Franois-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar. ]. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2002. 415 pp. EUR 30.00 (paper), ISBN 978-2-85944-445-7.

Reviewed by Jean-Pierre Chretien (Department of History, University Paris I, France)
Published on H-SAfrica (December, 2005)

Historiography and Khoisan history

We are here presented with an innovative approach, asking a specific question and giving it precise, thoroughly documented and argued answers. From the start, Franois-Xavier Fauvelle defines clearly the scope of his study: he does not aim to write a history of the Khoisan people, nor to revel in "deconstructionist" skepticism, but attempts a critical history of the representations leading to the image of the "Hottentot." Analyzing the ethnographic gaze in such a way has already been done for other African populations. It is an essential tool for deciphering the various screens imposed for centuries by European "Africanism" (in the widest sense) on African historical realities--which were themselves quickly caught within a mirror game through contact with European merchants, missionaries, and colonists. But sources in the case of the "Hottentots" stretch over four centuries.

Fauvelle's work has the merit of having used all sources available. He methodically consulted travel writings, compilations and syntheses, and published archives in English, French, German and Dutch from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. He analyzed the texts themselves as well as the iconography with much finesse and rigor, and his critical assessment of sources is exemplary. For instance, he tracks down the influences, copies, remakes, as well as innovations that can be found even in the engravings. That said, Fauvelle is not prisoner of the literality of the source, as he explores the role of oral transmissions by sailors or merchants, in taverns as well as in literary circles, as reflected or caused by the circulation of the texts. This history of representations is solidly articulated with the history of Dutch and English colonization at the Cape, as well as with the history of European sea travel and commerce since the Portuguese expeditions. His synthesis does not exclude the detailed analysis of significant episodes, nor the careful reconstitution of the atmosphere at the Cape at the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth century, when travelers built their representations of local African populations.

Representations do not evolve in a linear way. Fauvelle shows how they travel between the Cape and Europe, the importance of the first conflicts, the ambiguous consequences of European settlement (whereby people become more closely known, but land competition becomes fierce), or the discrepancy between the history of European images of Africa on the one hand, and the day-to-day relations with the Khoikhoi, who were progressively disorganized, subjugated and decimated by smallpox at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This does not prevent the "Hottentot," a term whose emergence is precisely situated, from becoming a widely used cliche at the end of the eighteenth century. Finally, the naturalist discourse of the ninteenth century produces a kind of animalization of the Khoikhoi, on the basis of well-researched eighteenth-century arguments, including sexual ones. Its climax is reached with the episode of the Venus hottentote, or the mixture of anthropology and circus-like voyeurism victimizing some "specimens" brought to Europe or America.

This case offers an enlightening contribution on the vexed question of identities, by showing their historical flexibility, as opposed to contemporary ethnic or racial certitudes. The Khoikhoi were a priori defined as cattle breeders by the ethnographic gaze. They reveal themselves as being also fishermen or hunters, thereby contesting the definition of Bochimans or Bushmen, a division we see emerging at the end of the seventeenth century. Also, this study allows one to rethink the place given to Khoisan languages in linguistics from the second half of the ninteenth century, e.g., by Bleek, the so-called father of the Bantu model: it was coupled with an hypothesis on a possible Mediterranean origin of the atypical Khoisan, a suggestion contrapuntal to the negative vision, grounded on somatic considerations, of the same people.

This book shows how much historiography can bring to the progress of African history itself, and spares us the self-centeredness sometimes found in fashionable assessments of "Africanism."

[Review editor's note: For French books, we try, whenever possible, to offer a bilingual review. The French text follows.--M.H.-H.]

Historiographie et histoire khoisan

Nous sommes en prsence d'une tude novatrice, posant une question et y apportant des rponses abondamment documentes et rigoureusement argumentes. Franois-Xavier Fauvelle dfinit clairement ds le dbut l'objet de son ouvrage: il ne s'agit ni de faire l'histoire des populations Khoisan, ni de se complaire dans un scepticisme "dconstructiviste," mais de reconstituer l'histoire critique des reprsentations qui ont construit l'image du "Hottentot." Ce type d'analyse des regards ethnographiques a t men sur d'autres populations d'Afrique et se rvle fondamental pour dcrypter les crans placs par l'africanisme europen (au sens le plus large) au cours des sicles sur les ralits historiques africaines, elles-mmes rapidement impliques par le jeu de miroirs li au contact avec les commerants, les missionnaires et les colons europens. Mais dans ce cas les sources rendaient possible un suivi sur au moins quatre sicles.

F.X. Fauvelle a vraiment fait feu de toutes sources. Il a mobilis mthodiquement tout ce que lui apportaient les rcits de voyages, les compilations et synthses, les archives publies, disponibles en anglais, en franais, en allemand et en nerlandais du XVIe au XIXe sicle. Il utilise avec le maximum de rigueur et beaucoup de finesse les textes autant que l'iconographie. Sa critique des sources est exemplaire. Il dbusque les influences, les copies, les reprises, mais aussi les innovations, y compris dans les gravures, mais sans tre prisonnier de la littralit, car il pose aussi trs bien le rle sous-jacent des transmissions orales (celles des marins, des tavernes autant que des cercles lettrs ou des milieux marchands), refltes autant que causes par la circulation des textes. Cette histoire des reprsentations est articule trs solidement avec l'histoire de la colonisation nerlandaise, puis anglaise au Cap, ainsi qu'avec l'histoire du commerce maritime europen depuis les navigations portugaises. La synthse n'exclut pas l'analyse dtaille d'pisodes significatifs, ni la reconstitution de l'ambiance rgnant au Cap la fin du XVIIe sicle ou au dbut du XVIIIe sicle, quand les voyageurs se forgent leur opinion sur les populations africaines de la rgion.

L'volution des reprsentations n'est pas linaire et F.-X. Fauvelle montre bien les aller-retour entre Le Cap et l'Europe, l'importance des premiers affrontements, puis l'effet contradictoire de l'implantation europenne (connaissance plus familire des gens, mais aussi concurrences foncires), et enfin le dcrochage entre l'histoire de l'imaginaire europen sur l'Afrique et celle des rapports concrets avec les populations Khoikhoi, dsarticules, asservies et enfin dcimes au dbut du XVIIIe sicle par la variole. Cela n'empche pas "le Hottentot," un terme dont l'mergence est situe avec prcision, de devenir un clich largement utilis la fin du XVIIIe sicle. Enfin la mainmise naturaliste du XIXe sicle aboutit une sorte d'animalisation, dont on suit la trace, l'argumentaire depuis le XVIIe sicle (notamment sur le thme sexuel), mais qui atteint un sommet avec l'pisode de la Vnus hottentote et le mlange d'anthropologie et de voyeurisme de cirque dont sont victimes quelques spcimens emmens en Europe ou en Amrique.

Cet exemple apporte une contribution particulirement clairante la fameuse question des identits, dont on mesure ici la flexibilit historique, en dpit des certitudes ethniques ou raciales contemporaines. Les Khoikhoi, dfinis a priori comme leveurs selon le regard ethnographique, peuvent prendre la forme de pcheurs ou de chasseurs (avec du mme coup une remise en cause galement du schma Boschiman, selon une terminologie que l'on voit merger la fin du XVIIe sicle). On se rappelle aussi la place des langues khoisan dans la rflexion linguistique de la deuxime moiti du XIXe sicle (y compris chez Bleek, le "pre" du modle bantu), couple avec des hypothses sur les origines mditerranennes de ces peuples atypiques de l'Afrique australe, venant en contrepoint de la vision pjorative lie aux considrations somatiques.

Cet ouvrage montre tout l'apport de l'historiographie au progrs de l'histoire de l'Afrique proprement dite, et cela sans le nombrilisme qui caractrise parfois les analyses et examens de conscience la mode sur "l?africanisme."

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Citation: Jean-Pierre Chretien. Review of Fauvelle-Aymar, Franois-Xavier, ]. H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. December, 2005.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11015

Copyright © 2005 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.