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Basil Risbridger Davidson (9 November 1914 – 9 July 2010) was a British journalist and historian who wrote more than 30 books on
African history The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and — around 300–250,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans (''Homo sapiens''), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of dive ...
and politics. According to two modern writers, "Davidson, a campaigning journalist whose first of many books on African history and politics appeared in 1956, remains perhaps the single-most effective disseminator of the new field to a popular international audience".


Biography


Early life

Basil Davidson was born in
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, United Kingdom on 9 November 1914 and left school at 16 and moved to London. In 1938, he gained a job at the Paris correspondent of '' The Economist'' and later as the diplomatic correspondent of ''
The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
''. He travelled widely in Italy and
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the ar ...
in the 1930s.


Wartime service

Davidson was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
, D Section. As part of his
Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
, he was sent to
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...
, Hungary in December 1939 under the cover of establishing a news service. In April 1941, with the Nazi invasion, he fled to
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 m ...
, Yugoslavia. In May, he was captured by Italian forces and was later released as part of a
prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conventions Under the Geneva Conve ...
. From late 1942 to mid-1943, he was chief of the
Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...
(SOE) Yugoslav Section in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, Egypt, where he was
James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...
's supervisor. He parachuted into
Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
on 16 August 1943, and spent the following months serving as a liaison with the Partisans, as he would describe in his 1946 book, ''Partisan Picture''. Davidson moved east into
Srem Syrmia ( sh, Srem/Срем or sh, Srijem/Сријем, label=none) is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia and Croatia. Most of the region is flat, with the e ...
and the
Fruška Gora Fruška gora ( sr-Cyrl, Фрушка гора; hu, Tarcal-hegység) is a mountain in Syrmia, administratively part of Serbia with a part of its western side extending into eastern Croatia. The area under Serbian administration forms the countr ...
in Yugoslavia. He was nearly captured or killed several times. SOE posted him to Hungary to try to organize a rebel movement there, but Davidson found that the conditions were unsuitable and crossed back over the Danube into the Fruška Gora. The Germans encircled the Fruška Gora in June 1944 in a last attempt to liquidate the Partisans there, but Davidson and the others made a narrow escape. After Soviet forces entered into Yugoslavia, Davidson was airlifted out. Davidson had enormous appreciation for the Partisans and the communist leader Josip Broz Tito. From January 1945 Davidson was liaison officer with partisans in Liguria and Genoa, Italy. He was present for the surrender of the German forces in Genoa on 26–27 April 1945.''Special Operations Europe: Scenes From the Anti-Nazi War'', 1980, pp. 340–360. He finished the war as a
lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel ...
and was awarded the
Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...
and was mentioned in despatches on two occasions.


Africa and writing career

Davidson returned to journalism after the war. He was employed initially by '' The Times'' in Paris but was widely considered to have communist sympathies after his wartime role as the Cold War began. He left in 1949 and became the secretary of the pressure-group, the
Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World War I The impetus for the fo ...
(UDC) and began to work for the left-leaning '' New Statesman''. However, the Cold War prevented him from returning to Central Europe and instead Davidson became interested in
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
after being invited to South Africa by trade unionists opposed to
Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...
. He published several articles and books critical of white-rule in South Africa and colonial rule in Africa, passing to the '' Daily Herald'' (1954–57) and the '' Daily Mirror'' (1959–62). He began a career as a popular writer. He published five novels and 30 other books, mainly on African history and politics. These consolidated his reputation as one of the leading authorities on Africa in the era of independence. From 1969, Davidson was involved in the
Anti-Apartheid Movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the polici ...
and eventually became the movement's vice-president. He was a strong supporter of
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
, especially from the 1980s, and was critical of the white-minority government in
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to th ...
and of the American-backed União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA) in
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
. He spent long periods in Angola and in Eritrea during its struggle for independence from Ethiopia. In 1984, Davidson produced an eight-part documentary series for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...
entitled ''Africa''. Although not an academic, Davidson gained a reputation as an authority on African affairs and received a number of honorary positions at universities, including the School of Oriental and African Studies. Davidson also gained honorary degrees from universities in Europe and Africa, as well as a number of civic decorations. In 1976, he won the Medalha Amílcar Cabral. He received honorary degrees from the Open University of Great Britain in 1980, and the University of Edinburgh in 1981. For his film series ''
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
'', he won the Gold Award, from the International Film and Television Festival of New York in 1984. In 2002 he was decorated by the Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio as Grande Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique.


Selected books

*''Partisan Picture''. Bedford: Bedford Books, 1946 *''Highway Forty: An incident''. London: Frederick Muller, 1949. *''Golden Horn'' (novel), Cape, 1952 *''African Awakening''. London: Cape, 1955 *''Lost Cities of Africa'', Little, Brown and Company, 1959 *''Old Africa Rediscovered'', Gollancz, 1959 *''Black Mother: The Years of the African Slave Trade''. Boston: Little Brown, 1961 **''African Slave Trade: Precolonial History 1450-1850''. Boston: Atlantic-Little Brown, 1961 *''The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times''. London: Longmans, 1964 *''Africa: History of a Continent'' London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966 *''African Kingdoms''. Time-Life International (Nederland) N V, 1966 **''Africa in History''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968. *''The Africans: An Entry to Cultural History''. Boston, Mass: Little, Brown, 1969 **''The African Genius''. Boston, Mass: Little, Brown, 1969. *''The Africans'', Prentice Hall, 1969 *''The Liberation of Guine'', Penguin, 1969 *''Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah'', 1973. Praeger, New York, 1974 *''In the Eye of the Storm: Angola's people'', Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1972. 1974 *''A History of West Africa 1000-1800'', Longman, 1977 *''Let Freedom Come: Africa in Modern History'', Little, Brown, Boston, 1978 *''Scenes From The Anti-Nazi War'', Monthly Review Press, 1980 *''Special Operations Europe: Scenes from the anti-Nazi war''. London: Gollancz, 1980. *''No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74'', 1981 *''The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State'', Times Books, New York, 1992 *''African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times'', Africa World Press, Trenton, N.J., 1991. 1995 *''West Africa Before the Colonial Era'', Longman, 1998


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links


Basil Risbridger Davidson (Oral History)
at
Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...
* . Video duration 53 m 20 s, 6 January 2016. Consulted on 29 September 2022. Uploader Ousmane N'diaye. "PART 1 : A very well documented series on African History from way before, during and after Slavery trade and colonial period to contemporary times." {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Basil 1914 births 2010 deaths British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Gloucestershire English Africanists English historians English spies Historians of Africa Place of death missing Journalists from Bristol Recipients of the Military Cross British Special Operations Executive personnel Yugoslav Partisans members English social justice activists English socialists Anti-apartheid activists