Histories of Dirt

"Stephanie Newell's Histories of Dirt does for this generation what Mary Douglas did with Purity and Danger several decades ago. Focusing on what seems ubiquitous and thus utterly banal—dirt—Newell shows how the phenomenon of dirt is interpretable from a variety of sometimes contradictory perspectives both by local Africans and by the team of researchers that set about investigating the phenomenon. This is a high-order interdisciplinary work, full of fresh insights and with a turn toward what Africans think about themselves that will provide salutary methodological and conceptual lessons for scholars in African Studies and well beyond." - Ato Quayson, Stanford University

“Brilliantly reading imperial discourse against the grain, Stephanie Newell offers compelling dissections of the perspectives, assumptions, privileged subject positions, and framings that characterize imperial thought. At the same time, she gives close attention and consideration to the range of voices of the people of Lagos, producing powerful arguments about the popular, cultural, and social structures that express urban values. With great ingenuity, Newell has constituted an archive of the present that provides local voices and views on subjects initially warped by colonial discourse. Histories of Dirt is an important and major contribution.” - Kenneth W. Harrow, author of Trash: African Cinema from Below

"In rethinking the nature of history, the novelty of Histories of Dirt lies in its proposal for an expansion of historical methodology to accommodate public opinion as a valid source of contemporary history based on the aggregation of individual's conception of social experience."  - Olukayode A. Faleye, Canadian Journal of African Studies

"Histories of Dirt is a work of great creativity and nuance, and its message is especially urgent today. 'Èkó ò ní bàjé,' goes a political slogan turned popular now—Lagos will not spoil."
  - Samuel Fury Childs Daly, International Journal of African Historical Studies

"At the core of the analysis is Newell's effort to uncover non-elite perspectives, generally marginalized or ignored in the remonstrations on public health and moral hygiene put forward by policy makers, authority figures, and power brokers." - M. M. Heaton, Choice

"Fascinating and inventive… A series of sharp essays…." - Jonathan Haynes, Journal of the African Literature Association

"The book is noteworthy for its contribution to our knowledge of how modernity has evolved in African cities, in a period over a century, a process illustrated through the histories of dirt in the city of Lagos. It is certainly useful to all those interested in the political and social history of cities and urban planning in Africa."  - Carlos Nunes Silva, Planning Perspectives

"Newell's prose is lucid and not belabored with theoretical jargons.… The book is also a huge contribution to postcolonial studies and public health. The most recent example through which we can come to terms with Newell on this cutting-edge scholarship is in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which different world leaders and citizens invoke dirt rhetoric against Asian bodies." - Olájídé Salawu, Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry

"Newell has given a well-articulated objective analysis of the cultural and political interpretations of dirt in Lagos, making a vital contribution to the ongoing public health and environmental discourse." - Hope Eze, Africa Today

“Histories of Dirt is a helpful manual for how dirt, as a word, an object, and a discourse, can be used to constitute archives, influence public opinion, and spark imagination.” - Ainehi Edoro-Glines, Journal of African History

"Histories of Dirt is a formidable accomplishment of interdisciplinary scholarship and storytelling. . . . The book is exemplary for the fluidity of its narrative arc, for its methodological reflexivity, for its detailed attention to vernacular language, and for its richly textured, polyphonic portrait of Lago as a (post)colonial metropolis." - Fabien Cante, Africa