Description
Book SynopsisThis volume investigates the development of biographical study in African history and historiography. Consisting of 10 case studies, it is preceded by an introductory prologue, which deals with the relationship between historiography and different forms of biographical study in the context of Western history-writing but especially African (historical and anthropological) studies. The first three case studies deal with the methodological insights of biographical studies for African history. This is followed by three case studies dealing with personas living through fundamental societal transitions, and four case studies focusing on the discursive dimensions of biographical subjects (including religion, cosmology and ideology). Countries or regions discussed include South Africa, Zambia, Gold Coast, Cameroon, Tanganyika, Congo-Kinshasa and the Central African Republic in colonial times. Contributors are Lindie Koorts, Elena Moore, Iva Peša, Paul Glen Grant, Jacqueline de Vries, Duncan Money, Morgan Robinson, Eve Wong, Klaas van Walraven, Erik Kennes.
Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Prologue: Reflections on Historiography and Biography and the Study of Africa’s Past Klaas van Walraven Part 1: Methodological Insights 1 Human Symbols The Biographical Pursuit and the Language of Symbolism in Contemporary South Africa Lindie Koorts 2 ‘Your Surroundings Don’t Make You; You Must Rise above all that’ The Home in Life Histories as Site of Resistance to Racial Violence, Cape Town, South Africa Elena Moore 3 From Life Histories to Social History Narrating Social Change through Multiple Biographies Iva Peša Part 2: Persons in Transitions 4 The Effervescence of Individual Life: Cornelius Badu, Born 1847 in Elmina, Gold Coast Paul Glen Grant 5 The Leopard that Came to Laikom: Michael Timneng in Colonial Cameroon Jacqueline de Vries 6 Underground Struggles: The Early Life of Jack Hodgson Duncan Money Part 3: Discursive Worlds 7 Binding Words: Student Biographical Narratives and Religious Conversion Morgan Robinson 8 A Muslim Boy in Sunday School Abdullah Abdurahman’s Early Childhood and Education in Cape Town at the End of the Nineteenth Century Eve Wong 9 Barthélémy Boganda between Charisma and Cosmology Interpretive Perspectives on Biography in Equatorial African History Klaas van Walraven 10 A Road not Taken? The Biography of Laurent Kabila (1939-2001) Erik Kennes Index
