Death, Belief and Politics in Central African History

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research for this book was generously supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) Major Research Grant, ‘Death in Africa: A History c. 1800 to Present Day’ [119224], held at the University of Cambridge and Goldsmith’s College, University of London. This was a collaborative project and we would like to acknowledge the central contribution of our co-researchers on that project, Rebekah Lee and Mark Lamont. Megan Vaughan’s work was also supported by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and by the Smuts Memorial Fund at the University of Cambridge. A fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa from October to December 2012 enabled her to complete the writing of a number of chapters in this book and she would like to thank the Director of STIAS, Professor Hendrik Geyer, and his colleagues for making this possible. Her archival research depended on the assistance of staff at the National Archives of Malawi, the White Fathers’ Archives in Rome and the University of Cape Town Manuscripts and Archives. She is greatly indebted to Mathero Nkhalamba of the Department of Psychology, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, and to Pearson Mphangwe and Chikondi Lipato for their research on suicide. Her work has benefited from the generosity and insights of a number of psychiatrists and psychologists working in the region, especially David Ndetei in Nairobi, Felix Kauye in Zomba and Harris Chilale in Mzuzu. More generally she has benefited from the long-term support and intellectual input viii walima t. kalusa and megan vaughan of colleagues at Chancellor College, University of Malawi (particularly that of Kings Phiri and Wapu Mulwafu), and of colleagues and students in the Faculty of History and the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge. A number of friends and fellow researchers contributed through extended discussion, criticism and encouragement, including Rebekah Lee, Julie Livingston, Claire Wendland, Anne Mager and Ashley Moffett. Permission to carry out the fieldwork that forms part of this book was granted by the National Research Council of Malawi, through the Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi. An earlier version of Chapter II appeared as ‘“Divine Kings”: Sex, Death and Anthropology in Inter-War East/Central Africa’, Journal of African History, 49, 3 (2008), 383–401; Chapter VII draws on ‘Suicide in Late Colonial Africa: The Evidence of Inquests from Nyasaland’ published in American Historical Review, 115, 2 (2010), 385–404 and ‘The Discovery of Suicide in Eastern and Southern Africa’, African Studies, 71, 2 (2012), 234–250. Walima T. Kalusa’s work benefited enormously from the comments and criticisms of several colleagues at the University of Cambridge, the University of Zambia and from those who participated in the conference on ‘Managing Uncertainty: Death and Loss in Africa’ held at the Witwatersrand Social and Economic Research between 8 and 10 April 2010. He would further like to thank numerous informants, research assistants, and the archivists at the National Archives of Zambia in Lusaka and the Mine Industry Archives in Ndola. Without their cooperation, it would have been impossible to find relevant material for this study. Earlier versions of Chapters III and VI respectively appeared as ‘Death, Christianity, and African Miners: Contesting Colonial Rule in the Zambian Copperbelt, 1935–1962’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 44, 1 (2011), 89–112 and as ‘The Killing of Lilian Margaret Burton and Black and White Nationalisms in Northern Rhodesia acknowledgements ix (Zambia) in the 1960s’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 37, 1 (2011), 63–77. Connie Smith’s admirable skills as research assistant, editor and magical multitasker have been absolutely indispensable and we extend our deepest thanks to her. We are also very grateful to Joan Haig and Marja Hinfelaar of Lembani Press for their encouragement and hard work in producing this book. We are proud to be publishing with Lembani Press. ...