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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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A Seaboy's Tale: the Travels of Gabriel Sikapa (1874-1958)
| Panel |
65. The politics of travelling in Africa - Translocal perspectives in African history
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| Paper ID | 276 |
| Author(s) |
Arlt, Veit
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | In the literature on travelling in Africa travel accounts by Africans are rare despite the fact that the latter outnumbered their non-African counterparts at all times. One of the great hotspots of late 19th century Africa that attracted huge numbers of African migrants was the Congo Free State. In his ambition to exploit his private colony King Leopold of Belgium largely relied on forced labour whereby he created one of the most brutal, dehumanising and devastating colonial regimes ever. Yet the Congo Free State attracted high numbers of skilled migrant labourers especially from the West African Coast.
In this paper I explore the memoires of Gabriel Tetteh Sikapa (1874-1958) who as a carpenter travelled to the Congo Free State for three times. The narration of his first voyage, will be compared with those of his later trips both to the Congo and to Asante in connection with Sikapa’s participation in the British campaign of 1900. I am especially interested to see how Sikapa deals with the atrocious conditions in the Congo Free State and how in his further travels and in writing his self in his memoires he builds on the knowledge gained during this first voyage.
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