Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks: African Employees in the Making of Colonial AfricaBenjamin N. Lawrance, Emily Lynn Osborn, Richard L. Roberts Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2006 M09 29 - 332 pages As a young man in South Africa, Nelson Mandela aspired to be an interpreter or clerk, noting in his autobiography that “a career as a civil servant was a glittering prize for an African.” Africans in the lower echelons of colonial bureaucracy often held positions of little official authority, but in practice these positions were lynchpins of colonial rule. As the primary intermediaries among European colonial officials, African chiefs, and subject populations, these civil servants could manipulate the intersections of power, authority, and knowledge at the center of colonial society. By uncovering the role of such men (and a few women) in the construction, function, and legal apparatus of colonial states, the essays in this volume highlight a new perspective. They offer important insights on hegemony, collaboration, and resistance, structures and changes in colonial rule, the role of language and education, the production of knowledge and expertise in colonial settings, and the impact of colonization in dividing African societies by gender, race, status, and class. |
Contents
Resurrecting Jan Tzatzoes Diplomatic | 37 |
The Boubou | 56 |
Shepstone as Native Interpreter | 77 |
Court Access | 94 |
The Colonial | 115 |
Educated Africans | 139 |
The Autobiographies | 159 |
African Court Elders in Nyanza Province Kenya | 180 |
Power and Influence of African Court Clerks | 202 |
African Employees in Late Colonial | 248 |
The Role of Clerks | 273 |
Personnel Files and the Role of Qadis and Interpreters | 289 |
297 | |
Contributors | 319 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according African appeal appointed Archives assessors authority became Boubou British called century chiefs church civil claimed clerks colonial administration colonial rule Commissioner court cultural customary law customs district District Commissioner early elders elite employees established European evidence forced French French West Futa governor Hampâté Bâ hand History Ibibio important influence interests intermediaries interpreters involved Kenya knowledge Kuoh land language later leopard letter writers literate lives Lomé London March means mission missionaries murders native Noirot notes Nyanza officials period police political position present Provincial Provincial Commissioner published question records region role served Shepstone social society South status subjects Tanganyika tion tradition translation tribunal Tzatzoe Union University Press Usen village West Africa women World writing Xhosa