Miles Larmer | |
---|---|
Born | 27 July 1969 |
Occupation(s) | Historian and academic |
Spouse | Laura Cole |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Polytechnic of Central London Institute of Commonwealth Studies School of African and Oriental Studies St Cross College, Oxford University of Sheffield |
Doctoral advisor | Ian Phimister |
Academic work | |
Discipline | |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | University of Pretoria Keele University Sheffield Hallam University University of Sheffield St Antony's College, Oxford University of Florida |
Miles Larmer FRHistS [1] (born 27 July 1969) is a British historian of southern and central Africa from the mid-twentieth century onwards, specialising in its political, social, cultural and environmental history. He is Professor of History and Director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida. [2]
Larmer obtained his undergraduate degree in social science from the Polytechnic of Central London in 1990 and then obtained a master's degree in African studies from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and School of Oriental and African Studies in 1993. [3] Larmer completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of Ian Phimister, initially at St Cross College, Oxford and then the University of Sheffield. [4] After its completion he held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pretoria between 2004 and 2006 and was then appointed to successive lectureships at Keele University, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield. [5] At the latter institution he co-directed the Centre for the Study of Democratic Culture. [3]
In 2013 Larmer was elected a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and joined the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford as Associate Professor of African History. [6] The university conferred the Title of Distinction of Professor of African History upon him in December 2016. [7] In 2023 he moved to the University of Florida to take up his current academic positions while remaining a senior research associate at Oxford's African Studies Centre. [8]
Between 2008 and 2011 Larmer served as editor of the academic journal Review of African Political Economy and sat on its editorial board between 2007 and 2013. He has also been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Southern African Studies since 2008. Since 2012 he has edited the Palgrave Macmillan book series Studies in Democratic Culture. [3]
In 2011 Larmer was awarded a one-year research fellowship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the project 'Local Identities and Transnational Conflict: the Katangese Gendarmes and Central-Southern Africa's Forty-years war, 1960-1999'. [3] Between 2016 and 2021 he was the principal investigator of the €1.6 million European Research Council-funded project 'Comparing the Copperbelt: Political Culture and Knowledge Production in Central Africa'. [9]
Moïse Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese businessman and politician. He served as the president of the secessionist State of Katanga from 1960 to 1963 and as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1964 to 1965.
Jean "Black Jack" Schramme was a Belgian mercenary and planter. He managed a vast estate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1967.
Robert Hinrichs Bates is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government in the Departments of Government and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. From 2000–2012, he served as Professeur associé, School of Economics, University of Toulouse.
A major strike broke out among African mineworkers in the Copperbelt Province of Northern Rhodesia on 29 May 1935 in protest against taxes levied by the British colonial administration. The strike involved three of the province's four major copper mines: those in Mufulira, Nkana and Roan Antelope. Near the latter, six protesters were killed by police and the strike ended. Although it failed, the strike was the first organized industrial agitation in Northern Rhodesia and is viewed by some as the first overt action against colonial rule. It caught the attention of a number of African townsmen, leading to the creation of trade unions and African nationalist politics, and is seen as the birth of African nationalism.
Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was a Zambian nationalist leader involved in the movement for the independence of Northern Rhodesia, as Zambia was known until the end of British rule in 1964. He was born in the village of Maala in the Namwala district of Zambia's southern province. He was the youngest of three children and the only son.
The State of Katanga, also known as the Republic of Katanga, was a breakaway state that proclaimed its independence from Congo-Léopoldville on 11 July 1960 under Moïse Tshombe, leader of the local Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) political party. The new Katangese state did not enjoy full support throughout the province and was constantly plagued by ethnic strife in its northernmost region. It was dissolved in 1963 following an invasion by United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) forces, and reintegrated with the rest of the country as Katanga Province.
The Congolese National Liberation Front was a Congolese left-wing armed opposition group and political party that was founded by rebels of Katangese origin and composed of former members of the Katangese Gendarmerie. It was active mainly in Angola and Zaire during the 1970s.
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph-Damien Tshatshi Djamba was a Congolese military officer who was assassinated by rebels at Kisangani on 23 July 1966 during the Kisangani mutiny.
Lawrence Chola Katilungu was a Northern Rhodesian trade union leader. Katilungu was the first President of the African Mineworkers' Union.
The Progressive Congolese Students was a Zairean student political movement active in exile. Its main centre of activity was Belgium, particularly Université catholique de Louvain based in Louvain-la-Neuve. Politically, it had a Lumumbist orientation. It had relations with the Progressive Reform Party. The ECP was frequently plagued by infiltrations by agents of the Mobutist regime. ECP published a magazine entitled Congo-Libération.
The Northern Rhodesian African Mineworkers' Union (A.M.U.) was a trade union in Northern Rhodesia which represented black African miners in the Copperbelt. The AMU was formed in 1949, and campaigned actively to improve working conditions and wages for African miners, as well as opposing racial discrimination in hiring. The union amalgamated with several other mining unions in 1967 to form the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia.
Mai-Mai Kata Katanga, also called Mai-Mai Bakata Katanga, is a mai-mai rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which advocates the independence of the Congo's Katanga Province. It was formed shortly after the group's leader, Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, escaped from prison in September 2011 where he was serving a sentence for crimes against humanity committed by his supporters between 2002 and 2006 in central Katanga. Kata Katanga means "cut [e.g. secede] Katanga" in Swahili. It has been estimated that, at its height in 2013, the Kata Katanga rebels numbered approximately 3,000 of whom most were based in Mitwaba Territory.
The Katanga insurgency is an ongoing rebellion by a number of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some of which aim for the creation of a separate state within Katanga. While the insurgency has been active in various forms since 1963, insurgent groups have recently redoubled their efforts after the 2011 jail break that freed Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga, who commanded the majority of the Katangese separatist groups until his surrender to Congolese authorities in October 2016.
Operation Grandslam was an offensive undertaken by United Nations peacekeeping forces from 28 December 1962 to 15 January 1963 against the forces of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. The Katangese forces were decisively defeated and Katanga was forcibly reintegrated into the Congo.
Operation Rum Punch or Operation Rampunch was a military action undertaken by United Nations peacekeeping forces on 28 August 1961 against the military of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state from the Republic of the Congo in central Africa. UN troops arrested 79 foreign mercenaries and officers employed by Katanga with little conflict.
The Katangese Tigers or the Tigres are Katangese fighters.
The Battle of Kabalo was fought at Kabalo by United Nations peacekeeping forces and Baluba militias from 7 April to 11 April 1961 against mercenaries and the gendarmerie of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo in central Africa. The Katangese forces attacked the town as part of a larger offensive meant to restore their authority in northern Katanga which was challenged by the Baluba. A United Nations Operation in the Congo peacekeeping contingent garrisoning Kabalo, acting under the authority of their mandate to prevent civil war in the country, resisted the initial attack and arrested 30 mercenaries in Katanga's employ. Armed Baluba repelled a Katangese ferry carrying troops as well as an armoured train. The next day the ferry returned but was sunk by UN forces. Fighting continued over the next few days between the Baluba and Katangese until the latter withdrew. The battle led to a deterioration of relations between the Katangese government and the United Nations Operation in the Congo.
The Katangese Gendarmerie, officially the Katangese Armed Forces, was the paramilitary force of the unrecognized State of Katanga in Central Africa from 1960 to 1963. The forces were formed upon the secession of Katanga from the Republic of the Congo with help from Belgian soldiers and former officers of the Force Publique. Belgian troops also provided much of the early training for the Gendarmerie, which was mainly composed of Katangese but largely led by Belgians and later European mercenaries.
Jean-Baptiste Kibwe Pampala Uwitwa was a Congolese-Katangese politician who was the Minister of Justice and Vice-President of the State of Katanga.
Operation Unokat, also styled Operation UNOKAT, was an offensive undertaken by United Nations peacekeeping forces from 5 to 21 December 1961 against the gendarmerie of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. The United Nations had tried several times to reconcile the government of the Congo with the State of Katanga, which had declared independence under Moïse Tshombe with Belgian support in 1960.