Nina S. de Friedemann: self-taught and highly political danger

Abstract

In 1997, the English anthropologist Peter Wade delivered a stern verdict: Nina S. de Friedemann's work was part of a larger body of work. work of Nina S. de Friedemann was part of a larger body of work characterised by low scientific rigour and high political characterised by low scientific rigour and high political danger. Wade 1997: 19). The anthropologist we are paying tribute to today earned both of these labels both labels because of the risky comparisons she posed in terms of the Africa-America bridge. the Africa-America bridge, and for her study of the origin and evolution of Afro-Colombian cultures in and evolution of Afro-Colombian cultures in the light of a notion of which she was the author: that of the traces of Africanness.