Basil Davidson

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Basil Risbridger Davidson (born November 9, 1914 in Bristol - † July 9, 2010 ) was a British historian , writer , publicist and Africanist . He was considered a specialist for the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa, which existed until the Carnation Revolution , for the struggle for independence in Eritrea and Guinea-Bissau, as well as those against apartheid in South Africa . Davidson wrote several respected books on various aspects of Africa and its history. He also produced a television series about the challenges he faces today on the African continent. European colonialism and the rise of the African liberation movements were among his central themes. Davidson was an honorary member of the London School of Oriental and African Studies .

Life

The son of Thomas and Jessie Davidson left school at the age of 16 determined to become a writer. But at first he only got one job, in which he pasted advertisements for bananas in shop windows in north London . Still, he found his way into journalism.

Davidson was a member of the editorial board of the British Economist from 1931 to 1939 , including in Paris since 1938 , and also worked for the Star, a London evening newspaper that no longer exists. He had already toured large parts of Europe and the Mediterranean region by the late 1930s. This geographical familiarity and his talent for learning new languages ​​made him interesting for the secret service when the war broke out.

In 1939 he was sent to Budapest as an officer of the British Secret Service, the Secret Intelligence Service or MI-6 in Department D for Sabotage , with the legend of setting up a press agency. In April 1941, during the German invasion of Yugoslavia , he went to Belgrade . From the end of 1942 to mid-1943 he was head of the department responsible for Yugoslavia of the secret service Special Operations Executive in Cairo . Allegedly he was dropped by parachute in order to establish contact with the partisans led by Josip Broz Tito . There he was accepted as one of theirs under his alias Nicola . This guerrilla period shaped him so that he showed great sympathy for similar groups after the Second World War, for example in Angola , Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania and Eritrea .

From January 1945 he was a liaison officer to the partisans in Liguria . During the war he married his wife Marion Ruth Young, who also worked for the SOE in Italy. At the end of the war he had the rank of Lieutenant Colonel , had been awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned twice in the official war report.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Davidson was an active member of the Union of Democratic Control , a political interest group that had existed since 1914 and advocated active foreign policy. Even if it did not directly pursue pacifist goals, it expressly rejected military action as a means of British foreign policy. For this organization Davidson published various brochures on German-German politics, the politics of Konrad Adenauer and the rearmament of the Federal Republic as well as on some Eastern Bloc countries .

After the war he returned to journalism and was the Paris correspondent for the Times until 1947 and then the newspaper's editorial for Europe. As a result of the Cold War , it had become impossible for him to work in the Balkans , especially since he was attacked as a communist sympathizer by some of his journalist colleagues, above all Dorothy Woodman . This turned Davidson's attention to Africa .

Through a South African trade delegation in Ghana, he met Nelson Mandela , Oliver Tambo and other leading members of the African National Congress , who presented their impending struggle against the laws of the apartheid regime to him. Accordingly, he was vice-president of the British anti-apartheid movement from 1969 to 1985. After he had published a number of related articles in the New Statesman and also some books against apartheid, he was considered undesirable in apartheid South Africa. The editor of the Statesman, Kingsley Martin , told him on his return from Africa that while he was proud of his series of articles, he now had to find another employer.

He was offered an editorial position by UNESCO , but the British government vetoed it . He was again accused of having an affinity for communism, although he had been indicted in absentia in a Hungarian show trial in 1949 as the British agent he had actually been. The Daily Herald , where he worked from 1954 to 1957, and the Daily Mirror , where he was able to work until 1962, saved him from unemployment . Encouraged by the Daily Mirror, he now toured Nigeria , West, Central and East Africa as a journalist , in order to increasingly turn to the writing of books as a freelance writer, whereby his narrative and elegant style benefited him.

His thirty books on Africa and its history made Davidson an authority and also promoted the reputation of African history in general. When he began his studies it was an ignored and little respected field.

In his writings he emphasized the pre-colonial achievements of Africa, accentuated the catastrophic effects of the slave trade and finally of colonialism on Africa, which are still evident in the sometimes heterogeneous division of Africa into nation states, which runs counter to historical and demographic developments. He also wrote five novels.

In 1984 he took a new step in his career by producing an eight-part TV series on African history for Channel 4 with Mick Csaky . Due to his telegenic appearance, he was able to convincingly present his alternative idea of ​​a Pan-Africa. Two of the approximately 50-minute episodes ( Different but equal , Mastering the Continent ) on the archeology of African cultures are among the best documentaries in the field according to the editors of a guide for educators. In addition, he provided the text for a comparable production by Bayerischer Rundfunk three years later.

Basil Davidson was visiting professor at universities in Ghana and California and at the University of Edinburgh . He was also appointed a Simon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester . As an honorary member, he was also an Honorary Fellow of the Center for West African Studies at the University of Birmingham . The Witwatersrand University in South Africa and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria awarded him an honorary doctorate .

He last lived in Staffordshire in the Midlands and traveled regularly to Africa. He could count among his friends the historians Thomas Lionel Hodgkin , Edward P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm .

Basil Davidson died in 2010 at the age of 95, leaving behind his wife and three sons.

After his death, the Angolan Politburo issued a press release highlighting Davidson's contributions to the struggle of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA). He was a passionate journalist and political activist for the independence struggle of the African peoples, who was the first Western reporter to visit the regions liberated from the MPLA during the 1970s.

Awards

With his book The Lost Cities of Africa Davidson won the 1960 Anisfield Wolf Prize for the best book on racism in literature. In 1970 he won the Haile Selassie gold medal for his work on African history. In 1976 he was presented with the Medalha Amilcar Cabral. In 1980 he received honorary degrees from the Open University in Great Britain and in 1981 from the University of Edinburgh. At the international film and television festival in New York, he won the gold award in 1984 for his series "Africa".

plant

Original versions

  • Can we face German competition? A warning . Union of Democratic Control, London 1941.
  • Germany: what now? Potsdam 1945 - partition 1949 . Muller, London 1950.
  • Once again? An inquiry into certain aspects of reviving nationalism in Germany . With a foreword by F. Elwyn Jones, Union of Democratic Control, London 1950.
  • Guns for the Germans? : The arguments for and against German rearmament . Union of Democratic Control, London 1951.
  • The road to hell . Union of Democratic Control, London 1952.
  • Two Sides in Germany - which is yours? . Union of Democratic Control, London 1955.
  • What Really Happened in Hungary? A personal record . Union of Democratic Control, London 1957.
  • Look back again in anger…: After 9 years of Adenauer: what kind of peace? Union of Democratic Control, London 1959.
  • The lost cities of Africa . Little, Brown, Boston 1959.
  • The African slave trade . Little, Brown, Boston 1961.
  • Black mother; the years of the African slave trade . Little, Brown, Boston 1961.
  • Tir a 'Mhurain. Outer Hebrides. With Paul Strand (photography). MacGibbon and Kee (London) 1962.
  • The African past; chronicles from antiquity to modern times. Little, Brown, Boston 1964.
  • Which way Africa? : The search for a new society . Penguin Books, Baltimore 1964.
  • A guide to African history. Together with Robin Jacques. Doubleday, Garden City, New York 1965.
  • A history of West Africa to the nineteenth century. Together with FK Buah and the advice of JF Ade Ajayi Ed., Anchor Books, Garden City, New York 1966.
  • Africa in history: themes and outlines . Collier Books, New York 1966.
  • Africa: history of a continent. Together with Werner Forman. MacMillan, New York 1966.
  • The African genius; an introduction to African cultural and social history . Little, Brown, Boston 1969.
  • In the eye of the storm. Angola's people . Doubleday, Garden City, New York 1972.
  • Black star. A view of the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah. Praeger, New York 1974.
  • Let freedom come: Africa in modern history . Little, Brown, Boston 1978.
  • Scenes From the Anti-Nazi War . 1980, ISBN 0-85345-588-0
  • The People's Cause. A history of guerrillas in Africa . Harlow, Essex 1981.
  • The Long struggle of Eritrea for independence and constructive peace . ed. with Lionel Cliffe, Red Sea Press, Trenton 1988.
  • The fortunate isles. A study in African transformation . Africa World Press, Trenton 1989.
  • The Black man's burden: Africa and the curse of the nation-state . Times Books, New York 1992.
  • The Search for Africa . 1994.
  • West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850 . 1998.

German translation

Novels

Non-fiction

  • South Africa without a mask . ( Report on Southern Africa. ) German by Karl Heinz Wehmeier. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1954.
  • Awakening Africa . ( The African Awakening ) Translated from the English by Else Sticken. Steinberg, Zurich 1957.
  • Primeval times and history of Africa . ( Old Africa rediscovered ) German translation from English by Hugo Seinfeld. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1961.
  • Old Africa rediscovered. ( Old-Africa rediscovered ) Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1962.
  • Land of Grass: The Outer Hebrides. (Tir a 'Mhurain) . With Paul Strand (photography). German by Ludwig Ueberfeldt. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1962.
  • From slave trade to colonization. African-European relations between 1500 and 1900 . ( Black mother; the years of the African slave trade. ) German translation Wolfram Wagmuth. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1966.
  • Africa. History of a continent . ( Africa ) German by Max Rolfes. Ariel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1967. (Various editions)
  • African kingdoms . ( African Kingdoms ) Translated from English by Holle Kuschel. Time-Life International, Amsterdam / Frankfurt a. M. 1967. (Various editions)
  • The Africans. An inventory under the sign of change . Bergisch Gladbach 1970.
  • The Liberation of Guinea. Aspects of an African Revolution. ( The liberation of Guiné ) With a foreword by Amilcar Cabral . Translated from English by Burckhard Bluem and Susanne Kühnle. März-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1970, ISBN 3-87319-058-3 .

Screenplay text manuscript

  • Africa . Manuscript for the series of the Bayerischer Rundfunk ; Myth, history and present d. black continent . German adaptation by Reiner E. Moritz . TR-Verlagsunion, Munich 1987. (Not in the retail book trade)

reception

Many of his books are still valued today for their knowledgeable presentation and conclusiveness in judgment. Davidson's work The Black man's burden often raises the problem of the young African nation- states. Africa and the curse of the nation-state (1992) quotes: “Basil Davidson, who always accompanied the Africans' struggle for freedom with the greatest sympathy, even with ironic recourse to the central metaphor of the imperialist discourse, describes the nation state as the burden and curse of the African ". Because the colonial nation-state is "neither rooted in the local power economy, nor is it generally understood by its citizens as an expression of a community will, but above all as an artificial structure of foreign origin". In this context, Davidson increasingly referred to the fateful creation of terms such as “ tribe ” or “tribal society”, which were primarily introduced by colonial officials in the 19th century for practical reasons and have been used since then, because they made the administration more efficient from their point of view which in reality rarely had an equivalent.

His books were used when it came to breaking the equality principle of the first “cultural contacts” between Europeans and Africans, the African culture of remembrance in connection with the slave trade at congresses, or the great “ring trade” or “triangular trade” in the 17th and 18th centuries 18th century between Europe, Africa and the West Indies should be vividly described. In addition, it was always emphasized that he had done “pioneering work” in the area of ​​the history of urbanization in Africa with his book The Lost Cities of Africa (1970).

Due to his knowledge of the various independence fighters in the Balkans and the African continent, his notes were also of interest to sociologists and cultural anthropologists, as he showed that at the end of every struggle for independence the ideas of society shift because, especially in Africa, a larger number of political theorists, such as Kwame Nkrumah , Julius Nyerere , Ahmed Sékou Touré , Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keïta had gained political influence.

Over a long period of time, his works were mentioned as further or introductory literature in manuals or overview presentations, although Basil Davidson was not a recognized historian, but rather an autodidact journalist .

literature

  • Christopher Fyfe (Ed.): African Studies Since 1945. A Tribute to Basil Davidson. London 1976.
  • John O. Hunwick: West Africa, Islam, and the Arab World. Studies in honor of Basil Davidson. Markus Wiener Publ., Princeton 2006, ISBN 1-55876-399-6 .
  • Bogumil Jewsiewicki, David Newbury (Ed.): African Historiographies. What History for which Africa? Beverly Hills 1986.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Basil Davidson: Portuguese-speaking Africa. In: Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 8, Cambridge 1984, pp. 755-810.
  2. ↑ The Black man's burden. Africa and the curse of the nation-state. is still one of the basics recommended at universities today. List of literature from the University of Vienna .
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from January 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ The SOE , founded in July 1940, took over the sabotage department D.
  5. ^ Basil Davidson: Special Operations Europe. Gollancz, London 1980.
  6. ^ Mark Seaman: Special Operations Executive: a new instrument of war. Routledge, London / New York 2006.
  7. ↑ Heather Williams: Parachutes, patriots and Partisans. The Special Operations Executive and Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. C. Hurst, London 2002, p. 165.
  8. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jul/11/letter-basil-davidson-obituary
  9. ^ Basil Davidson: Walking 300 Miles With Guerillas Through the Bush of Easter Angola. In: Munger African Library Notes. Issue 6, Pasadena 1978.
  10. ^ Basil Davidson: An Inside Look at Angola's Fight for Freedom. In: Africa Report. December 1970, p. 18.
  11. ^ WM James III .: A political history of the civil war in Angola, 1974–1990. Transaction, Somerset, New York, pp. 78f.
  12. ↑ Chibo Onyeji: An Image of Africans. In: Werner Zips: African Diaspora: out of Africa - into new worlds . LIT publishing house, Münster u. a. 2000, pp. 113–128, here p. 119.
  13. ↑ Kiangiosekazi wa Nyoka: Tribute to a great African historian, Basil Davidson . In: www.dailynews.co.tz , August 6, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  14. ^ Dan Connell: Taking on the superpowers: collected articles on the Eritrean revolution, 1976-1982. Vol. 1, Red Sea Press, Trenton 2003.
  15. ^ Basil Davidson, Lionel Cliffe (ed.): The Long struggle of Eritrea for independence and constructive peace. Red Sea Press, Trenton 1988.
  16. ↑ Dan Connell, Tom Killion (Ed.): Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2011, p. 42.
  17. ^ Marvin Swartz: The Union of Democratic Control in British politics during the First World War. Clarendon Press, Oxfort 1971.
  18. ↑ See Hans Buser: In Ghana at independence. Stories of a Swiss salesman. Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Basel 2010, p. 17.
  19. ↑ Mike Nicol, Tim Couzens (ed.): Mandela. The authorized portrait. Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2006, p. 346.
  20. ↑ See David Kynaston : Family Britain, 1951–1957. Tales of New Jerusalem. Bloomington, London 2010, p. 91.
  21. ↑ http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary_basil_davidson_1_817238 Obituary: Basil Davidson - news.scotsman.com. July 13, 2010. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  22. ^ Dick France: Africa. The Bible and the gun. (TV review for the fifth episode of the series). In: Third Way. July / August 1984, p. 19.
  23. ↑ Historian RBG Tube - listing of archived episodes  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rbgtube.com  
  24. ↑ Wendy S. Wilson, Gerald H. Herman: World History On The Screen. Film and video resources. Grade 10-12. 2nd Edition. J. Weston Walch, Portland 2003, p. 2.
  25. ↑ Cameron Duodu: Basil Davidson: Historian who changed Africans' perceptions of themselves. In: The Independant . October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  26. ^ Basil Davidson, Obituary . In: The Daily Telegraph . July 19, 2010.
  27. ↑ SADOCC - Southern Africa Documentation and Cooperation Center: Radical journalist and historian Basil Davidson died aged 95 ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . July 14, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sadocc.at
  28. ^ Angola: Ruling Party Mourns Death of British Journalist. In: Allafrica. July 13, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  29. ↑ http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/the-lost-cities-of-africa/
  30. ↑ Basil Davidson: PAICV emite comunicado sobre morte do jornalista  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . July 16, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.expressodasilhas.sapo.cv  
  31. ^ Review - Monthly Review Press. The Classic Series
  32. ↑ Albert Wirz: body, head and stomach. On the problem of the colonial state in subhare Africa. In: Wolfgang Reinhard, Elisabeth Luckner (Ed.): Nationalization of the world? Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1999, pp. 253-272, here p. 254.
  33. ↑ Cf. Rolf Hofmeier, Volker Matthies (ed.): Forgotten Wars in Africa. Goettingen 1992.
  34. ↑ Andreas Eckert: Rule and Administration. African Bureaucrats, State Order and Politics in Tanzania, 1920–1970. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2007, p. 3.
  35. ^ Basil Davidson: The Black man's burden. Africa and the curse of the nation-state . London 1992, p. 100.
  36. ↑ Cf. Heinz Kimmerle: Family, people, nation from intercultural self. An exciting triangle of terms in socio-political thinking. In: Alexander von Bormann: People - Nation - Europe: to romanticize and de-romanticize political terms . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998, p. 199, here p. 202.
  37. ↑ See on the European interpretation of African history: Anne Friedrichs: How European is the history of Africa? The Journal of African History (1960) . In: European History Thematic Portal (2009)
  38. ↑ Urs Bitterli: The “Wild” and the “Civilized”: Fundamentals of an intellectual and cultural history of the European-overseas encounter. CH Beck, Munich 1991, p. 102.
  39. ↑ Micha Brumlik: Weltbügerliche virtue in the age of globalization. Human Rights Education and Global Memory. In: Helma Lutz / Kathrin Gawarecki (eds.): Colonialism and culture of remembrance the colonial past in the collective memory of the German and Dutch immigration society . Waxmann, Münster a. a. 2005, p. 64.
  40. ^ Johann August Schülein, Gerda Bohmann: Economy and Society. A collection of study texts. Springer, Vienna a. a. 1994, p. 262.
  41. ↑ Cedric Janowicz: On the social ecology of urban spaces. African cities in the field of tension between demographic development and food supply. transcript, Bielefeld 2008, p. 192.
  42. ↑ Ulrike Auga : Intellectuals - between dissidence and legitimacy. A culture-critical theory in the context of South Africa. Lit, Münster / Hamburg / Berlin 2007 (approved dissertation from Humboldt University Berlin 2005) p. 152.
  43. ^ Basil Davidson: Some Thoughts on Nationalism. In: Mazwao 1.1 (1967), p. 12f.
  44. ^ Pierre Bertaux : Africa. From prehistory to the present day (= Fischer Weltgeschichte . Volume 32). Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 370 (cites Davidson's The African Awakening (1955) for the chapter on "Africa's independence" , whereby one must take into account the editorial status of the first edition from 1966).
  45. ^ For comparison: Franz Ansprenger : Political History of Africa in the 20th Century . 2nd revised and expanded edition. CH Beck, Munich 1997, p. 230, calls Davidsons The People's Cause. A history of guerillas in Africa (1981) and The Black Man's Burden (1992).
personal data
SURNAME Davidson, Basil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davidson, Basil Risbridger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian, publicist and Africanist
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristol
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 2010