Kingship and State: The Buganda Dynasty

by Christopher Wrigley

Overview

In a study of Africa's political and religious past, Christopher Wrigley uses local traditions and comparative mythology to explore an ancient system of myth and ritual in the precolonial kingdom of Buganda, the nucleus of modern Uganda. The study includes critical assessment of oral traditions and places Buganda in a wider regional context. The book is an elegant, wide-ranging and original study of one of Africa's most famous kingdoms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521473705
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/23/1996
Series:	African Studies , #88
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

1. Preamble; 2. The story and its making; 3. Introduction to myth; 4. Introduction to Buganda; 5. The remoter past; 6. Genesis; 7. The cycle of the kings; 8. Fragments of history; 9. Foreign affairs; 10. The making of the state; 11. Reflections.

Editorial Reviews

"...[Wrigley's] book, which is provocative on almost every page, rightly challenges historians and anthropologists to move beyond mundane temporal issues to consider how Africans dealt with the deepest questions of moral and political philosophy." American Historical Review

"In addition to its analytic brilliance, Wrigley's study is a compendium of wonderful stories that deal with both kings and kingship, with both people and humanity. In short, this book shows why states never cease to fascinate..." Choice

"Kingship and State is a highly readable and engrossing history; it is also an outstanding exemplar of data from different disciplines woven together. It is essential reading for those interested in African History, and it is going to remain so for a long time." Christopher Ehret, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Christopher Wrigley's brilliantly original and provocative work of research and synthesis may inspire renewed attention by other scholars to major issues of precolonial lake region history at a time when archaeology is revealing much new information." John A. Rowe, International Journal of African Historical Studies

From the Publisher