Overview

Circumcision and Coffee in Uganda is a history of an African ethnic group known as the Bamasaaba [bah-MAH-sah-bah]. It is about the group's origins and their responses to Europeans and others who began arriving uninvited in their homeland over a century and a half ago. The main challenge the Bamasaaba faced was retaining control of their land, livelihood and culture during the sixty years their homeland was occupied by a colonial power, the British. They responded by trying to strengthen group identity and unity around the beliefs, values and behaviors expressed in their male initiation and circumcision rite, imbalu. Greater unity was also pursued through economic solidarity based on their small-holder coffee cultivation. The Bamasaaba believed these efforts were their best hope to survive as a society and culture. This book tells how the Bamasaaba went about this and to what degree they succeeded up to the present.This 420-page volume has something for all readers: those interested in the world's cultures and how they change; secondary school and university students; academics in the humanities and social sciences; and all others interested in ancient and modern Africa. It contains politics, economics, myth, intrigue, romance, poetry, and humor - stories anyone, from any background, can relate to and appreciate. It contains the actions of ivory hunters and slave traders, European explorers, African kings and generals, Christian missionaries, and British soldiers and colonial administrators. The book describes the schemes and methods of these agents of change, yet it never loses sight of the average villager and how s/he responded to their new ideas and technologies. While writing this book I learned a lot about the Bamasaaba, Uganda, the Pearl of Africa, and the history of East Africa, the Cradle of Humankind. It changed and improved my life in many ways. I hope reading it will do the same for you. JEL

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9781537077963

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Ethnographer and author James E. Lassiter was born in Virginia, USA in 1947. He studied anthropology and biology at California State University, Sacramento and was trained in cultural anthropology and the peoples of Africa at the University of Oregon where he earned his Ph.D. in 1983. For over thirty years James served in the U.S. federal government. He retired in 2007. Most notable was his work in Africa in the areas of international development assistance and the humanitarian resettlement of refugees. Over half of his professional life has been spent living and working in Swaziland, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. James writes on topics in anthropology, philosophy, Africa and other topics on his blog Being Human - Our Past, Present, And Future In Nature. He is the founder and director of a migration consultancy company, Migration Anthropology Consultants (MAC), LLC. He also leads a local freethinker group he founded near Atlanta, Owl & Ibis - A Confluence of Minds. James is the author of Secular Truth and Morality: Being Virtuous, Happy, and At Peace Without God and Religion, an Amazon Kindle book. He is currently working on three other books: Lassiter: An American-African Life; Kiondo: A Family In Uganda and Beyond; and From the Unknown Into Uncertainty: The Origin, Evolution, and Future of Humankind. James and his wife, the former Miss Immy Rose Namutosi of Mbale, Uganda, divide their time between their home near Atlanta, Georgia, USA and another residence in Uganda.

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