The Gun in Central Africa

“Giacomo Macola makes a serious contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century African history, and specifically to the history of warfare and military organization in Africa. Few scholars have positioned firearms at the centre of their work in quite this manner, making this an innovative and distinctive intervention.”

“In tracking the history of guns in late precolonial and early colonial history, Macola deftly draws on concepts from science, technology, and society (STS), consumption, and material-culture studies, placing African history in conversation with those fields…In his final chapter, [he] connects his story to recent histories of violence, intercontinental trade, and armament in central Africa, demonstrating anew that precolonial African history is both accessible in, and essential to, understanding contemporary Africa.” ~Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“…Provides a fascinating perspective on the evolution of societies, trade, ethnic rivalries, and war in the decades leading up to the European scramble for the continent… Macola’s broader purpose is to place the study of precolonial Africa back on the scholarly agenda and show how it remains relevant today. The conclusion of his fine book suggests a link between the adoption of firearms in central Africa a century and a half ago and the motivations and actions of the young men in today’s eastern Congo who join militias and spread insecurity and violence.” ~Foreign Affairs

“The Gun in Central Africa … is a methodological triumph … Macola’s command of language and local histories opens a new window on not just the Scramble for Africa but also the motivations of today’s militias in eastern Congo.” ~Joanna Lewis, assistant professor in the department of international history, London School of Economics

”Macola’s book, with its focus on the symbolic and social value of firearms, tells us something new and original about Africa’s history and in particular about the different ways in which African societies actively incorporated the exogenous flow of technology brought by international trade. At the same time, it is undoubtedly a valuable book for scholars who wish to understand better the present dynamics of warfare in central Africa.” ~Journal of Southern African Studies

“[Macola] reveals the limits of the theory of technological determinism and ascriptions of agency in a provocative argument about the localization of technology that removes its independent power but enhances its significance in other ways. Students of nineteenth-century history and colonial conquest in Africa will find here many challenges to received opinion as well as new entrées into the history of other eras and even technologies.” ~Michigan War Studies Review

“Macola’s important book has the great merit of providing a broad and complex comparative narrative of gun domestication within the central African savannah. In so doing, it paves the way to further explorations on the challenges and rewards that precolonial African meanings present to the historian striving to understand their legacies to contemporary central Africa.” ~Journal of African Military History

“Macola’s book shows how most African precolonial societies, even those far from the coastal areas under early European influence, became familiar with gunpowder technology. They developed their own techniques to use, repair and improve firearms and even, in some societies, to produce gunpowder and ammunition. The book’s emphasis on the multifaceted political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of firearms underlines the necessity to seek interpretations about the circulation of military technology beyond the traditional scope of international rivalry between states.” ~Technology and Culture, Vol. 61 (July 2020)