Professor%20Richard%20Reid: List of publications

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Sacred violence and spirited resistance: on war and religion in African history

October 2022
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Journal article
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History and Anthropology
This paper surveys the relationship between warfare and religion in precolonial Africa, with a particular focus on eastern Africa, including the Great Lakes region and the Ethiopian Highlands. It is argued that religion played a central role in the legitimization of violence as well as in its memorialization. In the case of Ethiopia, deep-rooted Abrahamic faiths facilitated greater levels of violence and a steady expansion in the scale and scope of war, compared to local cosmologies further south. But in the latter region, too, the irruption of external dynamics – specifically the introduction of new religions – likewise involved heightened levels of violence in the late nineteenth century and beyond.
FFR

Sacred violence and spirited resistance: on war and religion in African history

October 2022
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Journal article
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History and Anthropology

Emotion and War: Conflict and Affect in the Global Age

August 2022
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Chapter
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The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World

Africa's Revolutionary Nineteenth Century and the Idea of the Scramble

December 2021
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Journal article
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American Historical Review

Africa's revolutionary nineteenth century and the idea of the 'scramble'

December 2021
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Journal article
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American Historical Review
This paper seeks to position the Scramble for Africa in the context of the continent’s transformative, global nineteenth century. While imperial historiography develops apace, Africa-facing analyses of the continent’s partition and the processes which led to it are increasingly rare. European expansion into Africa was characterized by an aggressive dynamism, and millions of Africans experienced profound crisis in the process of the establishment of colonial rule. Yet Africa’s revolutionary nineteenth century was both driven by, and culminated in, complex processes of co-option on the part of Africans and Europeans. The paper proposes that a more Africa-centered assessment of the Scramble is possible, one which aims to contextualize the partition of the continent as part of an ongoing, endogenously shaped but often exogenously connected, transformation in political, economic, and social organization and behavior. While no single overarching theory can apply to the entire continent, it is possible to identify dynamics and processes for change that recur across Africa, from political and military reform to economic innovation. These point toward possibilities for reframing Africa’s development in the late precolonial period, and enable us to challenge the hegemony long enjoyed by scholars of European empires.
19th century, historiography, FFR, empire, Africa, Europe

Atrocity in Ethiopian history

October 2021
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Journal article
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Journal of Genocide Research
FFR

A Very Ethiopian Tragedy: Tigray, the TPLF, and Cyclical History

January 2021
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Internet publication
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Dissonant Horn

January 2021
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Other
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History Today

Idi Amin's Coup d’État, Uganda 1971

January 2021
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Internet publication
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Terrorism in African History

January 2021
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Chapter
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The Cambridge History of Terrorism

The Ambiguity of Victory: the spectrum of 'winning' in African history

January 2021
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Chapter
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Winning Wars: the enduring nature and changing character of victory from antiquity to the twenty-first century

The Beginning of the End: the legacy of World War II in Africa

January 2021
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Chapter
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The Long Shadow of World War II: the legacy of the war and its impact on political and military thinking since 1945

Conflict between Eritrea and Tigray: the long standing faultline in Ethiopian politics

November 2020
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Internet publication
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A History of Modern Africa 1800 to the Present

January 2020
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Book
Adopting a long-term approach to current African issues, this text: Explores the legacies of the nineteenth century and the colonial period in the context of the contemporary era Highlights the role of nineteenth century and long-term ...
History

Shallow Graves: a memoir of the Eritrean-Ethiopian war

January 2020
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Book

"None could stand before him in the battle, none ever reigned so wisely as he”: the expansion and significance of violence in early modern Africa

January 2020
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Chapter
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A Global History of Early Modern Violence

Time and distance: Reflections on local and global history from East Africa

November 2019
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Journal article
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
This paper is concerned with East Africans’ perceptions of the intersection between their own, highly charged and contested, local histories, and the global past, as well as their place in it. The two case studies on which the paper is based – Eritrea and Uganda – have much in common in terms of recent history, not least in their experience of prolonged violence, and thus taken together they elucidate distinctive characteristics. Yet they also illustrate broader phenomena. On one level, particular interpretations of local history – both the deeper, precolonial past, and the more recent, twentieth-century past – are utilised to critique the flow of global history, as well as the impositions of globalization, and to emphasize the bitter experience of marginality and lack of agency. At the same time, the global past – conceptualized as the evolution of an intrusive, imperialist, hypocritical global order imposed by foreigners, usually Western in provenance – is seen as omnipresent and pervasive, and thus the arguments made around marginality serve to remind us, paradoxically, how central these communities are (or should be) to the framing of global history.

Remembering and forgetting Mirambo: Histories of war in modern Africa

August 2019
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Journal article
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Small Wars and Insurgencies
While the study of organised violence is considered essential to understanding the history of the West, and accordingly imbued with various layers of meaning and remembrance, war is widely regarded as inimical to the modern nation in Africa and stable development more broadly. Using examples drawn from primarily from East Africa, this paper considers the ways in which warfare in the deeper (‘precolonial’) past has been framed and envisioned in recent decades, in particular by governments whose own roots lie in revolutionary armed struggle and who began life as guerrilla movements. While in some cases particular elements of the deeper past were indeed mobilised in pursuit of contemporary political goals, in many other scenarios histories of precolonial violence were beheld as problematic and unworthy of remembrance. This paper highlights the paradox and ambiguity which has attended the memory of key aspects of Africa’s deeper past.
precolonial, warfare, memory, nation, history, FFR, revolution, nationalism, presentism, militarism

Mourning and Glory: Toward Affective Histories of Violence in Africa over la Longue Durée

March 2017
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Journal article
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Emotions: History, Culture, Society

A History of Modern Uganda

February 2017
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Book
A comprehensive history of Uganda, examining its political, economic and social development from its precolonial origins to the present day.
History

Elite bargains and political deals project: Ethiopian-Eritrean case study

January 2017
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Report

States of anxiety: history and nation in modern Africa

October 2015
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Journal article
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Past and Present
SBTMR

Writing Eritrea: history and representation in a bad neighborhood

May 2014
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Journal article
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History in Africa
This paper reflects on the ways in which Eritrea has been written about since circa 2001, the point at which the country entered a new phase of heightened authoritarianism and increased international isolation. It considers the ways in which Eritrea has been seen largely in “presentist” terms, due in no small way to the Eritrean government’s own intrinsic hostility to independent historical research, with an overwhelming fixation on its dire human rights and governance record, and on the nature of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), which governs in all but name. The paper urges a more historical approach, beginning with the critical three decades that preceded the emergence of the EPLF in the early 1970s.
SBTMR

Ghosts in the academy: historians and historical consciousness in the making of modern Uganda

April 2014
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Journal article
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Comparative Studies in Society and History
The public and professional significance of precolonial History as a discipline has declined markedly across much of sub-Saharan Africa over the last forty years: History has been both demonized—depicted as deeply dangerous and the source of savagery and instability—and portrayed as irrelevant when set alongside the needs for economic modernization and “development.” This paper explores this trend in the context of Uganda, with a particular focus on the kingdom of Buganda, chosen for its particularly rich oral and literary heritage and the thematic opportunities offered by its complex and troubled twentieth century. The paper aims to explore how “the past”—with a focus on the precolonial era—has been understood there in several distinct periods. These include the era of imperial partition and the formation of the Uganda Protectorate between the 1880s and the 1910s; competition for political space within colonial society to the 1950s; decolonization and the struggle to create new nationhood in the mid-twentieth century; and political crises and partial recovery since the 1970s. Ultimately, the paper seeks to assess the role of History in a modern African society vis-à-vis the developmental agendas and notions of economic growth against which African “progress” and prospects for “stability” are currently measured.
SBTMR

Horror, hubris and humanity: the international engagement with Africa, 1914–2014

January 2014
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Journal article
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International Affairs
This article examines the international engagement with Africa from the First World War and the apex of colonial rule through to the present day. It is argued that there have been dramatic shifts throughout this period—from increasing interventionism on the part of the colonial state, to decolonization and the emergence of nation-states with independent foreign policy programmes, to the predations and influences of the Cold War, to the developmentalism and humanitarianism of the contemporary era. Yet, there has also been marked continuity in terms of policy, perception and practice. In particular, Africa has long been seen in terms of economic opportunity—a place where markets and raw materials abound—and of military and political threat, a place in which intrinsic instability makes external intervention both desirable and inevitable. While immediate contexts have changed over time, the international engagement with the continent remains essentially economic and military. A concern for democratization and development represents a relatively new element, although even this can be traced to the paternalistic humanitarianism of the colonial era and, earlier still, moral stances toward Africa in the nineteenth century.
SBTMR

The Fragile Revolution: rethinking war and development in Africa's violent nineteenth century

January 2014
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Chapter
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Africa's Development in Historical Perspective

Introduction: African histories: past, present, and future

January 2013
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History

Oxford Handbook of Modern African History

January 2013
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Edited book

Warfare and the Military

January 2013
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History
Economic Research Southern Africa Working Papers

Violent Development: toward an economic history of African warfare and military organisation

August 2012
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Working paper
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Economic Research Southern Africa Working Papers
<p style="text-align:justify;"> The aim of this paper is deceptively simple: What has war achieved in Africa in the last two hundred years? What have the wagers of war aimed to achieve, even if they did not succeed? Why and in what ways has violence failed? This paper represents a preliminary attempt to explore what can broadly be termed the 'economic aspects' of both warfare and military organisation in Africa's modern history — to identify the economic drivers of conflict, as well as the material constraints upon it; to explore the ways in which warfare can be said to have facilitated 'development', broadly defined, as well as bringing about economic catastrophe, or at least severely inhibiting economic growth; and to highlight the degree to which participation in violence, notably as armed combatant, represented material aspiration and offered opportunities for both economic gain and social mobility. At root, it is argued here that the developmental aspects of warfare — viewed over the long term, and understood within local parameters — need to be appreciated alongside its unquestionably highly destructive elements. The paper uses as its timeframe the period since c.1800, a date which — give or take a decade or two on either side, variable from place to place — denotes the beginning of Africa's 'modern era'. In many ways the centrepiece of the thesis presented here is that across much of the continent the 'long' nineteenth century — stretching between the 1780s and the 1920s — witnessed a revolution in military affairs, ongoing aspects of which have had a profound influence on postcolonial Africa. The paper aims to examine the economic dimensions of that revolution and its aftermath, and to place Africa's recent economic and military history in a longer-term context. </p>
SBTMR

Warfare in African History

April 2012
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Book
This book examines the role of war in shaping the African state, society, and economy by tracing shifts in the culture and practice of war.
History

A History of Modern Africa 1800 to the Present

January 2012
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Book
Adopts a long-term approach to current issues, stressing theimportance of nineteenth-century and deeper indigenous dynamics inexplaining Africa&#39;s later twentieth-century challenges Places a greater focus on African agency, especially during ...
History

Past and presentism: the 'precolonial' and the foreshortening of african history

July 2011
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Journal article
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Journal of African History
This article considers the marginalization of precolonial history from mainstream Africanist scholarship in recent decades, and argues that this can be understood in the context of a scholarly culture that attributes an exaggerated significance to the history of the twentieth century. The article highlights some of the work that continues to be done on Africa's deeper past, with a view to demonstrating the enormous value of such research in elucidating present-day issues. It also argues, however, that work on the modern period is preponderant, and that there is a clear tendency toward historical foreshortening, evidenced in recent scholarship on such topics as conflict and ethnicity.
postcolonial, precolonial, SBTMR, historiography, colonial

Frontiers of Violence in North-East Africa Genealogies of Conflict Since C.1800

March 2011
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Book
Relates violent conflict through the 19th and 20th centuries in the region of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Sudanese and Somali frontiers to ethnic, political, and religious conflict and the violent state- and empire-building processes which ...
History

Violence and its Sources: European witnesses to the military revolution in nineteenth-century eastern Africa

January 2011
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Chapter
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The Power of Doubt: essays in honour of David Henige

Warfare in precolonial Africa

January 2011
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Chapter
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Encyclopaedia of War

Eritrea: The Siege State

September 2010
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Report
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Africa Report
To prevent Eritrea from becoming the Horn of Africa’s next failed state, the international community must engage more with the country.
SBTMR

Arms and Adolescence: male youth, warfare and statehood in nineteenth-century eastern Africa

January 2010
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Chapter
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Generations Past: youth in East African history

The politics of silence: interpreting stasis in contemporary Eritrea

July 2009
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Journal article
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Review of African Political Economy
This article examines the current stand-off between the Eritrean government and the broader population, with an appreciation of the historical dynamics that have influenced the contemporary situation. It is argued here that although little appears to be changing in Eritrea on the surface, subtle but important shifts in attitude are taking place, both within government and among the broader populace. The article explores contemporary political culture in Eritrea, including the system which has developed around the position of the President Isaias Afwerki, and in particular focuses on the marked degree of militarisation which now characterises Eritrean society. Specifically, education has now become highly militarised, while the issue of the ‘demarcation’ of the border with Ethiopia – a key issue since the ceasefire in 2000 – has wider implications for future relations between government and people.
SBTMR

Eritrea's External Relations Understanding Its Regional Role and Foreign Policy

January 2009
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Edited book
This volume brings together the insights of international analysts and scholars in an effort to understand the nature of Eritrea&#39;s foreign relations, both regionally and in the wider international arena.
Political Science

Eritrea’s regional role and foreign policy: past and present perspectives

January 2009
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Chapter
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Eritrea's External Relations: understanding its regional role and foreign policy

Ghosts of the Mesafint: Contemplating Conflict in Eritrean-Ethiopian History

January 2009
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Journal article
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Northeast African Studies

Revisiting Primitive War: Perceptions of Violence and Race in History

October 2007
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Journal article
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War & Society
43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society, 4303 Historical Studies, 4408 Political Science, 4410 Sociology

The Trans-Mereb Experience: Perceptions of the Historical Relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia

July 2007
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Journal article
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Journal of Eastern African Studies
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Defining Frontiers: violence and identity in nineteenth-century Eritrea

January 2007
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Journal article
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Eritrean Studies Review

Human Booty: some observations of the seizure of people in war, Buganda c.1700-1890

January 2007
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Chapter
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Slavery in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa

War in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa

January 2007
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Book

Traumatic Transitions: Open Season on the Eritrean State

October 2006
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Journal article
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African Affairs
44 Human Society

War and remembrance: orality, literacy and conflict in the Horn

June 2006
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Journal article
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Journal of African Cultural Studies
4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Caught in the headlights of history: Eritrea, the EPLF and the post-war nation-state

January 2005
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Journal article
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The Journal of Modern African Studies

NATIONHOOD, POWER AND HISTORY: UNFINISHED BUSINESS AND THE LONGUE DURÉE IN UGANDA

January 2005
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Journal article
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The Journal of African History

“Ethiopians believe in God, Sha’abiya believe in mountains”: the EPLF and the 1998-2000 war in historical perspective

January 2005
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Chapter
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Unfinished Business: Ethiopia and Eritrea at War

Eritrea: dieci anni di indipendenza, 1993-2003

January 2004
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Journal article
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Afriche e Orienti

Motives and Opportunities: the pre-colonial background to the Uganda Agreement of 1900

January 2004
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Journal article
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Uganda Journal

Old Problems in New Conflicts: Some Observations on Eritrea and Its Relations with Tigray, from Liberation Struggle to Inter-State War

January 2003
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Journal article
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Africa: Journal of the International African Institute

Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda

January 2002
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Book

Warfare and Urbanisation: the relationship between town and conflict in pre-colonial eastern Africa

January 2002
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Chapter
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The Urban Experience in Eastern Africa

The Challenge of the Past: The Quest for Historical Legitimacy in Independent Eritrea

January 2001
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Journal article
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History in Africa
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

A Fierce Race

January 2000
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Other

Merchants, Missions and the Remaking of the Urban Environment in Buganda, c.1840-1890

January 2000
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Chapter
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Africa's Urban Past

Merchants, Missions and the Remaking of the Urban Environment in Buganda, c.1840-1890

January 2000
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Chapter
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Africa's Urban Past

Images of an African Ruler: Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda, ca. 1857–1884

January 1999
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Journal article
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History in Africa
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, Heart Disease, Cardiovascular

War and Militarism in Pre-Colonial Buganda

January 1999
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Journal article
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Azania Archaeological Research in Africa
4301 Archaeology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

THE GANDA ON LAKE VICTORIA: A NINETEENTH- CENTURY EAST AFRICAN IMPERIALISM

November 1998
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Journal article
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The Journal of African History
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Mutesa and Mirambo: Thoughts on East African Warfare and Diplomacy in the Nineteenth Century

January 1998
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Journal article
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The International Journal of African Historical Studies
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Traders, chiefs and soldiers: the pre-colonial capitals of Buganda

January 1998
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Journal article
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Les Cahiers de l’Institut Francais de Recherche en Afrique

The Reign of Kabaka Nakibinge: Myth or Watershed?

January 1997
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Journal article
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History in Africa
4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology