By James Lassiter, MS ’75, PhD ’83 (Anthropology)

"Circumcision and Coffee in Uganda" is a history of an African ethnic group known as the Bamasaaba [bah-MAH-sah-bah]. It is about the group’s origins and their responses to Europeans and others who began arriving uninvited in their homeland over a century and a half ago. The main challenge the Bamasaaba faced was retaining control of their land, livelihood and culture during the sixty years their homeland was occupied by a colonial power, the British. They responded by trying to strengthen group identity and unity around the beliefs, values and behaviors expressed in their male initiation and circumcision rite, "imbalu." Greater unity was also pursued through economic solidarity based on their small-holder coffee cultivation. The Bamasaaba believed these efforts were their best hope to survive as a society and culture. This book tells how the Bamasaaba went about this and to what degree they succeeded up to the present.This 420-page volume has something for all readers: those interested in the world’s cultures and how they change; secondary school and university students; academics in the humanities and social sciences; and all others interested in ancient and modern Africa. It contains politics, economics, myth, intrigue, romance, poetry, and humor - stories anyone, from any background, can relate to and appreciate. It contains the actions of ivory hunters and slave traders, European explorers, African kings and generals, Christian missionaries, and British soldiers and colonial administrators. The book describes the schemes and methods of these agents of change, yet it never loses sight of the average villager and how s/he responded to their new ideas and technologies.

Amazon, January 2017