fascination with "founding fathers" and other heroic agents of
historical change. Yet academic histories of institutions, processes,
ecologies, and intelligentsia exist in constant tension with the
popular conception of history as narrative, both chronological and
character-driven. The heroes (Nkrumah, Lumumba, Mandela) and villains
(Amin, Mobutu, Mugabe) of post-colonial demonstrate the
presence of biography in popular discourse. Julius Nyerere of
Tanzania symbolized the deflated hopes of the first nationalist
generation with the collapse of his economy in the 1980s, a
disappointment intensified because history seemed to betray both his
virtuous character and the modernist rationality initially seen in his
policies. This ambiguous memory helps address the question of this
paper: how does biography serve as intellectual intervention?
Biography, in both popular discourse and diplomatic policy, often
serves as cipher for contextual debate. Popular biographies, like
Greek gods and ancestral cults, provide the basis for a consideration,
not so much of history, but of national ethics and identity, and thus
serve a constitutional purpose in society. In the context of
today, many founding fathers find their reputations at low ebb. While
this circumstance reflects the efforts of scholarly critique, the need
for founding fathers (and mothers) from a constitutional standpoint
demands consideration. In conclusion I propose that good scholarship
can anchor popular biography, and thus stabilize national identities
and ethics in the tumultuous politics of today.
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