Revolts and violence have always been features of African history but questions frequently still remain as to what and who the targets of resistance were. This volume reviews the subject of resistance in the light of current scholarly thought. Were political forms of resistance directed at the imposition or ending of colonial rule or at African elites profiting from the onset of capitalist relations of production? Or did they have purely sociological or religious roots? With contributions from historians, anthropologists and political scientists, Rethinking Resistance analyzes the concepts of resistance, violence and ideological imagination, and has chapters on uprisings and revolts in nineteenth-century pre-colonial societies and early colonial Africa, post-colonial rebellions and more recent and contemporary conflicts.