Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival

Derek R. Peterson teaches African history at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Creative Writing: Translation, Bookkeeping, and the Work of Imagination in Colonial Kenya and the editor of several books, including Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa and Abolitionism and Imperialism in Britain, Africa and the Atlantic. Peterson is a recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern History and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction: the pilgrims' politics; 2. The infrastructure of cosmopolitanism; 3. Religious movements in southern Uganda; 4. Civil society in Buganda; 5. Taking stock: conversion and accountancy in Bugufi; 6. Patriotism and dissent in western Kenya; 7. The politics of moral reform in northwestern Tanganyika; 8. Subjects of the law: conversion and court procedure; 9. Casting characters: autobiography and political argument in central Kenya; 10. Confession, slander, and civic virtue in Mau Mau detention camps; 11. Contests of time in western Uganda; Conclusion: pilgrims and patriots in contemporary East Africa; Bibliography.

'In this superb book, Peterson pulls off the rare feat of combining a compelling, comprehensive argument about a huge regional movement with sharply drawn, detailed documentation of the local singularity of the forms it took in seven different areas in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The big picture positions the East African Revival as a form of critical practice, engaged in contestation with alternative, more conservative visions of society based on ethnic consolidation and the re-invention of tradition. In the documentation of local trajectories, what comes through most vividly is the converts themselves, in all their idiosyncrasy and humanity … individual voices and vignettes reveal the energy, initiative, and creativity these people brought to the radical project of convening a new kind of community. This book is a major achievement by any standards - original, convincing, deeply and broadly researched, and beautifully written.' Karin Barber, University of Birmingham