African Words, African Voices

Until the 1960s and the advent of African independence, African history was rarely concerned with African lives. Africans were not considered fitting subjects or authoritative sources for historical research and their voices and experiences were largely absent from the continent's history. Efforts to restore African expression to African history have characterised of much of postcolonial historical research and writing, but questions about the use of oral sources in the quest for truth continue to plague interpreters and interpretations of the African past. African Words, African Voices shows African historians involved with and committed to developing unique methodologies for dealing with history on their own terms. African historians from North America, Europe, and Africa, confront questions such as the relationship between a community's oral and written history, the role of personal histories, the effects of racism and colonialism, the suppression of facts, and how historians should mediate and interpret research data. Focusing on all areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, the essays brought together here reflect the extraordinary range of engagement that represents the state-of-the-art of African history writing. For readers at all levels, African Words, African Voices is a lively and provocative volume that evokes the richness and relevance of oral sources for understanding a complex past. Contributors include E. J. Alagoa, David William Cohen, Laura Fair, Babacar Fall, Tamara Giles-Vernick, Isabel Hofmeyr, Abdullahi A. Ibrahim, Corinne A. Kratz, Stephan F. Miescher, Bethwell Allan Ogot, Megan Vaughan, Luise White and Kwesi Yankah.