The culling of imperial archives led me to turn to oral history. But for many scholars, the official myths of the British Empire persist
By Caroline Elkins
The Guardian, Sunday 20 October 2013
'Africans make up stories." I heard this refrain over and again while researching imperial history in Kenya.
I was scarcely surprised when it came from former settlers and colonial
officials living out their days in the country's bucolic highlands. But
I was concerned to find that this position took on intractable
proportions among some historians.
At the time of decolonisation,
colonial officials destroyed and removed tons of documents from Kenya.
To overcome this, I collected hundreds of oral testimonies and
integrated them with fragments of remaining archival evidence to
challenge entrenched views of British imperialism.
My methods drew
sharp criticism. Revising the myths of British imperial benevolence cut
to the heart of national identity, challenging decades-old scholarship
and professional reputations.
Some historians fetishise documents,
and historians of empire are among the most hide-bound. For decades,
these scholars have viewed written evidence as sacrosanct. That
documents – like all forms of evidence – must be triangulated, and
interrogated for veracity using other forms of evidence, including oral
testimonies from colonised populations, mattered little.
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