Small territories and islands are significant flashpoints in the contemporary world order. They are both exposed to the vicissitudes of international power rivalries and can find it difficult to sustain a stable internal political and economic order. Originally published in 1983 this book provides a balance between enclaves and islands, between Indian and Atlantic Ocean territories and between territories that were self-governing and those that were still integrated into metropolitan political units. Each of the authors shares a close familiarity with the territories they surveyed: one that goes into a direct and sometimes brutal appreciation of the difficulties and realities of constructing a modern life in such limiting contexts.
Introduction Robin Cohen 1. Interpreting Dependency in the Canary Islands Miguel Sanchez-Padron 2. From Colonialism to Confederation: The Gambian Experience of Independence, 1965-1982 Arnold Hughes 3. The Structure of Terror in a Small State: Equatorial Guinea Ibrahim K. Sundiata 4. Cabinda; The Politics of Oil in Angola’s Enclave Daniel Dos Santos 5. St. Helena: Welfare Colonialism in Practice Robin Cohen 6. Cape Verde: Survival Without Self-Sufficiency Deirdre Meintel 7. Diego Garcia: The Militarization of an Indian Ocean Island Jooneed Khan 8. Prospering at the Periphery: A Special Case – The Seychelles Raphael Kaplinsky 9. Les Survivances Coloniales aux Comoros Claude Gaspart 10. Mauritius: The Meade Report Twenty Years After Percy Selwyn.
Biography
Robin Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford. For the first decade of his academic career, he worked on comparative labour issues. His books included Labour and Politics in Nigeria (1974) and the co-edited collections The development of an African working class (1975), International Labour and the Third World (1987), African Labor History (1978) and the current title, Peasants and Proletarians. He subsequently wrote on the themes of migration, globalization and diasporas. His best-known work is Global diasporas: An introduction (3rd edition, 2022).
Original Reviews of African Islands and Enclaves:
‘This book is highly recommended because most of the case studies exhibit well-organised, carefully edited state-of-the-art scholarship (including excellent bibliographies) on a number of Africa’s least researched units’ – John L Collier Canadian Journal of African Studies, 19 (2) 1985.
‘The scope of African Islands and Enclaves is one of its strengths, and the book should be useful to anyone with a serious interest in comparative political economy’ – Mari G. Borstelmann The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 18 (3) 1985.
‘The relentless impact of change in the global economy, combined with local adaptations and perversions, is the lynchpin of the Cohen collection: an informed, international and critical assembly of authors and cases’ – Timothy M. Shaw Development Policy Review, 3 (2) 1985.
‘This volume deals with an at first sight enigmatic and debatable subject – that of the islands and enclaves of the [African] continent. … All in all, a useful book which reminds us that the islands are far from being paradises lost and that crises can be more accentuated there than elsewhere’ – Jean Copans Le Monde Diplomatique, January 1984, p 18. [translated from the French].
