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The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945 pp 307–321Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Teaching History Under Dictatorship: The Politics of Textbooks and the Legitimation of Authority in Mobutu’s Zaire

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Abstract

This chapter sheds light on the role of state-sponsored school history in the exercise and perpetuation of power under autocratic systems characterized by a personal appropriation of the state. It examines school history as a distinct facet in the overall (ab)use of state power, regarding it as an instrument aimed at ensuring regime survival through the construction and support of legitimacy. Drawing primarily on textbook analysis, the chapter investigates the politics of history teaching in Mobutu’s Zaire—one of Africa’s longest-lasting personalized regimes—and applies Foucault’s discourse analysis and Weber’s theory of legitimate authority as frameworks for the understanding of how power and authority were constructed and legitimated through appeals to the past. The chapter ends with a note on the post-Mobutu era to demonstrate continuity and change in the permeation of state power in educational institutions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Denise Bentrovato

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  1. Denise Bentrovato
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Berber Bevernage

  2. CEGESOMA (Belgian State Archives), Brussels, Belgium

    Nico Wouters

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Bentrovato, D. (2018). Teaching History Under Dictatorship: The Politics of Textbooks and the Legitimation of Authority in Mobutu’s Zaire. In: Bevernage, B., Wouters, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95306-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95306-6_16

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95305-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95306-6

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