Teaching this class is always a joy. It’s invigorating to revisit this material, to engage with some new scholarship, and interact with a different group of students encountering this material for the first time. Teaching is a gift. Every day.
Although there were frequent incidents of slaves resisting the terms of their bondage–refusing to work, sabotaging equipment, running away, and physical violence–there are only two documented slave rebellions in South Africa. The rebellion at Houd den Bek is not widely known. Novelist André Brink used the the events as the basis for his novel A Chain of Voices (1982, Afrikaans version titled Houd den Bek), but even having a literary work in English and Afrikaans does not mean this rebellion is part of a wider historical memory.
Despite a detailed transcript of the criminal proceedings against the rebels and a rich historiography of slavery at the Cape, the rebellion has not received as much attention from historians as other facets of the colonial era. By reading Rayner, Ross, van der Spuy, and Watson, you can claim to have studied the complete scholarship on this rebellion.
What does this historiography of rebellion focus on? What questions does this literature not address? Can you suggest reasons why?
Tomorrow we begin the final unit of the course: Colonial Encounters.
This section continues to probe the contours of coastal interactions between Africans and European merchants, sailors, and soldiers. We shift our attention to Southern Africa. Here, European adventurers and profit seekers encountered nomadic groups of hunters (San/Bushmen) and herders (Khoekhoe/”Hottentots”), rather than the organized states with formidable military power of the kingdoms of Kongo and Angola.
The permanent presence of a powerful, hierarchical merchant company (the Dutch East India Company, or VOC) at the Cape of Good Hope after 1652 left us with a rich set of historical records. These archives focus on the activities of European and European-descended settlers, but in the process also capture information about the Africans whose lives were forever disrupted by colonization.
In tomorrow’s class I’ll provide some historical background and context for discussing both a primary source (an excerpt from the governor’s official journal) and historian Julia Wells‘ use of that source to construct an argument about the ways in which gendered expectations shaped specific colonial interactions.
Unit IV study questions will help you navigate course material for the next two weeks. One particular skills focus in this unit is historiography, the study of changing historical interpretations. Julia Wells gives us a clear example of historiography in this brief catalog of the various ways scholars have portrayed Eva/Krotoa:
“As Christina Landman put it, ‘Krotoa is a story-generator. To conservative historians, Eva’s life offers living proof that the Khoena were irredeemable savages. To black nationalist writers, such as Khoena historian, Yvette Abrahams, she personifies the widespread rape and abuse of black women by the invaders. Eva’s chief biographer, V. C. Malherbe, forms a more neutral judgment by describing Eva as primarily ‘a woman in between’. Landman views her as an early synthesizer of African and Christian religious traditions. Carli Coetzee demonstrates how recent Afrikaans-speaking artists, poets and actors have constructed an image of Eva as the mother of the Afrikaner nation, a tamed African who acquiesced to Europeanness. She is often portrayed as yearning to return to her African roots, but without success.” (Wells 417-18—citations omitted)
What does Wells add to this discussion?
In addition to telling a compelling story of one young woman’s experience in a tumultuous period history, Thornton’s study of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita extends an invitation to think about the relationship between religion, state power, and the actions of individuals.
Why was Dona Beatriz able to attract so many followers?
How was Thornton able to tell her story?
Can you think of parallel examples of charismatic religious figures who emerged in times of crisis?
Consider the question posed by Howard French in class last Thursday, slightly rephrased:
What elements of Africa’s early history help to explain Africa’s current place in the global community?
Issues to explore in search of responses to the question:
Tomorrow’s reading gives us an opportunity to think about this question in relation to legacies of the Atlantic slave trade. Think about the gender and slavery study questions posted in the Part III outline as you consider this underlying question about the long-term consequences of Europe’s engagement with Africa after 1500.
Historical scholarship–and the many ways to present that knowledge–represent just one way to engage with African pasts and the present.
We are lucky to welcome Howard French to class on May 9. A former reporter, senior writer, and bureau chief for the New York Times, Mr. French has worked and traveled extensively in Africa. Before joining the Times, he worked as a translator and free-lance journalist in West Africa, getting to know the region from deep, first-hand experience.
I encourage you to find out more about Howard French’s international work experience, writing, and photography at his website.
Come to class prepared for conversation, and with questions in mind.
We’ve read a range of different approaches to African history–and by implication–approaches to understanding life on the continent today.
a historical monograph: Klieman’s The Pygmies Were Our Compass
a synthetic historical narrative: Austen’s Trans-Saharan Africa in World History
a scholarly review: Lane’s review of the Miscast exhibition
representations of African pasts for a popular audience (all in National Geographic)
an oral tradition: Niane’s version of The Epic of Sundiata
a fourteenth-century travel narrative: Ibn Battuta’s Rihla
Which approaches taught you the most about a vision of the past in Africa?
Which were the most engaging?
Which were the most challenging for you to understand? Why?
Reading selections from Ibn Battuta’s Rihla gives us a specific view of interactions between people from different regions and cultures in Africa. A Muslim scholar from Tangier, Morocco, Ibn Battuta visited Mali in 1552-53.
You can see his African journeys in the context of his travels across Afroeurasia on this interactive map.
How does Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté authenticate his knowledge?
How does the text/story/source use both Bantu oral traditions and Islam to claim legitimacy for the kings of Mali?
What other traditions/stories include reference to descent or lineage?
Both hunters and blacksmiths equated with sorcery/power/knowledge. Where else have we seen this?
In tomorrow’s class we’ll discuss the cycles of growth, decline, and growth of kingdoms in Sudanic Africa between about 500 and 1500. As an important part of that conversation, I want to consider the relationship of those kingdoms to the Sahara. To that end, I offer two questions to get you thinking: