{"id":58,"date":"2013-04-24T15:17:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T15:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/uncategorized\/the-perils-of-political-biography\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T14:42:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T14:42:48","slug":"the-perils-of-political-biography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/24\/the-perils-of-political-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perils of Political Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re at that point in the semester when grading is making caffeine less a luxury and more a necessity, but when there also seems to be more and more to do on campus. I suppose in large part that’s because now that the Iowan winter is finally in retreat, it’s easier for people to make it here without through the snow. (Though this winter and spring, it’s been more the rain that we’ve had to worry about.)<\/p>\n

It makes for a busy schedule, though, which was why I was glad that some chai was served during this Monday’s lecture, given by James Brennan (Urbana-Champaign)<\/a> on “Writing the history of a nationalist\/’traitor’: Oscar Kambona and the perils of African political biography.” The history of sub-Saharan women and gender was one of my comprehensive exam fields, and between that and my trip there a couple of years ago, I’m quite interested in Tanzanian history\u2014sadly, it’s not an interest I get to indulge much, between teaching and dissertation work. This means that I hadn’t heard of Oscar Kambona before Professor Brennan’s talk, but he was clearly a strange and fascinating figure.<\/p>\n

\"6a013486c64e2e970c017eea8a0d2d970d\"<\/a>Around the time of Tanzanian gaining its independence in the early 1960s, Kambona was the second most powerful man in the country, second only to the baba wa taifa<\/em>\u2014father of the country\u2014Julius Nyerere. By ’64, Kambona was Minister for External Affairs and Defence, General Secretary of TANU and the Chairman of the OAU; within three years he was living in penurious exile in London, regarded in his home country at worst as a traitor, at best as the pioneer of his eponymous hairstyle. (While it looks quite innocuous nowadays, back in the day that strong side-part with a slight bouffant was apparently quite radical in Tanzania!) The circumstances of Kambona’s abrupt departure from the country are still murky\u2014he may or may not have been involved in an attempted coup, though Prof. Brennan thinks it more likely that the root of the conflict between Kambona and Nyerere lay in the fact that the former was a “patronage” politican whereas the latter was a “conviction” politician.<\/p>\n

What I found most fascinating was Brennan’s discussion of Kambona’s later years in exile, and of Brennan’s own process of researching those years, using papers still kept by Kambona’s family in London. Kambona seems to have spent his days petitioning people for money, and writing letters to various people in a code almost embarrassing in its lack of subtlety: “Oscar Wilde” needed thousands of dollars from his friends in Saudi Arabia to pay for “his sister’s wedding.” (The thoughts of Oscar being involved in political intrigues and coups made this Irishwoman laugh.) Brennan spoke of the possibilities created by focusing on dissidents or ‘traitors’ in part because to do so requires historians to think in terms of counterfactuals: the what ifs, the roads not taken. How much would a government headed by Kambona have shaped and changed the development of Tanzania? It’s an interesting mode of history, though one I think not often practiced by medievalists (at least not explicitly). Perhaps it’s because what actually did<\/em> happen is often still opaque enough for us.<\/p>\n

Prof. Brennan also spoke of the potential for unease inherent in accepting the generosity of Kambona’s family in giving him access to private papers and video tapes, in return for which he will publish work which may not present their father in the most flattering light. As someone who is primarily a medievalist, this is not an issue I have to deal with, by and large\u2014studying nuns who’ve been dead for eight hundred years doesn’t require me to gain IRB approval. This is one of the reasons why I think an engagement with modern history is a good thing for a medievalist to do every now and then\u2014it provides us with a little course corrective, a refresher, on the ethics of our practices as historians, a reminder of the duties we owe our subjects and our readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re at that point in the semester when grading is making caffeine less a luxury and more a necessity, but when there also seems to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conferences-lectures"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/10\/schabelvisit\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"Chris Schabel Visit (April 30-May 2)","author":"Yvonne Seale","date":"May 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We had an alum visit last week, Chris Schabel (University of Cyprus), though I'm only getting around to writing about it now because it's the last (teaching) week of the semester and sleep is becoming a precious commodity! Professor Schabel has spent the past several years working (and publishing extensively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences & Lectures"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences & Lectures","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/conferences-lectures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"6a013486c64e2e970c0191020011f3970c","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/6a013486c64e2e970c0191020011f3970c.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":937,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/21\/a-beginners-reading-list-medieval-nuns\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"A Beginner’s Reading List: Medieval Nuns","author":"admin","date":"September 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For most people, medieval nuns are shadowy figures, confined against their will in cloisters by overbearing families. But in recent decades, historians have undertaken a lot of archival research which shows that life for Catholic nuns in medieval Europe was a lot more complex, and a lot more involved with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History of Religion"","block_context":{"text":"History of Religion","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/history-of-religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/nuns_header.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/06\/kerberconference\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":2},"title":"A World of Citizens: Women, History, and the Vision of Linda K. Kerber","author":"Yvonne Seale","date":"October 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past two days, the Old Capitol here has been host to A World of Citizens: Women, History, and the Vision of Linda K. Kerber: a symposium in honour of Professor Linda Kerber, who has retired this year from the University of Iowa's Department of History. While my areas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences & Lectures"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences & Lectures","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/conferences-lectures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/OldCapSenate.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/OldCapSenate.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/OldCapSenate.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/OldCapSenate.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/an-abundance-of-fishes\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"An Abundance of Fishes","author":"Yvonne Seale","date":"March 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Spring Break\" doesn't mean the same thing for graduate students as it does for undergrads\u2014my students are off enjoying the sun in parts south, while I'm shivering through an Iowan March as I face down a pile of grading and what feels like an equally large \"to do\" pile. 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Or which included the phrase \"transgressive sado-erotic response to sacred nudity.\" Art historians clearly have all the fun! Prof. Sherry Lindquist's lecture, \"The Rhetoric\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences & Lectures"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences & Lectures","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/conferences-lectures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"6a013486c64e2e970c01901baf5fad970b","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/6a013486c64e2e970c01901baf5fad970b-256x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1929,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/10\/call-for-papers-finding-the-women-in-the-et-cetera\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"Call for Papers: Finding The Women in the Et Cetera","author":"admin","date":"July 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Call for Papers: International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 2019\u00a0 \"Finding The Women in the Et Cetera: Doing Women's History with Medieval Documents and Modern Archives\" Over the last forty years, historians have established unambiguously that women were active participants in medieval society, that they were capable of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences & Lectures"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences & Lectures","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/conferences-lectures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-10-at-14.18.19.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-10-at-14.18.19.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-10-at-14.18.19.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-10-at-14.18.19.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-10-at-14.18.19.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/6a013486c64e2e970c01901b8ca0c4970b.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}