Marion Wallace is African curator at the British Library and a historian of Namibia. John Kinahan is an archaeologist based in Namibia.
An indispensable introduction to the history of Namibia for all
interested in the country and her people.
*Africa Review of Books*
Clearly written with impressive documentation resembling that of
research monographs, this is among the best African country
histories. . . . Highly recommended
*CHOICE*
without a doubt the best account of the history [of Namibia] to
date.
*Historische Zeitschrift*
Rarely, if ever, do academic histories reflect . . . the whole
gamut from precolonial to postcolonial pasts. Marion Wallace has
remedied this problem in a magisterial new book, A History of
Namibia. . . . Her goal here is synthesis and perspective and she
succeeds admirably on both fronts. . . . At the same time that
Namibians across ethnicities are well served by, and well
represented in, one of the first survey texts of Namibian history,
anyone interested in the development of social systems and African
politics writ large will benefit from reading, and rereading, this
book.
*Mail and Guardian, South Africa*
An excellent history of Namibia, which should be accessible to a
wide readership in the country, and also to many historians and
history students with an interest in colonialism and liberation on
the African continent. The coverage of both the German period and
of South African rule in Namibia is excellent.
*Professor Alan Barnard, University of Edinburgh*
At last! A comprehensive history which will be essential reading
for anyone interested in moving beyond the shallow histories
contained in tourist guides. This well crafted, fair, insightful
and sensitive volume will appeal not only to the general reader but
will be compulsory reading for scholars as well. Wallace's book is
destined to become an instant classic.
*Robert Gordon, Professor of Anthropology and African Studies,
University of Vermont*
Marion Wallace achieves nothing less then the first modern general
history of Namibia. Her erudite treatment of the various aspects of
Namibian history from the German colonial racial state and the
first genocide of the Twentieth Century to the de facto annexation
by South Africa and the very late independence will hugely benefit
scholars and students of Namibia and Southern Africa more
generally.
*Prof. Dr. Jurgen Zimmerer, Chair in African History, University of
Hamburg*
Wallace hopes not simply to have written a reference book but also
to have generated new debate and research on the history of one of
Africa’s least understood and least studied countries. That she has
done extremely well. Scholars and students of Namibia and southern
Africa will hugely enjoy and benefit from reading this book.
*International Journal of African Historical Studies*
Perceptive, multi-layered and judicious, Marion Wallace's
comprehensive 'History of Namibia' is a veritable tour de force.
Based on a deep knowledge of the existing historiography but also
of the most recent research in Namibia itself, over two-thirds of
the volume deals with the history of the region and its peoples
since 1870, and ends with a deft summary of the period since
independence. Yet Wallace - and the archaeologist, John Kinahan,
who contributes the earliest chapter - are also to be congratulated
on their decision to root this account in the far deeper history of
south-west Africa. The volume will surely prove indispensible to
anyone with an interest in Namibian, southern African, and, indeed,
African history more widely.
*Shula Marks, Emeritus Professor and Hon. Fellow, School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London*
This first history of independent Namibia takes its small,
ethnically diverse, largely pastoral community, in a vast piece of
Africa, through colonialism, dispossession, genocide and war to the
birth of 'a stable, peaceful, relatively prosperous nation state.'
A compelling story, brilliantly told.
*Randolph Vigne, writer, researcher and campaigner on Namibia since
the late 1950s*
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