Biography

I am a specialist in central African history. My work is primarily concerned with the study of continuities between the precolonial and the colonial political dispensations. I am the co-editor of the series “War and Militarism in African History” (Ohio UP), and a member of the executive editorial board of the journal Africa (Rome) and of the editorial committee of the British Academy’s Fontes Historiae Africanae.


My most significant recent publications are The Gun in Central Africa: A History of Technology and Politics (Ohio UP, 2016) – a monograph which makes a case for marrying the insights of Africanist historiography with those of consumption and technology studies; The Colonial Occupation of Katanga: The Personal Correspondence of Clément Brasseur, 1893-1897 (Oxford UP, 2018) – a lengthy critical edition which offers a new interpretation of the nature and workings of the Congo Free State; Una storia violenta. Potere e conflitti nel bacino del Congo (XVIII-XXI secolo) (Viella, 2021) – a long-term history of "warlordism" in the Congo basin; as well as the article “Warlordism in the Congo Basin between the Nineteenth and the Twentieth Centuries”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 56, 1 (2023)  

Projects

Roma

This Research Unit focuses on the European production and marketing of trade guns. The circulation of arms will be utilized to study the role of African societies and their practices in the global processes of production, consumption, and exchange.

Contacts