Colonial Transactions

“Outlining African and European cosmological frameworks in the years preceding and following colonization, Florence Bernault does not see a rationalist Europe encountering an Africa steeped in the occult. Rather, she finds a colonial encounter in which each side mixed notions of human and superhuman power. Colonial Transactions is both an informative history of a region of Africa and a valuable reflection on widely held colonial beliefs about the peculiarity of Africans.” - Frederick Cooper, author of Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference: Historical Perspectives

“Florence Bernault develops a revolutionary view of colonial history that overhauls basic frameworks and pervasive dichotomies, showing how Gabonese and French colonizers’ imaginaries were convergent rather than oppositional, as is generally assumed. Colonial Transactions' audacious theoretical sophistication, vivid examples, and innovative analysis give it an urgency and broad relevance that will have an impact that exceeds far beyond its Gabonese focus.” - Peter Geschiere, author of Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust: Africa in Comparison

". . .This should be a key text for African studies and certainly for any collection centered on West and Central Africa." - J. R. Kenyon, Choice

"Bernault's ability to trace . . . imaginaries throughout centuries of thought and praxis in both France and Gabon make this book a valuable addition to the historiography of west Africa." - Amanda Ford, International Social Science Review

"Bernault’s book fills a void in many ways, providing an English-speaking audience with one among the very few in-depth studies out there on a nation and its people that certainly merit more attention." - Cheryl Toman, Postcolonial Text

“A well-documented scholarly work enriched with an elegant style…. With this new book, Florence Bernault makes an invaluable contribution to African cultural anthropology by proposing an innovative approach to witchcraft that transcends the nativist paradigm and explores the intersecting third space of mutual influences (colonized/colonizers) from which arose the creolized spiritual landscape of postcolonial Gabon.” - Marc Mvé Bekale, African Studies Review

“Florence Bernault offers an original and refreshing history of European-African colonial encounters in Gabon, Equatorial Africa. She does so by using a wealth of sources.... [Colonial Transactions] will appeal to scholars of colonialism in Africa and beyond, and to anyone interested in African spirituality and modernity.” - Ndubueze L. Mbah, Journal of African History

“Bernault’s conception of colonialism as a transaction . . . does much to reconfigure understandings of power under colonialism. . . . [Colonial Transactions] should be read widely not just by scholars of history and gender but also by anthropologists and others interested in African studies or colonialism, more broadly.” - Avenel Rolfsen, Gender & History

“Colonial Transactions expands our knowledge and refines our understanding of the two themes that stand at its center – witchcraft and colonialism. . . . No future research about witchcraft or about colonial relations will be able to ignore this fascinating and eye-opening book.” - Ruth Ginio, Middle Ground Journal