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This is the best scholarship to date on the history and mythology of cannibalism in west central Africa...Moreover, the simplicity of Staller's prose belies the sophistication of his conceptual framework, making his work an important teaching tool for both the undergraduate and graduate level. -- Christina Mobley, University of Virginia In a major contribution to historical methodology, Staller revisits sixteenth- and seventeenth-century accounts for what they can reveal, despite their biases and eurocentrism, about Africans' understandings of and interactions with Portuguese invasion and the associated violence. Cannibalism rumors are taken seriously in this analysis as a way to unpack traumatic episodes associated with the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade. -- Mariana Candido, author of An African Slaving Port and the Atlantic World: Benguela and Its Hinterland

“In a major contribution to historical methodology, Staller revisits sixteenth- and seventeenth-century accounts for what they can reveal, despite their biases and eurocentrism, about Africans’ understandings of and interactions with Portuguese invasion and the associated violence. Cannibalism rumors are taken seriously in this analysis as a way to unpack traumatic episodes associated with the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade.” -- Mariana Candido, author of An African Slaving Port and the Atlantic World: Benguela and Its Hinterland “This is the best scholarship to date on the history and mythology of cannibalism in west central Africa…Moreover, the simplicity of Staller’s prose belies the sophistication of his conceptual framework, making his work an important teaching tool for both the undergraduate and graduate level.” -- Christina Mobley, University of Virginia “A welcome addition to the literature. Not only does [Staller] dispel myths about the Jaga, he demonstrates that Europeans and Africans played a key role in creating them.” * International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 53 No. 2 (2020) *

This is the best scholarship to date on the history and mythology of cannibalism in west central Africa...Moreover, the simplicity of Staller's prose belies the sophistication of his conceptual framework, making his work an important teaching tool for both the undergraduate and graduate level. -- Christina Mobley, University of Virginia In a major contribution to historical methodology, Staller revisits sixteenth and seventeenth century accounts for what they can reveal, despite their biases and eurocentrism, about Africans' understandings of and interactions with Portuguese invasion and the associated violence. Cannibalism rumors are taken seriously in this analysis as a way to unpack traumatic episodes associated with the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade. -- Mariana Candido, author of An African Slaving Port and the Atlantic World: Benguela and its Hinterland

Author Information

Jared Staller teaches world history at St. Francis Episcopal School of Houston, Texas. He earned his PhD from the University of Virginia and taught African and world history at Rice University. His research has appeared in History in Africa, Research in African Literatures, and elsewhere.

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