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Bio-Bibliographical Studies: Their Potential for Use by Africanists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
Bio-bibliographical studies do not belong, despite the initial impression that might be created by the term, to the same genre as new or faddish methodologies such as prosopography, cliometrics, or psychohistory. Rather, the term is one--at least in its most commonly used context--which describes the creation of a reference tool designed to meet specific criteria. Chief among these are the provision of evaluative descriptions of all extant, identifiable sources of material on the individual being covered, together with suggestions and/or commentary as to the utility of these sources and how they might best be employed in writing a comprehensive biography. Also relevant to such studies, and of particular interest as regards the intended audience of this paper, is some attention on the part of the author to the contribution his finished product can make to understanding the milieu in which his subject worked.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1984
References
Notes
1. It should be noted at the outset that some pioneering efforts have been made in this general field. While not specifically bio-bibliographic in every instance, notable reference works that are useful to Africanists include the Institut Royal Colonial Beige's six-volume Biographie coloniale belge (Brussels, 1984 to date)Google Scholar; various publications by Kirk-Greene, A. H. M., and Hill's, RichardA Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan (2nd ed., London, 1967).Google Scholar
2. My own efforts in this regard are “Verney Lovett Cameron: A Centenary Bibliography,” (in two parts--Library Notes of the Royal Commonwealth Society, n.s.n. 214[Sept., 1975], 1–5, and n.s. 215 [Oct., 1975], 1-4)Google Scholar; “British Explorers in East Africa: A Bibliography with Commentary,” Africana Journal, 5(1974), 195–239Google Scholar which covers ten explorers; and “James A. Grant: A Bibliographical Survey,” (in two parts--Library Notes of the Royal Commonwealth Society, n.s.n. 184 [Aug./Sept., 1972], 1–4, and n. 185 [Oct., 1972] 104).Google Scholar Another work in this category which is truly excellent is Simpson, Donald H., “A Bibliography of Emin Pasha,” Uganda Journal 24(1960), 138–65.Google Scholar
3. Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston: A Bio-Bibliographical Study (Volume 18 in Mitteilungen der Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1977. Dr. David Livingstone and Sir Henry Morton Stanley: An Annotated Bibliography with Commentary (New York, 1976).Google Scholar These are not bibliographies as such; rather, they examine the need for further biographical efforts on Livingstone in the context of specific publications about him. They include “Africa and Livingstone,” Conch Review of Books, 2(1974), 136–41Google Scholar; “The Livingstone Centenary,” African Studies Association Review of Books, 1(1974), 136–47Google Scholar; and “European Explorers Re-Examined,” Africa Today, 23(1976), 75–80.Google Scholar
4. The nineteenth-century reading public had a keen interest--indeed, an almost unquenchable thirst--for writings on Africa. This contributed to an outpouring of literature on the continent. Some of it is virtually useless except to the student of Victorian taste and culture, but much that was written is of significance to today's Africanists.
5. Travelogs, sometimes highly sensationalized, often had as one of their primary purposes stimulation of further interest in the continent. Also, many imperial figures found the extra money thereby produced quite useful.
6. Johnston wrote almost fifty books, and Burton wrote, edited, or translated even more.
7. Proconsuls and others often felt it a virtual duty to write on their areas of expertise for the enlightenment of the Victorian public.
8. In my opinion, both still are attractive, if exceptionally elusive, subjects for biographies. True, dozens or even hundreds of biographical treatments on them exist, but in neither case can one identify a work deserving to be termed definitive. The recent reorganization of Rhodes' papers at Oxford should make him an even more appealing subject.
9. Roland Oliver shows this symptom in his Sir Harry Johnston and the “Scramble” for Africa (London, 1957).Google Scholar Oliver writes on Johnston primarily as a “man of action,” and in doing so either ignores or pays scant attention to other facets of Johnston's life. This is particularly true of his final twenty-six years, yet this was the period which saw the publication of the majority of Johnston's works on Africa as well as many and diverse activities connected with Africa.
10. A splendid example of visual material is the very rare Occupation of Mashonaland: Views by W. Ellerton Fry. It records, in 153 photographs, the 1890 march of the Pioneer Column into Rhodesia. Only twelve copies of the original are known, but the work is soon to be reprinted by Books of Zimbabwe.
11. Information on the location of the manuscripts, their accessibility, any restrictions on their use, and some comment on their research potential should of course be included.
12. Although I lack the expertise to make a final judgment in this regard, it would seem that many key figures in twentieth-century Africa such as Jomo Kenyatta and Léopold Senghor could be usefully treated in bio-bibliographies.