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History in Novels and Memoirs: Alfons Vermeulen on Rural Congo (1899–1904)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Jan Vansina
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Abstract:

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Alfons Vermeulen published a novel about his life in a Congo town as a trader in 1933 and also left drafts about the same subject for his memoirs when he died in 1965. This essay systematically compares both documents using the rules of evidence and concludes that although it does not appear to be so on the surface the novel distorts the evidence he adduces considerably more than the memoirs. At the same time though both documents are equally deeply affected by the spirit of the time of their composition. Hence the combined evidence of both documents together is not only richer but also more reliable than their separate use.

Type
Critical Source Analysis
Information
History in Africa , Volume 39 , 2012 , pp. 123 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2012

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