Publisher's Synopsis
These essays, collected in memory of Michael Crowder, reflect his interests as a distinguished Africanist and show, perhaps, how later scholars may build upon the foundations he laid. He was a writer, editor, scholar, teacher and academic administrator, making an outstanding contribution to African historical scholarship, and to African art and culture.;The contributions place the imperial experience in its context, and to show the relationship between people - individuals and groups, with diverse languages, culture, religion, history, economic and political interests, and social class - and "empire", both in pre-colonial times and after. The essays cover pre-colonial empires, the early British colonial attitudes, the essential nature of colonial rule which Crowder experienced at first-hand; African resistence to the imposition of colonial rule and accommodation to it; and the policies and practices of other European colonial powers. There is much stress on the extraordinary diversity of African people and groups, and the British in Africa.
