| Abstract: | This article discusses paradigm shifts in historiography in general and African historiography in particular. It argues that the objects of African historians' affections have oscillated wildly in the last fifty years, both among Africanists and the residue of historians. For the former, attention initially focused on the highest levels - large States, empires, and national governments. In time, and as part of a global zeitgeist, interest devolved onto lower and lower levels of society, quickly reaching the proverbial person on the street - the subaltern in the terminology of the field - while at the same time a number of -isms managed to colour both the focus and the conclusions of research. These having largely run their course, interests are rebounding upwards again, bypassing even imperial systems and going after world systems in an attempt to bring Africa into new historiographical maps coloured pink. The author uses the case of the chameleonic Bantu conquest - migration - expansion - drift/infiltration to show that in the first days of a new area of study, the temptations to go beyond the evidence are especially irresistible. Finally, the author discusses the role of textbooks, arguing that they have a greater influence on generalized thought about a subject than all the scholarly books on that subject combined. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
AfricaBib 
Periodical article
Leiden University catalogue
WorldCat
