After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name-"Luyia"-appeared on the official census in 1948. The emergence of the Luyia represents a clear case of ethnic "invention." At the same time, current restrictive theories privileging ethnic homogeneity fail to explain this defiantly diverse ethnic project, which now comprises the second-largest ethnic group in Kenya.
In Cartography and the Political Imagination, which encompasses social history, geography, and political science, Julie MacArthur unpacks Luyia origins. In so doing, she calls for a shift to understanding geographic imagination and mapping not only as means of enforcing imperial power and constraining colonized populations, but as tools for articulating new political communities and dissent. Through cartography, Luyia ethnic patriots crafted an identity for themselves characterized by plurality, mobility, and cosmopolitan belonging.
While other historians have focused on the official maps of imperial surveyors, MacArthur scrutinizes the ways African communities adopted and adapted mapping strategies to their own ongoing creative projects. This book marks an important reassessment of current theories of ethnogenesis, investigates the geographic imaginations of African communities, and challenges contemporary readings of community and conflict in Africa.
"MacArthur's exploration of the historiography of ethnicity in
Kenya combines theoretical sophistication with innovative and
deftly interdisciplinary methodological work, along with a knack
for personalized storytelling. In Cartography and the Political
Imagination, MacArthur has knit together a diverse and complex
array of actors, plot lines, and forms of evidence (archival,
cartographic, oral), resulting in a fascinating and important piece
of historical scholarship." -- Heidi Gengenbach, University of
Massachusetts, Boston
"Three intertwined lines of argument are central to the study:
'imagined communities' constructed out of perceived concepts of
ethnic, religious, linguistic, and genealogical links; the
emergence of a particular form of ethnic patriotism consisting of
the complex interplay of nativism and cosmopolitanism in African
political thought; and how the mobilization of geographic
identities rendered the development of 'cartographic political
imaginations.' ... Summing up: Recommended (upper-level
undergraduates and above)." * CHOICE *
"Cartography is really a fascinating and important study of
how the Luyia successfully 'imagined' and then created a single
ethnic constituency ... Cartography draws on the already
rich literature on ethnogenesis ... and takes it further in a case
study that challenges much of the conventional wisdom about how
ethnic identities are made." * African Studies Review *
"The Luyia defy assumptions about African ethnicity. With neither
myth of common descent nor shared vernacular speech, this modern
community is yet no colonial invention. These least 'tribal' of
Kenya's peoples mapped their own territory of civic pluralism. In
this new departure in ethnic studies, Julie MacArthur persuasively
subverts our conventional wisdom." -- John Lonsdale, University of
Cambridge
"Cartography and Political Imagination breaks new ground in
Kenyan historiography with its focus on western Kenya. This
detailed and sophisticated study argues that Luyia ethnic
architects used cartography to create a demographically inclusive,
politically pluralistic, and progressive cosmopolitan community. It
is refreshing to read a book on Kenya that does not focus on Mau
Mau or the Kikuyu. MacArthur's exemplary study of a regional
history will be indispensable to scholars of ethnogenesis and
cartography in Africa and elsewhere." -- Kenda Mutongi, Williams
College
"The Luyia have long represented a potential test case for the
limits to the invention of ethnicity. MacArthur's rich study does
not disappoint. It reveals how a series of external influences-land
pressures, gender panic, and the drawing of administrative
boundaries-led the Luyia to define themselves through appeals to
locality rather than shared ancestries. Its most fascinating
contribution lies in its treatment of Luyia practices of
counter-mapping." -- Paul Nugent, University of Edinburgh
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