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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Benin kingdom in Britsh imperial historiography
Authors:Osadolor, Osarhieme BensonISNI
Otoide, Leo Enahoro
Year:2008
Periodical:History in Africa (ISSN 1558-2744)
Volume:35
Pages:401-418
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Great Britain
Subjects:Benin polity
historiography
imperialism
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_in_africa/v035/35.osadolor.pdf
Abstract:Imperial writings by British authors about precolonial Benin before the emergence of Nigerian academic history writing in the 1950s serve as the basis for discussion in this paper. It examines the extent to which the imperial agenda influenced British writers' representation of the historical knowledge of Benin and draws attention to the possibilities and limitations in the production of the historical knowledge of Benin as defined by the politics of imperialism, and redefined with the professional authority of Africanists. It first examines the representation of Benin in early European accounts, from the 15th century onwards. This is followed by a discussion of the late 19th-century British perspective as influenced by the Age of the New Imperialism. The distortion and crisis in perspective in 20th-century imperial historiography is then examined, and the paper ends with the efforts to redefine the imperial viewpoint since the 1950s. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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