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Biography in African History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2017

Lisa A. Lindsay
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Abstract:

This paper charts the rise and transformation of biography as a form of Africanist history writing. Biography in African history, as in other fields, has included attention to nationalist heroes as well as the lives of slaves, women, and other subalterns. Recently, some Africanist historians have embraced transnational life histories, particularly those situated in the “black Atlantic” of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some themes, methods, and limitations of such biographies are discussed in relation to the author’s own project on a nineteenth century immigrant to West Africa.

Résumé:

Cet article décrit l’essor et la transformation de la biographie comme une forme d’écriture de l’histoire par les africanistes. La biographie dans l’histoire africaine, comme dans d’autres domaines, s’est concentrée sur les héros nationalistes ainsi que sur la vie des esclaves, des femmes et d’autres subalternes. Récemment, certains historiens africanistes ont choisi d’écrire des histoires de vie transnationales, en particulier celles situées dans “l’Atlantique noir” des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Cet article se penche sur certains thèmes ainsi que sur certaines méthodes et limites de ces biographies en relation avec le projet de l’auteur sur un immigrant du XIXe siècle en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Type
Critical Historiography
Information
History in Africa , Volume 44 , June 2017 , pp. 11 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2017 

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