Roots and Routes: The Biographical Meshwork of Saint Josephine Bakhita

In April 2013, while casually surfing the Web, I was struck by the multiple references to the name that I encountered in a search for a “brown saint.” At that point, I had never heard of Josephine Bakhita. Because I was curious, I Googled the name and, as frequently occurs on the Web, I found myself following successive and connected links. These links led me to digital narratives, images, and references to books, stories, documents, and people-a multiplicity of traces and interconnections that I shall call here a biographical meshwork. The term meshwork is to be understood, according to Tim Ingold, “as a texture of interwoven threads” (xii).