Introduction

The introduction presents and discusses the main contents of the volume, emphasizing the relevance and originality of the individual chapters and how they relate to the general theme of Africa as Method. The book is an examination of how scholars approach the study of Africa, specifically in terms of locating, choosing, interpreting, and combining sources to reconstruct Africa’s history. This topic is not new, as the development of new research methodologies and the strong interdisciplinary nature of the discipline, have generated ongoing debate and reflection. However, this volume adds to the extensive body of literature that from the 1960s onwards has examined sources and methodologies in African history and how they have evolved over time. Each chapter reflects on a specific type of source or set of sources, offering case studies that together provide a comprehensive overview of the methods and sources used by historians, anthropologists, and linguists working on Africa. The topics explored in this volume include the significance of oral sources and how they relate to written sources, the perspectives provided by female writings on and from Africa, the importance of Islamic court records for studying Africa, the use of songs and poetry in understanding contemporary political protests, the employment of photographs and other visual sources to study Africa’s past, the relevance of new sources or reinterpretations of existing sources for reevaluating historical periodization, and, finally, how biographies and autobiographies—including personal experiences with fieldwork in Africa—can shed light on the continent’s history.