The Land beyond the Mists: Essays in Identity & Authority in Precolonial Congo and Rwanda

The horrific tragedies of Central Africa in the 1990s riveted the attention of the world. But these crises did not occur in a historical vacuum. Peering through the mists of the past, David Newbury presents a series of case studies that illustrate the significant advances in our knowledge and understanding of the precolonial histories of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo. Based on both oral and written sources, the essays in The Land beyond the Mists are important both for their methods-viewing history from the perspective of local actors-and for their conclusions, which seriously challenge colonial myths about the area.