511584763
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584763
Subjects:
Area Studies, African Studies, History, Regional History after 1500, African History
Series:
African Studies (88)
Information

Book description

The precolonial kingdom of Buganda, nucleus of the present Uganda state, has long attracted scholarly interest. Since written records are lacking entirely until 1862, historians have had to rely on oral traditions that were recorded from the end of the nineteenth century. These sources provide rich materials on Buganda in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but in this 1996 book Christopher Wrigley endeavours to show that the stories which appear to relate to earlier periods are largely mythology. He argues that this does not reduce their value since they are of interest in their own mythical right, revealing ancient traces of sacred kingship, and also throwing oblique light on the development of the recent state. He has written an elegant and wide-ranging study of one of Africa's most famous kingdoms.

Reviews

"...[Wrigley's] book, which is provocative on almost every page, rightly challenges historians and anthropologists to move beyond mundane temporal issues to consider how Africans dealt with the deepest questions of moral and political philosophy." American Historical Review

"In addition to its analytic brilliance, Wrigley's study is a compendium of wonderful stories that deal with both kings and kingship, with both people and humanity. In short, this book shows why states never cease to fascinate..." Choice

"Kingship and State is a highly readable and engrossing history; it is also an outstanding exemplar of data from different disciplines woven together. It is essential reading for those interested in African History, and it is going to remain so for a long time." Christopher Ehret, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Christopher Wrigley's brilliantly original and provocative work of research and synthesis may inspire renewed attention by other scholars to major issues of precolonial lake region history at a time when archaeology is revealing much new information." John A. Rowe, International Journal of African Historical Studies

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