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OverviewThe Nature of the Path reveals how a single road has shaped the collective identity of a community that has existed on the margins of larger societies for centuries. Marcus Filippello shows how a road running through the Lama Valley in Southeastern Benin has become a mnemonic device that has allowed residents to counter prevailing histories. Built by the French colonial government, and following a traditional pathway, the road serves as a site where the ?h?ri people narrate their changing relationship to the environment and assert their independence in the political milieus of colonial and postcolonial Africa. Filippello first visited the Yoruba-speaking ?h?ricommunity in Benin knowing only the history in archival records. Over several years, he interviewed more than 100 people with family roots in the valley and discovered that their personal identities were closely tied to the community, which in turn was inextricably linked to the history of the road that snakes through the region s seasonal wetlands. The road contested, welcomed, and obstructed over many years passes through fertile farmlands and sacred forests, both rich in meaning for residents. Filippello s research seeks to counter prevailing notions of Africa as an exotic and pristine, yet contrarily war-torn, disease-ridden, environmentally challenged, and impoverished continent. His informants vivid construction of history through the prism of the road, coupled with his own archival research, offers new insights into Africans complex understandings of autonomy, identity, and engagement in the slow process we call modernization. "" Full Product DetailsAuthor: Marcus FilippelloPublisher: University of Minnesota Press Imprint: University of Minnesota Press Dimensions: Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 21.60cm Weight: 0.363kg ISBN: 9781517902827ISBN 10: 1517902827 Pages: 224 Publication Date: 17 January 2017 Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , General , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable  The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Table of ContentsContents Notes on Orthography, Diacritics, and Language Introduction: Crossing the Black Earth 1. The Roads into Igbó Ilú: The Making of an Ọhọri Identity 2. Roads to Subversion: Displaying Independence and Displacing Authority in the Early Colonial Era 3. Going to the Greens Seller: Ọhọri Communal Expansion in the 1920s and 1930s 4. “It Has Become a Joy to Go to Tollou”: Reinterpreting the Tools of French Colonial Développement 5. Cementing Identities: Negotiating Independence in a Changing Landscape Conclusion: Breathing with the Road Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography IndexReviewsOffering a new type of postcolonial history that is informed by how people engage with the natural and material worlds, Marcus Filippello weaves together local and colonial narratives to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this little-studied region over several centuries of its history. Celia Nyamweru, St. Lawrence University and Pwani University</p> Offering a new type of postcolonial history that is informed by how people engage with the natural and material worlds, Marcus Filippello weaves together local and colonial narratives to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this little-studied region over several centuries of its history. Celia Nyamweru, St. Lawrence University and Pwani University Offering a new type of postcolonial history that is informed by how people engage with the natural and material worlds, Marcus Filippello weaves together local and colonial narratives to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this little-studied region over several centuries of its history. --Celia Nyamweru, St. Lawrence University and Pwani University Author InformationMarcus Filippello is assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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