The Politics of Biography in Africa

Bringing together historians, political scientists, and literary analysts, this book shows how biographical narratives shed light on alternative aspects of state power in African politics. It will be of interest to scholars working on the African postcolonial state, decolonization, gender studies, and biography writing.

Autorentext

Anaïs Angelo is a historian and currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of African Studies, University of Vienna. She specializes in Kenyan political history, with a focus on biography-writing, presidential power and gender.

Zusammenfassung
Bringing together historians, political scientists, and literary analysts, this book shows how biographical narratives shed light on alternative aspects of state power in African politics. It will be of interest to scholars working on the African postcolonial state, decolonization, gender studies, and biography writing.

Inhalt

Foreword. Fugitive freedoms, Grace A. Musila Introduction, Anaïs Angelo Part 1: Scales, borders and frameworks Chapter 1. What are the boundaries of African political biography?, Martin Mourre, Ophélie Rillon, Alexis Roy Chapter 2. Deconstructing heroic biography: Bibi Titi Mohamed, public history, and nation building, Cymone Fourshey and Marla L. Jaksch Chapter 3. Fighting for national liberation in Africa: pan-African itineraries and national settlements, Sakiko Nakao Part 2: Autobiographies as construction sites of power Chapter 4. Tactics of intervention: Manipulating the "problematic self" in Janet Kataaha Museveni's A Life, Marciana Nafula Were Chapter 5. Between truth and inventions. How public commemorations recite the biography of Amílcar Cabral, Víctor Barros Chapter 6. Exploring borderlines of power in and through the auto/biographies of Ronnie Kasrils, Birgit Englert Part 3: Hide and seek: women, politics and biography writing Chapter 7. "Frieda von Bülow and Bibi Titi Mohammed: (De)colonised feminism in Tanzania, Diana Maria Naetermann Chapter 10. Silenced no more: Doria Shafik speaks, Nada Halloway Chapter 8. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma: A thwarted political destiny, Marianne Séverin Chapter 9. Motherhood, and Sisterhood as alternative discourses of power Postscriptum. Getting to grips with "political biographies", Kirsten Rüther