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Zeinab Badawi

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59
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2024-12-22
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2024-12-22
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1
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  1. “In a way, the book found me because it could have been called an African history, it could have been no problem, it doesn't matter because everywhere I arrived to talk to these historians, I was always late because of the traffic or whatever. And they were alter man and a woman so generous with their time. They say, no problem. It doesn't matter. And I'd have to tear myself away from them. And it made me think, you know, these are really brilliant minds who'd be at home in any senior common room in any university in the world. But clearly these African intellectuals had been starved of some kind of international platform. And I just felt, well, okay, with my international work and profile in the UK, I could ventilate their scholarship. So I see myself really as an intercessor between them and the reader.”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Very interesting that I traveled to more than 30 African countries and dozens and dozens of historians and other experts, you know, archaeologists, paleontologists and so on. And I mean, you know, I didn't really want to get drawn into the culture wars, was colonialism, good was colonialism bad. I mean, that's not really a debate that particularly interested me. But yes, you're right that there was complete unanimity amongst the African scholars that on balance colonialism wherever it is seeks to subjugate and it disenfranchises and so therefore they all said that it wasn't really a good thing. But I don't as I say really look at that. I mean I don't get is the 18 chapters I don't get to the transatlantic slave trade or chapter 14 so I try to do as much as I could of the pre-colonial history. But you're right Kate that”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Love the young female. Professor, you go on a tour of Alexandria with, and she talks all about Cleopatra. An African aspect of Cleopatra, which we'll get on to in a”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “They recorded it in different ways. You know, oral tradition is very important. Archaeology can tell us a lot. Music, dance, and so on. So that is why I wanted to use African scholars as my sources, because they do draw on these things. You know, they're living in these regions, these countries, and they don't just rely on the usual European sources that a lot of historians do. They also look at other written sources, Arabic, Persian, and so on. So it gives you a richer picture. But as one professor said to me in the book, you know, you cannot understand African history if you exclude the African scholar from the debate. Found so impressive and powerful about the book. You give credit and you”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “People say that is because there's so much emphasis on the written word that history is only history if it's written and documented. Now Africa did write but not always but just because Africans didn't always write their history it didn't mean they didn't record it.”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “I mean, it's extraordinary to think that when Hugh Trevor Roper, the late Hugh Trevor Roper, was still part of the academic body at Oxford University when I was an undergraduate there. It's not that long ago, okay, I'm no spring chicken, but still lecturing, still talking to undergraduates? Exactly. And so it just shows you that this is something which has really proved remarkably persistent. I mean, I think that nobody would really venture to say something as ridiculous as that now, but I think that there's nothing that's really gone into the vacuum. People may not want to denigrate Africa's history, but for me I found that there was a vacuum pre-colonial particularly. The colonial era is relatively well covered, and even from the presence of the Europeans, because that's what Hugh Trevor Opus said, there's no real history in Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. And the reason why...”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “And to provide an African perspective, i.e. the work of African scholars, and hopefully to excite the reader to want to know more about the particular aspects that interested them most.”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “Thank you very much indeed, Kate, and good evening to all of you. It's wonderful to see all of you. Thank you for coming along this evening. And Kate, thank you for your kind words. As a professor who's written about 10 books on history, I feel that I'm walking in the footsteps of people like you. So yes, it is quite daunting, isn't it, when you say I'm going to write a history of Africa? But when I thought about it, I came across a book on the bookshelves that said a history of the world, and it was a bit thinner than mine. So I said, okay, keep quiet, Sainab. You can do this. But yes, I mean, people will say, you didn't do this, you didn't do that, but I hope I've given, I mean, I had three objectives really, to give a broad sweep and overview of the continent's history, north, south, east, west, central.”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “La Cerie de Houlu Original Furriers Arives, Avoc Amy Rossum, Furius Suilagent du FBI, Alice Black, a la Portie, Mysterious, Ecalculatris, Vera Justice Mesa Musur colour vicentrome, la frontier entrobien elomal comments de la series of furies, surnepl”

    2024-12-22 · Intelligence Squared · The 12 Books of Christmas | Zeinab Badawi on an African History of Africa · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT