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Nearly Native, Barely Civilized by Roy Dilley offers the first full-length biography of Henri Gaden, an exceptional French colonial character who lived through some of the most radical transformations in West African history. It provides an in-depth, intimate and rounded portrayal of the man, his place in history, and the contradictions, tensions and ambiguities not only in his personal and professional life but also at the heart of the colonial enterprise.
Soldier, ethnographer and linguist, lover, father, administrator and Governor, Henri Gaden (1867-1939) lived for 45 years in West Africa. Faced with the chaos, insecurity and insanity of colonial existence, Gaden experienced a rich mosaic of human pain and passion, of curiosity and intellectual endeavour, of folly and failure.
Soldier, ethnographer and linguist, lover, father, administrator and Governor, Henri Gaden (1867-1939) lived for 45 years in West Africa. Faced with the chaos, insecurity and insanity of colonial existence, Gaden experienced a rich mosaic of human pain and passion, of curiosity and intellectual endeavour, of folly and failure.
Price: $125.00
Pages: 442
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: African History
Publication Date:
02 January 2014
ISBN: 9789004250963
Format: Paperback
'The book does not aim to simply reconstruct a conventional historical narrative of a life or of event as they unfold. It sheds light on the nature of the colonialism in West Africa. Through Gaden's experience we can see how colonialism imposes order and new types of organization on native affairs. Gaden does not act merely as a military officer and administrator. In Mauritania, he was revered as a man of learning, justice and honesty, and of immense culture stature amongst the Moors. He is a researcher and an ethnographer who seeks information from the indigenous, notices and writes down Africa's world. Overall, Dilley achieves its scope, to present us a rather unknown Africa through the optics of their protagonists.'
Antonios Chaldeos in Journal of Oriental and African Studies, 24 (2015), pp. 482-485
Antonios Chaldeos in Journal of Oriental and African Studies, 24 (2015), pp. 482-485
Roy Dilley, D.Phil. (1984), University of Oxford, is Professor of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews. He has published widely on anthropological theory and West African ethnography, including a monograph, Islamic and Caste Knowledge Practices among Haalpulaar'en, Senegal (EUP/IAI, 2004).