Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how biographical narratives can refashion the historical legacy of subjects once reduced to silence by deconstructing the conceptual, epistemological, ideological and geographical apparatus of biographical narratives. It explores the Western roots and codes of biography writing and reflect on the conceptual, methodological, and temporal frontiers of African political biographies. The book explores how the politics of scales plays in. It shows how autobiography and biography writing fills historical voids and offers narratives powerful enough to serve political ends and manipulate a public audience. The book explores the blurred boundaries between biography and autobiography further, taking the case of the writing of South African politician Ronnie Kasrils. It describes how the concepts of “motherhood” and “sisterhood” can offer alternative models of power.