The Way of History: the Atlantic journey of an africanista. Interview with Joseph C. Miller

Resumen

Joseph Calder Miller, or as he likes to be called "Joe", is one of the foremost current Africanists historians. He got his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, home of many of the researchers who helped consolidate the field of African history, he was advised by Philip Curtin and Jan Vansina. His research field was the History of Angola, in particular the Imbangala, a community that lived independently of Portuguese rule until the twentieth century. From his extensive work, Way of Death became an outstanding classic, and may perhaps be defined as an economic history of the slave trade in Angola, but also a history of the peoples connected through this trade. This classical and necessary work will finally be published here in Brazil, thanks to the collective effort of several Brazilian researchers. He is currently investigating the global history of slavery, contributing to understand this social relationship (or “strategy”, as he himself points out) beyond the traditional theoretical frameworks (slavery as an institution within the frontier of the National State).