Synopses & Reviews
One of twelve children in a close-knit, affluent Catholic Belgian family, Jan Vansina began life in a seemingly sheltered environment. But that cocoon was soon pierced by the escalating tensions and violence that gripped Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. In this book Vansina recalls his boyhood and youth in Antwerp, Bruges, and the Flemish countryside as the country was rocked by waves of economic depression, fascism, competing nationalisms, and the occupation of first Axis and then Allied forces.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Within the vast literature on World War II, a much smaller body of work treats the everyday experiences of civilians, particularly in smaller countries drawn into the conflict. Recalling the war in Belgium from a childand#8217;s-eye perspective, Vansina describes pangs of hunger so great as to make him crave the bitter taste of cod-liver oil. He vividly remembers the shock of seeing severely wounded men on the grounds of a field hospital, the dangers of crossing fields and swimming in ponds strafed by planes, and his familyand#8217;s interactions with occupying and escaping soldiers from both sides. After the war he recalls emerging numb from the cinema where he first saw the footage of the Nazi death camps, and he describes a new phase of unrest marked by looting, vigilante justice, and the countryand#8217;s efforts at reunification.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Vansina, a historian and anthropologist best known for his insights into oral tradition and social memory, draws on his own memories and those of his siblings to reconstruct daily life in Belgium during a tumultuous era.
Review
andldquo;The book is also notable for its reliance on primary sources from the time itselfandndash;andndash;common with histories of American, European or Asian cultures, but exceptional in African history. Using the rigorous documentation of his own experiences, Vansina aimed to write something radically different than the texts usually used by undergraduates. The resulting approach speaks to both intellect and imagination.andrdquo;andndash;andndash;Susannah Brooks, Wisconsin Week
Review
andldquo;A stunning achievement. Drawing on his years of research, Vansina reveals an ever-changing kaleidoscope of interactions between colonizers and colonized. This is colonial history firmly grounded in the thoughts and daily experiences of Africans. It will forever alter the way we think about the colonial period in Africa.andrdquo;andmdash;Robert Harms, Yale University
Review
andldquo;This may be Vansinaandrsquo;s best book yet. . . . He has trodden the Kuba ground, talked to the people, and collected data for a half century, giving the book greater intimacy and authority than anything else he has written. . . .In African historiography we are all Vansinaandrsquo;s students, even when we argue with him. Being Colonized is written with the assurance of a master.andrdquo;andmdash;Wyatt MacGaffey, Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute
Review
and#147;Through the Day, through the Night is more than a memoir. Jan Vansina has brought to the story of his boyhood and young adulthood the gifts of a historian and ethnographer, steeped in oral history. He highlights and illumines the culture of Belgiumand#151;his country of originand#151;and the culture of the upper class, Flemish, Catholic, intellectual and artistic family in which he was raised. And he vividly conveys his coming-of-age experiences during World War II when Belgium was invaded and occupied by German forces.and#8221;and#151;Renand#233;e Fox, the Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Review
and#147;A captivating read. Not only a personal narration about the Flemish struggle to achieve cultural and political recognition, but also a lesson on how history and memory work.and#8221;and#151;Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Universitand#233; Laval, Canada
Review
"[Selling the Congo is a] fascinating history of Belgium's 20th-century colonial culture."and#8212;Martin Rubin, Wall Street Journal
Review
and#8220;A welcome addition to studies of the imperial metropole. . . . Written in a clear and very direct style, which makes it accessible to a broad audience, including undergraduates.and#8221;and#8212;David Ciarlo, American Historical Review
Review
"The breadth of topics covered in this book is wideand#8212;each of them could fill a separate monograph. It is to Stanard's credit that he is able to pull them together. . . . Scholars of other European empires seeking to gain comparative knowledge will find this book useful."and#8212;Sarah Van Beurden, H-France
Review
"[Selling the Congo is] a useful addition to the growing body of 'end of empire' retrospectives that explore the impact of imperial expansion on the social imaginary of the European population."and#8212;Crawford Young, The Historian
Review
"[Selling the Congo contributes] to a broader understanding of the impact of colonialism on colonial powers."and#8212;Geert Castryck, H-Net
Review
"Matthew Stanard's Selling the Congo looks to expand our view of European colonial culture and consider the new understandings of empire in a different context, that of Belgian imperialism and pro-empire propaganda."and#8212;Elizabeth Stice, H-Empire
Synopsis
What was it like to be colonized by foreigners? Highlighting a region in central Congo, in the center of sub-Saharan Africa,
Being Colonized places Africans at the heart of the story. In a richly textured history that will appeal to general readers and students as well as to scholars, the distinguished historian Jan Vansina offers not just accounts of colonial administrators, missionaries, and traders, but the varied voices of a colonized people. Vansina uncovers the history revealed in local news, customs, gossip, and even dreams, as related by African villagers through archival documents, material culture, and oral interviews.
and#160;and#160;and#160; Vansinaandrsquo;s case study of the colonial experience is the realm of Kuba, a kingdom in Congo about the size of New Jerseyandmdash;and two-thirds the size of its colonial master, Belgium. The experience of its inhabitants is the story of colonialism, from its earliest manifestations to its tumultuous end. What happened in Kuba happened to varying degrees throughout Africa and other colonized regions: racism, economic exploitation, indirect rule, Christian conversion, modernization, disease and healing, and transformations in gender relations. The Kuba, like others, took their own active part in history, responding to the changes and calamities that colonization set in motion. Vansina follows the regionandrsquo;s inhabitants from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, when a new elite emerged on the eve of Congoandrsquo;s dramatic passage to independence.
Synopsis
Vansina, a historian and anthropologist best known for his insights into oral tradition and social memory, draws on his own memories and those of his siblings to reconstruct daily life in Belgium during World War II.
Synopsis
Belgium was a small, neutral country without a colonial tradition when King Leopold II ceded the Congo, his personal property, to the state in 1908. For the next half century, Belgium not only ruled an African empire but also, through widespread, enduring, and eagerly embraced propaganda, produced an imperialist-minded citizenry.
and#160;Selling the Congo is a study of European pro-empire propaganda in Belgium, with particular emphasis on the period 1908and#8211;60. Matthew G. Stanard examines the nature of Belgian imperialism in the Congo and considers its case in light of literature on the French, the British, and other European overseas empires. Comparing Belgium to other imperial powers, the book finds that pro-empire propaganda was a basic part of European overseas expansion and administration during the modern period. Arguing against the long-held belief that Belgians were merely and#8220;reluctant imperialists,and#8221; Stanard demonstrates that in fact many Belgians readily embraced imperialistic propaganda.
and#160;Selling the Congo contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of twentieth-century propaganda by revealing its successes and failures in the Belgian case. Many readers familiar with more-popular histories of Belgian imperialism will find in this book a deeper examination of European involvement in central Africa during the colonial era.
About the Author
Jan Vansina, now emeritus, held the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professorship and the Vilas Professorship in History and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsinandndash;Madison. His many books include his memoir Living with Africa, as well as Oral Tradition as History, Antecedents to Rwanda, Kingdoms of the Savanna, The Children of Woot, and Paths in the Rainforests, all published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Considered one of the founders of the academic field of African studies, he was the second scholar chosen as andldquo;Distinguished Africanistandrdquo; by the African Studies Association of the United States.
Table of Contents
Prefaceand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
A Note on Spelling Conventionsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
1 First Discoveries: 1933 to 1939and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 A Carefree Beginning: 1933 to 1939and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
3 War Erupts: July 1939 to 1940and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
4 Hungry Years: July 1940 to Summer 1942and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
5 Ominous Horizons: July 1942 to September 1944and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
6 Unravelings and Outcomes: September 1944 to September 1945and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
7 In Search of a Vocation: October 1945and#150;July 1951and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Epilogueand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Suggestions for Further Readingand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index