Argues that while Africa has produced some of the worlds oldest and most diverse art, to date the study of African art and its history are non-existent within the curricula of African schools, universities and even African art academies, while art textbooks designed and produced to address such needs are virtually non-existent. The scholarship of African art has been the product of western sensibility and an expression of western aesthetic responses to African visual culture. This book aims to be the first in a series to address this gap. Bringing together leading scholars and artists from the East Africa region, it illustrates how visually creative people in East Africa expressed themselves in the past through art and artefacts, and how some contemporary artists respond to the world within and beyond Africa. Col & b/w illus, 202pp, TANZANIA. MKUKI NA NYOTA PUBLISHERS.

A multidisciplinary study in which historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists examine how Maasai identity has been created, evoked, contested and transformed from the time of their earliest settlement to the present. Index, bib, notes, maps, xiii, b/w illus, 322pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS, 0852552165

A survey of the society, history, religion and worldview of the Booran of East Africa. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 082391769X

East Africa is often neglected in surveys of African 'art'. Masks and sculpted human figures, which are generally the main focus of interest for historians of African 'art', are most notable for their relative rarity when compared with the rich and accomplished traditions of the Zaire basin and West Africa. The real challenge is not to explain why one culture produces more or less in the way of material objects than another, but to establish how particular expressions or forms of creativity relate to their makers' and users' intentions and how they function and are given meaning in particular social contexts. The contributions in this book therefore offer new insights into the creative landscape of east Africa and help showcase the ongoing research on east African visual and material culture. Bib, map, 5 col photos, 40 b/w photos, 142pp, UK. HORNIMAN MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS.

An anthropological document looking at the intersection between music, gender, and religion as cultural elements that are socially created and expressed in the everyday activities of the Swahili people of Mombasa, Kenya. Index, bib, refs, notes, gloss, xix, 361pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS, 0865439745

This was the first full-length account of a hitherto little-known people and remains one of the very few modern accounts of an African ancestral cult. The Lugbara are an African people in whose society formal political authority and sanctions are al-most completely lacking. The Lugbara sacrifice to their ancestors and in this book the author shows how the significance of their beliefs and rituals may be under-stood only within the context of a struggle for power between family heads and their dependants. With an introduction by Thomas Beidelman. Index, xliii, 277pp. UK. LIT VERLAG.085255284X

A survey of the society and history of the Maasai of East Africa, looking also at Maasai relationships with neighbouring peoples. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 0823917576

More than 20 case studies make an emphatic point about the musical and cultural richness of East Africa. Notes, refs, index, 468pp, TANZANIA. MKUKI NA NYOTA PUBLISHERS.

Ujama socialism in Tanzania, comprador capitalism in Kenya, military fascism in Uganda propagated different national ideologies. Politicians, historians and writers discuss and narrate the nation controversially. The author envisages the plurality of perspectives further by analysing the works of indigenous African writers like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Kibera, or Serumaga, the Malawian expatriate Rubadiri and the Asian writers Nazareth and Vassanji. With Mary Okurut, Margaret Ogola and Oludhe Macgoye he presents a feminist reading of the nation and history. The plurality of approaches reflects the complexity of the topic of the novel and the nolitics of nation building in East Africa. BAS#55, 189pp, GERMANY. BAYREUTH A S, 392751070X

Features case studies primarily focusing on Ethiopia and Kenya to offer research from a variety of regional communities to explore issues of household sales behaviour, price determinants, livestock market information systems, cross border and export marketing, and crisis period marketing. Presents recent research on how livestock markets operate in Eastern Africa and describes policy measures that can help enhance their functioning. Illustrates how it is possible to improve livestock marketing and achieve multiple desirable objectives through serious and coordinated effort. Index, bib, 288pp, UK. ITDG PUBLISHING.

An approach to the anthropological study of philosophical discourses in the Swahili context of Mombasa, Kenya. In this historically established Muslim environment, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, philosophy is investigated as social discourse and intellectual practice, situated in everyday life. This is done from the perspective of an 'anthropology of philosophy', a project which is spelled out in the opening chapter. Entry-points and guidelines for the ethnography are provided by discussions of Swahili literary genres, life histories, and social debates. 256pp, UK. INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE.

Draws on Gikuyu and KiSwahili verse forms gungu, kimondo and gi candi, in an examination of dialogic poetry (relations, contestation and performance). Includes poetry in the original language with translation into English. Index, bib, notes, 223pp, KENYA. JOMO KENYATTA FOUNDATION.

A consideration of the themes of modernity, identity and politics on the East African coast and islands as globalisation, tourism, and emigration and immigration make their impact. Specific issues addressed include the effects of recent economic and social changes in towns such as Bagamoyo and Malindi, violent political confrontation in Zanzibar, the essentialisation of ethnic differences, the effect of modernity on Swahili language, and the representation of women in literature. Index, bib, xiv, 235pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS, 1592210465

Argues that popular cultural productions are not fixed to an unchanging social category as the basis for their creation, but are defined by mobility of ideas, creative borrowing and improvisation. It deals with popular media, ranging from inscriptions on matatu (taxis) to cartoon strips and fiction columns in newspapers. If cartoon strips and humour columns in popular periodicals provide alternative sites of expression in a fast-evolving socio-cultural formation, then the matatu discourses signal a radical avant-garde African cultural expression. Index, bib, 337pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.