Cartography and the political imagination mapping community in colonial Kenya = mapping community in colonial Kenya

After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name - 'Luyia' - appeared on the official census in 1948. The emergence of the Luyia represents a clear case of ethnic 'invention'. In this volume, which encompasses social history, geography and political science, Julie MacArthur unpacks Luyia origins. After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name—“Luyia”—appeared on the official census in 1948. The emergence of the Luyia represents a clear case of ethnic “invention.” At the same time, current restrictive theories privileging ethnic homogeneity fail to explain this defiantly diverse ethnic project, which now comprises the second-largest ethnic group in Kenya. In Cartography and the Political Imagination, which encompasses social history, geography, and political science, Julie MacArthur unpacks Luyia origins. In so doing, she calls for a shift to understanding geographic imagination and mapping not only as means of enforcing imperial power and constraining colonized populations, but as tools for articulating new political communities and dissent. Through cartography, Luyia ethnic patriots crafted an identity for themselves characterized by plurality, mobility, and cosmopolitan belonging. While other historians have focused on the official maps of imperial surveyors, MacArthur scrutinizes the ways African communities adopted and adapted mapping strategies to their own ongoing creative projects. This book marks an important reassessment of current theories of ethnogenesis, investigates the geographic imaginations of African communities, and challenges contemporary readings of community and conflict in Africa. After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name-"Luyia"-appeared atop the official census in 1948. The Luyia disagreed over language, history, and customs-and yet, at particular points in time, they identified themselves as a united people. Cartography and the Political Imagination illuminates the political imaginations by which a defiantly diverse people were invited to see themselves as a tribe. Julie MacArthur calls for a shift to understanding geographic imagination and mapping not only as means of enforcing imperial power, but also as tools for articulating new political communities. The creation of a plural, cosmopolitan, and territorially grounded ethnic identity allowed Luyia patriots to defend against encroaching European settlers and African neighbors, to map out gendered spaces of belonging, to navigate the politics of decolonization, and to foster a vibrant and diverse political culture. MacArthur offers a social history of cartography, scrutinizing the ways African communities adopted and adapted mapping strategies to their own ongoing creative projects. This book marks an important reassessment of current theories of ethnogenesis, investigates the geographic imaginations of African communities, and challenges contemporary readings of community and conflict in Africa Mapping political communities in Africa -- The geographies of western Kenya -- Land, gold, and commissioning the "tribe"--Ethnic patriotism in the interwar years -- Speaking Luyia: linguistic work and political imagination -- Mapping gender: moral crisis and the limits of cosmopolitan pluralism in the 1940s -- Between loyalism and dissent: ethnic geographies in the era of Mau Mau -- Mapping decolonization -- Beyond the ethnos and the nation Encompassing History, Geography, And Political Science, Macarthur's Study Evaluates The Role Of Geographic Imagination And The Impact Of Cartography Not Only As Means Of Expressing Imperial Power And Constraining Colonized Populations, But As Tools For The Articulation Of New Political Communities And Resistance.