Fire-Eaters

About the Book

As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the many years of direct contact with European traders and the influx of European goods, most African societies still produced their own iron and its products, or obtained them from neighbouring communities through local trade. The quality of iron products was such that, despite competition from European imports, local iron production survived into the early twentieth century in some parts of the continent. The production process covered prospecting, mining, smelting, and forging. Different types of ore were available all over the continent and were extracted by shallow or alluvial mining. A variety of skills were required for building furnaces, producing charcoal, smelting, and forging iron into goods. Iron production was generally not an enclave activity but a process that fulfilled the totality of socio-economic needs. It also fit the gender division of labour within communities.

About the Author

The author is a graduate of the Universities of Zambia in Lusaka (1974); Wisconsin at Madison, USA (1976, 1981); and Uppsala, Sweden (1994). He has taught at the Universities of Zambia (1974–1997, 2005–present). As a member of staff at the University of Zambia from 1974 to 1997, the author served in many positions, such as head of department, dean of the School of Education, director of the Institute of Human Relations and Research and Graduate Studies. He was also a visiting professor at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in United States of America (1984–1985); Cape Town (1991) and Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (1993); Chancellor College, Malawi (1995); and several universities in the USA, South Africa, Malawi, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Burundi, Madagascar, and France. Between 1997 and 2000, he was professor and head of the Department of History at the University of Namibia (1997–2000). He is a recipient of many awards. He served as Zambia’s ambassador and permanent representative at the United Nations, New York (September 2000–February 2005). Currently, he is professor of history at the University of Zambia. He has done extensive research and published widely on in political, economic, social, health, veterinary, and environmental issues in Eastern and Southern Africa.