Rural Society and Cotton in Colonial Zaire

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Many institutions and individuals have helped to bring this book to completion. I am indebted to the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies for a fellowship which allowed me to collect data in Belgium and Zaire. The Graduate School of the University of Minnesota provided support during the writing of the dissertation which led to this book. The Frederick Douglass Institute of the University of Rochester provided fInancial support for revising the dissertation and also structured opportunities for discussion. A PSC-CUNY award funded research to complete data collection, and the Graduate School of Wayne State University granted funds for making maps and developing fIlms. I express my appreciation to Allen Isaacman, my advisor and friend. For more than ten years now, he has been more than a great teacher and scholar whose ideas have had a profound impact on my own. He provided fInancial aid and moral support when they were most needed. I am deeply thankful to Professor Jan Vansina, who read the entire manuscript . He made available not only his unparalleled scholarship, but he took pains to point out incongruities and gallicisms. I am indebted to Ellen and Jeff Hoover, teachers and friends who for years have encouraged my intellectual growth. I thank Delinda for her patience as I constantly changed the text and tables. Death affects each of us differently. When it knocked many times at my door, nothing seemed to have meaning. Many people helped soften the loss of my daughter. I heartily thank Eulalie and F. Kumeso, Brigitte and A. Ngoyi, Ngoyi Bukonda, Luise White, T. Sunseri, Nkasa Yelengi, E. Mandala, G. Corbin, Obotela Lingule, Silika Litofe, S. Mbaki, R. Ngandali, Gilbertine, Souza, Masengo, Kashinde, and Umba. I was moved by the generosity of my colleagues and friends in the History xv xvi Acknowledgments Departments at Wayne State University and the University of Minnesota , the Frederick Douglass Institute at the University of Rochester, and many others-the list is too long to mention them by name. I am indebted to my good friends Nancy Hunt and Pier Larson who raised the Memorial Fund for Pierrette Aoka. Rural Society and Cotton in Colonial Zaire ...