Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and Their Transformations in Taita, Kenya, 1800-1950

Review
[A] thought-provoking account of the construction of ethnic identity among several groups of people with comparable languages and social organizations who migrated in the Taita hills of Kenya in the late 17th century....Throughout the book, Braveman has argued powerfully for the dynamic nature of ethnic identity. He has an impressive array of sources, both archival and, indispensable for this study, close to 170 oral interviews. Upper-division undergraduates and above.Choice


Book Description
Based on extensive archival research and substantial fieldwork in Kenya, Braveman's book is an important addition to scholarship on East African history.


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Examines the emergence of a Taita ethnic identity in early 20th- century Africa, the historical and new resources from which it was created, and the continual remaking of it. Analyzes how social groups in Taita formed and changed over a long period of time, and how the groups' social outlooks and beliefs coalesced and changed. Draws on interviews conducted during the 1980s and 1990s with older Taita men and women, as well as missionary documents and personal papers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


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