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Guide de l'Etudiant en Histoire du Zaire by J.L. VellutReview by: Robert Eugene SmithThe International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1977), pp. 176-177Published by: Boston University African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/216922 .

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176 BOOK REVIEWS

GUIDE DE L'ETUDIANT EN HISTOIRE DU ZAIRE. By J.L. Vellut. Kinshasa: Presses Universitaires du Zaire, 1974. Pp. 207. ZaYre 2,50.

This is an excellent handbook, concise, useful, and up to date. As an introduction to the sources and the historiography not only of ZaYrian but of African history in general, it delivers more than its title promises. Guide de l'etudiant en histoire du Zaire is addressed primarily to history majors at the National University of Zaire, where J.L. Vellut has taught for many years, but any professor of African history will find it most helpful on several levels as he lectures or guides student research.

First, Vellut offers a history of outsiders' knowledge about Africa, in its precolonial, then colonial, and finally the independence periods. While broader in scope, both chronologically and geographically, than Philip D. Curtin's The Image of Africa (Madison, 1964) (which figures among the works cited), it is of course much less detailed. Vellut studies motives, organization, languages, cartography, exploration, and attitudes toward race as part of his essay. He presents an excellent summary of the schools of anthropological thought (evolutionists, diffusionists, and functionalists) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analyzing the conceptual limits of each from the historian's viewpoint. Colonial history is treated in the same concise fashion. This is followed by a history of the development of Negritude and related movements, and some brief statements on current methods in archaeology and on the analysis of oral and written sources. A salutarily critical quotation from Copans, "La recherche scientifique actuelle participe, de par sa structure objective, a l'exploitation culturelle des peuples africains" (p. 59), introduces a discussion of the current organization of research on Africa which mentions SOAS, IFAN, various African universities, and in particular the Universite Nationale du Zaire. Part I concludes with a critical look at certain themes of African history in the 1960s-for example, the orientation toward the state, whether ethnic or colonial; indigenisme, meaning that all initiative was African-and then offers some suggestions for newer areas of research in the 1970s, such as studies of regions, rural areas, and social movements.

Second, Vellut provides a topical commentary on the principal written sources for African history, giving greater detail to Zaire than to the rest of the continent. For example, he informs us of which African countries Herodotus visited and where in his works one may locate the pertinent information. In addition to biographical and bibliographical information, he outlines the ideological orientation and methodological limitations of the various sources, giving in each case the cultural context in which they were formulated, whether the author be Ptolemy, Ibn Khaldun, or Pigafetta. The sources from antiquity are subdivided into Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Meroitic. This is followed by a chapter on Muslim sources. The European chapter is concerned with church and state

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BOOK REVIEWS 177

papers, travel narratives and reports, histories, chronicles, and travel compilations.

Third, the author makes some useful comments on the written sources of particular interest to historians of Zaire: the organization of the national archives, an excellent administrative history of the country which indicates the influences on the availability and reliability of the sources, the critical use of the archives, and the principal documents of historical interest to be found there.

Finally, Vellut provides a briefly annotated and rather lengthy topical bibliography on the history of Zafre, an index, and a very practical listing of research organizations with their addresses.

The primary disadvantage of this handbook for students of Anglophone countries is that it is written in French, but this is a barrier which all Africanist historians must hurdle. There are few factual errors to quibble about. Sometimes brief statements are too brief: Crawford Young's Introduction a la politique congolaise does provide a useful bibliography, as indicated (p. 175), but much more as well. The study of schools of anthropological thought overlooks the structuralists. Vellut consciously does not discuss oral and ethnographic data in any detail: "Notre GUIDE est volontairement discret sur ces problemes ou le chercheur etranger est toujours a l'ecole" (p. 6). This humility is laudable, but unfortunate. Vellut has done some excellent work himself using non-archival sources, and their inclusion here would be most welcome. Nevertheless, for a small book of some two hundred pages covering everything from ancient Egyptian inscriptions to the Journal of African History,the author has succeeded remarkably well in placing the basic written sources of African history in their historical and intellectual setting.

This handbook should find several uses. For the professor of African history it would be a handy reference to guide student research on areas outside that of his own expertise. A specialist on East Africa should know whether al-Bakri gives an eyewitness or a second-hand description of ancient Ghana, but it would be nice to be able to check. It will also be most useful for a course in African historiography. Finally, any student will find this a good introduction to the sources and historiography of African history, and for those considering research in Zaire it is indispensable.

No doubt parts of this book will be rapidly outdated, as the author admits readily in his preface. That is beside the point. Vellut presents the state of the profession in the 1970s. For those historians who happen to be working now, that is timely enough.

ROBERT EUGENE SMITH

Moanza, Zaire

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