| Popis: |
This exercise in the histories and historiographies of the toponym ‘Bagamoyo’ was conducted by the late American professor Walter T. Brown (1943–2006). It shows that during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the site connected regions and communities of a variety of languages and cultures in East Africa through long-distance trade. From a methodological point of view, this short but outstanding study is an example of the ‘traditional’ problematic faced by Africanist historians. In trying to understand the past, these historians usually have to compare critically oral and written sources of rich linguistic origins – local, regional and foreign. They also have to navigate between several disciplines, what is skilfully performed by the author. This is further complicated by the existence of at least 11 other places called ‘Bagamoyo’ on the Tanzanian mainland and environs. In fact Brown’s contribution is reminiscent of a sentence that appeared on a leaflet for visitors distributed in the East African coastal town of Gedi, stating that “[a]n old town is like an old book, with some pages missing or torn, and some stuck together. The missing pages are lost forever, but the torn pages can be reconstructed and the stuck pages reopened.” |
