David Newbury, the Gwendolen Carter professor of African studies at Smith College, recently gave a talk on the historical dynamics of kingship, legitimacy and violence in Central and East Africa, focusing on Alison Des Forges’s Defeat is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896-1931 and The Land beyond the Mists: Essays on Identity & Authority in Precolonial Congo & Rwanda. In the podcast (found here) Professor Newbury deconstructs static views of royal dynasties/chronologies, comments on the legacy of Des Forges, and discusses changes in the writing of African history.
Professor Newbury teaches regional courses on East, West, and Central African history, as well as thematic courses on a variety of topics; among them are: biography and history in Africa, imperialism and environmental history in Africa; decolonization in Africa; famine in historical perspective; and missions and missionaries in Africa. He also serves as chair of the Five College African Studies Council.
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