Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: January 15, 2021 at 2:33:11 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Africa]: de Luna on Juwayeyi, 'Archaeology and Oral > Tradition in Malawi: Origins and Early History of the Chewa' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Yusuf M. Juwayeyi. Archaeology and Oral Tradition in Malawi: Origins > and Early History of the Chewa. Suffolk James Currey, 2020. > Illustrations, maps, tables. 264 pp. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-84701-253-1; $14.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-84701-254-8. > > Reviewed by Kathryn M. de Luna (Georgetown University) > Published on H-Africa (January, 2021) > Commissioned by David D. Hurlbut > > With training in history and archaeology, Yusuf M. Juwayeyi deftly > brings together oral traditions and his own extensive excavations at > Mankhamba to write a history of Iron Age Chewa communities in what is > now Malawi. This is the first interdisciplinary study of this > important society (and its Iron Age polities) in several decades and > certainly the first to draw on such an extensive interdisciplinary > archive. Striking a balance between synthesis and reporting of the > details of the excavations at Mankhamba, the volume is written in an > accessible way. Indeed, as Juwayeyi points out with compelling > anecdotes from his own experience, the dearth of accessible synthetic > scholarship on Malawian prehistory has shaped history education in > the country. In this way, the book makes a contribution relevant to > both specialist audiences and to Malawian citizens. > > The volume is organized into a preface and fourteen chapters. The > preface is well worth a read by those interested in the history of > education in Africa or in the history of archaeology and heritage > management on the continent. Juwayeyi participated in many of the > developments in education and heritage management of which he writes, > and the preface marks the first of many occasions in which he teaches > us as much about the history of institutions supporting work on > Malawian prehistory as we learn about those deeper pasts. > > The first four chapters offer background to the discussion of > Juwayeyi's archaeological research. The first chapter surveys the > region, introducing topography, modern history, and the state of > historical scholarship on Chewa communities. The second chapter > addresses the "Bantu origins" of the Chewa. It should be noted that > Juwayeyi follows an older body of scholarship asserting a binary East > Bantu/West Bantu model of linguistic differentiation and expansion. > This older model has been overturned in the last five years or so > (though it was challenged much earlier), but specialists have been > slow to introduce nonspecialists to the implications of a revised > Bantu classification.[1] Juwayeyi is not to be faulted for relying on > the older model. Indeed, that older model is central to one of the > most prominent classifications of southern Africa's material culture, > so, unfortunately, its influence will likely linger in the region.[2] > Chapters 3 and 4 summarize previous efforts to reconstruct the > history of Chewa origins, migrations, and polities from oral > traditions. > > Chapter 5 shifts the book's focus to archaeology. This chapter > provides a succinct summary of archaeological methods. The treatment > of archaeology stands in contrast to the treatment of oral > traditions; the methods used to analyze oral traditions are addressed > in only a few short pages and might have been expanded. Chapter 6 > continues the overview of archaeology, summarizing previous research > and introducing readers to the ceramic sequence of the region's Iron > Age. Chapters 7 through 10 report the findings of Juwayeyi's > exacavations at Mankhamba, a large site a few kilometers from the > southwestern tip of Lake Malawi. Juwayeyi sought to identify the > location of this site because oral traditions suggested that it was > the seat of the Maravi state. The site was first occupied by > "pre-Maravi" populations sometime between the twelfth and fourteen > century. By the first half of the fifteenth century, Juwayeyi claims, > the site was occupied by the residents who would found the Maravi > state. Juwayeyi's findings are carefully described in chapters > organized around artifact classes like ceramics, lithics, beads, > metal objects, and faunal remains. We learn less about the contexts > from which these materials were excavated: hearths, houses, > workshops, and so on. Many of the finds from Juwayeyi's excavations > are quite surprising. For example, he recovered an imported silver > object, several Chinese ceramics, and a rather astounding quantity of > ivory. The ivory materials reveal important details about production: > tusks marked at intervals for cutting into bangles, bangles at > various stages of production, and hundreds of flakes. This production > met local needs, though some ivory was likely exported into the > Indian Ocean networks that sustained the wealth displayed in > Mankhamba's later phases. > > Chapters 11 through 13 draw on the preceding descriptions of the > excavation and findings to relate the history of Mankhamba in the > context of the wider region. These are the chapters that will most > interest students and scholars of central and southern Africa's early > modern era. Juwayeyi's research upends a number of specialist debates > about, for example, the region's settlement history. Among Juwayeyi's > most important contributions is the argument that the Maravi state > predated the expansion of Indian Ocean trade into the region. > Historians drawing on Portuguese sources had overemphasized the role > of trade in the origins of the polity. Juwayeyi suggests instead that > archaeological evidence of the wealth and size of Mankhamba in the > fifteenth century attests to an earlier centralizing process. > Juwayeyi suggests that this process was likely grounded in the > Kalonga's ability to distribute land to relatives and loyal retainers > responsible for the collection and remittance of tribute from > Mankhamba's hinterland. To assess Juwayeyi's argument, future > research will need to focus on those smaller (tributary?) sites on > Mankhamba's periphery. Through Juwayeyi's excavations, we have new > insight also into the power and influence of Maravi, particularly > during its height in the seventeenth century; in chapters 12 and 13, > Juwayeyi goes to great pains to connect his synthesis to the > observations of Portuguese traders that have long occupied > historians. Chapter 14 summarizes the findings of the volume simply > and clearly. > > The volume has much to recommend it. The structure of the chapters > includes accessible summaries for nonspecialists. The volume is > richly illustrated with some fifty-five black-and-white photographs, > maps, figures, and tables. The prose is accessible to an > undergraduate audience, though the narrow focus on Chewa and Maravi > to the exclusion of a wider perspective on the region means that > course adoption outside of Malawi will take significant grounding in > regional history. Yet the problem that inspired Juwayeyi--the need > for updated scholarship on Malawian prehistory--is handily addressed > in this synthesis of new and old research. > > Notes > > [1]. Rebecca Grollemund, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, > Chris Venditti, and Mark Pagel, "Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat > Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals," _Proceedings of the > National Academy of Sciences _112, no. 43 (2015): 13296-301. See also > Koen Bostoen, Bernard Clist, Charles Doumenge, Rebecca Grollemund, > Joseph Koni Muluwa, Jean Maley, and Jean-Marie Hombert, "Middle to > Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in > the Rain Forest of Western Central Africa," _Current Anthropology > _56, no. 3 (2015): 354-84. > > [2]. Thomas N. Huffman, _Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of > Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa _(Scottsville: > University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007). > > Citation: Kathryn M. de Luna. Review of Juwayeyi, Yusuf M., > _Archaeology and Oral Tradition in Malawi: Origins and Early History > of the Chewa_. H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. January, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55333 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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