Sure Road? ─ Nationalism in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique

The latest offering from Brill's African Social Studies Series, this volume brings together scholars from various European countries (one is South African) to discuss three African countries: Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. The topic is nationalism. Most of the authors are from nations with former colonial interests in the area; some have taken academic degrees in Africa or lived for a time in the nations in question. The editor, Eric Morier-Genoud (Queen's U., Belfast, IE) studies missionaries and other contemporary topics in Mozambique. Lacking the voices of scholars from the nations themselves, he has made the choice to widen the book's perspective by including scholars from many disciplines. Contributors are historians, sociologists, political scientists, postcolonial specialists, interdisciplinary scholars, a journalist, an anthropologist, and a specialist on agriculture. Most but not all are academics. They ask varied questions: whether nationhood is defined by politics, culture, faith, economics, land, war, or other factors, how language succeeds and fails to define the existence of a nation in both literature and political talk, the social factors behind good and bad governance, whether soldiers and artists are equal influences in the formation of national identity in the region. The book concludes with a thematic biography including works in French, English, German, and Portugese. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Eric Morier-Genoud, Ph.D. (2006) in Historical Sociology, State University of New York at Binghamton, is Lecturer in African History at Queen's University Belfast. He has published extensively on the history, religion and politics of Mozambique and South Africa.