The Speed of Change

In the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motor-cycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet its impact extends across the totality of human existence; from ecological devastation to economic advancement, from cultural transformation to political change, through to a myriad of other themes. This edited volume of eleven contributions by historians, anthropologists and social and political scientists explores aspects of the social history and anthropology of the motor-vehicle in Africa.

Jan-Bart Gewald, Ph.D. (1996) in History, Leiden University, is senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden. He has published extensively on aspects of African history and is specifically interested in the history of the social relationship between people and technology in Africa.
Sabine Luning, Ph.D. (1997) is lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University. She has published on dynamics of rituals, politics and land use in Burkina Faso. Her current research focuses on economic anthropology, in particular gold mining in West Africa.
Klaas van Walraven Ph.D. (1997) in Political Science, Leiden University, is a researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden. He has published on Africa’s international relations (OAU, AU, ECOMOG) and is working on a history of the Sawaba rebellion in Niger (1954-1975).