Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville

This book is the first comprehensive study of leisure in an African colonial city.

Phyllis Martin (Author)

9780521524469, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 August 2002

296 pages, 6 b/w illus. 6 maps 4 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.554 kg

In this book, Phyllis Martin, a well-known Africanist scholar, opens up a whole new field of African research: the leisure activities of urban Africans. Her comprehensive study, set in colonial Brazzaville and based on a wide variety of written sources and interviews, investigates recreational activities from football and fashion to music, dance and night life. In it, she brings out the ways in which these activities built social networks, humanised daily life and forged new identities, and explains how they ultimately helped to remake older traditions and values with new cultural forms.

Introduction
1. An African crossroads, a frontier post and a colonial town, c.1880–1915
2. Taking hold of the town, c.1915–1960
3. The emergence of leisure
4. Football is king
5. About the town
6. Dressing well
7. High society
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH]