MISR Publication

In this issue, we emulate the model we initiated in The MISR Review, no. 3. The bulk of the issue is a set of three lectures on a single theme; each lecture is followed by a set of comments, one or two. The lectures were organized around a single theme, Palestine as a Question, given by Raef Zreik from Tel Aviv University. The three lectures were titled: 1. Formation; 2. Justice; and 3. Decolonisation. We saw the lecture series as a way of introducing a debate on two critical questions: Israel/Palestine, and decolonisation.

In one of his traditions, the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, highlighted the power of words when he said, “Indeed, there is magic in eloquence.” Shahab Ahmed exhibits this magic when he charmingly advances a radically new way of understanding Islam in his 2016 book, What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic. Ahmed sets out to establish Islam as “a historical and human phenomenon . . . in its plentitude and complexity” and hence to “conceptualize unity [in Islam] not in diversity but in the face of outright contradiction.”

This issue appears more than a year after its scheduled publication. We have no alibis to offer, just an admission and a request that this be taken as an illustration of the continuing steep learn- ing curve at MISR.

This issue marks a step in that long journey. The bulk of the issue draws on chapters from doctoral thesis successfully defended over the past year. Haydee Bangerezako’ essay, Indirect Writing and the Construction of Burundi’s History, analyzes history writing in the era of colonial indirect rule. Because it borrowed its categories and conceptions from the colonial project, Bangerezako dubs this genre of writing ‘indirect history.’ The essay focuses on the narratives produced by African chiefs reinterpreting the past within the colonial epistemological framework.

Recent scholarship on Africa recognizes the relevance of looking at the connection between Africa and the Indian Ocean realm. Focusing on one of the well-known diaspora in this region, the Yemenis, this study examines the interaction/interface between Yemeni diaspora property management (inheritance) and the colonial social order in Djibouti.

Note: This paper was co authored by Dr. Samson Bezabeh, Dr Lyn Ossome and Prof. Mahmood Mamdani.  

Begun in 2012, the doctoral program in Social Studies at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) is driven by the conviction that key to research is formulating the problem of research. Given that our objective was to transform MISR from a consultancy into a research unit, we summed up the difference in a sentence: in a consultancy, the client defines the question; in a research unit, the question is the prerogative and responsibility of the researcher.

NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS The MISR Review welcomes two types of contributions: first, submissions from doctoral students from within the African continent, based on primary research and an original theoretical engagement; second, think pieces from scholars around the world, inviting and initiating a critical discussion on the literature focused on a particular theme. Submissions should be original contributions and not under consideration by any other publication.