Black Travelers in 19th Century Africa

eyeonafrica_killingray

Speaker: David Killingray
Topic: “Black Travelers in 19th Century Africa″
Date: Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 p.m
Place: Room 201 International Center

David Killingray began his working career as a schoolteacher in Britain and Tanzania. Much of his academic career has been at the University of London. He studied at the London School of Economics, BSc(Econ)], and the School of Oriental and African Studies, PhD; lecturer and Professor of modern history, and now Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths. Since retirement, Professor Killingray has also been a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Advanced Study. For 12 years, until 2002, he was co-editor of African the journal of the Royal African Society. In the early |9903 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town, and also the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. In 2010-11 he was visiting professor of local history at Kingston University London, and an honorary professor of history at Stellenbosch University in South Africa 20| l-l4. He has written books and articles on aspects of African, Caribbean, imperial, mission and ecclesiastical history, and also English local history. His most recent books include Fighting for Britain.’ African soldiers in the Second World War (James Currey, paperback ed., 2012), an edited study (with Peter Clegg) on The non-independent territories of the Caribbean and Pacific (School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2012), and Sevenoaks.’ an historical dictionary (Aldershot, 2012). Current work includes a biography of Dr. Harold Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples, which is also a history of black political activity in Britain in the first half of the 20th century, a study pan-African ideas and activities in the Black Atlantic world 18805-1912, plus a further book on Sevenoaks. David Killingray is a Christian, has been married to Margaret (for 51 years), and they have three daughters. three sons-in-law. and eight grandchildren aged 6-21 years.

 

About the Talk

White Europeans occupy the high ground in the recorded history of travel in 19th century Africa. However, Africans were an integral part of almost any major journey in the Continent, and they are the subject of this paper. Africans, and black people from the diaspora, traveled and mapped Africa and wrote articles and books which were published in Europe and North America; Africans organized, equipped, guided, guarded, and carried for ‘European led’ expeditions; Africans were the ears and eyes, vital to the success of almost any foreign traveler venturing into the interior of the Continent. This presentation explores the often-neglected role of Africans in the period of European dominance of the Continent. In spite of the large volume of work undertaken in the past 40-50 years, Africans continue to be marginalized in their roles as travelers, missionaries, writers, soldiers, policemen, teachers, clerks, interpreters, rulers, and politicians in colonial Africa. It is possible by careful reading against the grain to rescue these _important activists in Africa’s recent past from the condescension of historians and history.