Textures of Power: Central Africa in the Long Twentieth Century - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9462704597 ISBN 13: 9789462704596

Publisher: Leuven University Press, 2025

Synopsis

Central Africa has long been a fertile ground for engendering new concepts and innovative research, significantly influencing not only African studies but other fields as well. This edited volume offers groundbreaking, multidisciplinary reflections on power in Central Africa, from the Atlantic slave trade era to the present. By bringing together emerging and leading scholars, Textures of Power builds on rich epistemic legacies in African studies, opening new research avenues across history, anthropology, and cultural and political studies. It offers fresh perspectives on colonial and postcolonial power structures, drawing on new findings while critically engaging with earlier theoretical frameworks. Employing the concept of “texture” as a red thread, the book showcases the study of power as an analytical tool in the humanities and the social sciences. It fosters dialogues between approaches to emotions and technology, colonialism and its aftermath, and non-humans and the invisible world. Drawing on stories about women, social rebellions, digital technologies, slavery, languages, forest management, charms, care and bio-medicine, urban life, radio, music, witchcraft, homosexuality, and environmental pollution, this volume emphasizes bottom-up, long-term approaches and local theories about power. This work will appeal to students and scholars in African studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, and those interested in Africa’s longue durée history. It is also relevant to those studying power dynamics, cultural studies, queer and gender studies, and environmental humanities.

About this title

About the Authors

Florence Bernault is Professor of African History at Sciences Po, Paris.

Benoît Henriet is Associate Professor of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Emery Kalema is Assistant Professor of History at The Africa Institute in Sharjah.

Johan Lagae is Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ghent University.

Margot Luyckfasseel is Junior Research Professor in Modern African History at the University of Antwerp.

From the Back Cover

Central Africa has long been a fertile ground for engendering new concepts and innovative research, exerting significant influence on African studies and beyond. This edited volume offers groundbreaking, multidisciplinary reflections on power in Central Africa, from the Atlantic slave trade era to the present. By bringing together emerging and leading scholars, Textures of Power builds on the rich epistemic legacies of (Central) African studies, and opens new research avenues across history, anthropology, and cultural and political studies. It offers fresh perspectives on colonial and postcolonial power structures, drawing on new findings while critically engaging with earlier theoretical frameworks.

Employing the concept of “texture” as a red thread, the book showcases the central importance of power as an analytical tool in the humanities and the social sciences. It fosters dialogues between emotions and technology, colonialism and its aftermath, and between non-humans and the invisible world. Drawing on stories about women, social rebellions, digital technologies, slavery, languages, forest management, charms, care and bio-medicine, urban life, radio, music, witchcraft, homosexuality, and environmental pollution, this volume emphasizes bottom-up, long-term and emic approaches as well as local theories about power.

This work will appeal to students and scholars in African studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, and those interested in Africa’s longue durée history. Beyond its spatial focus, it will also be relevant to those studying power dynamics, cultural studies, queer and gender studies, and environmental humanities.

Florence Bernault is Professor of African History at Sciences Po, Paris.

Benoît Henriet is Associate Professor of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Emery Kalema is Assistant Professor of History at The Africa Institute in Sharjah.

Edition details

• Publisher: Leuven University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9462704597
• ISBN 13: 9789462704596
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 574
• Editor: Bernault Florence, Henriet Benoît, Kalema Emery