[Servalan]

Schon vor gut einem Monat, am 21. November 2014, wurde die Graphic Novel Abina and the Important Men (Oxford University Press 2011) von dem Historiker Trevor Getz (Szenario) und Liz Clarke (Zeichnungen) mit dem James Harvey Robinson Prize 2014 ausgezeichnet, der von der American Historical Association (AHA) vergeben wird. Insgesamt vergibt die AHA knapp 40 Preise, davon einige nur alle zwei Jahre - wie den James Harvey Robinson Prize.

Der Preis wurde 1974 ins Leben gerufen und 1978 das erste Mal vergeben. Mit ihm werden hochwertige Lehrmittel für den Geschichtsunterricht und pädagogische Hilfen für historische Bildung ausgezeichnet.

Abina and the Important Men erzählt die Geschichte der Sklavin Abina Mansah aus Ghana, die von einer westafrikanischen Plantage flüchtet und ihren ehemaligen Master vor Gericht verklagt.

Getz stumbled upon Mansah's story when looking through court transcripts in Ghana while researching his dissertation and knew immediately that he needed to tell the story of this woman who refused to retreat into the shadows of history. To reach a wider audience, he decided to do so through a graphic novel, believing that text and images together could be more powerful than words alone.
Designed as a teaching tool for historians and their students, the book raises questions about the process by which history is made, including who is represented and how; the use of different kinds of sources; and the relationship between history as an academic discipline and the way everyday people talk about the past. Included with the graphic novel are a reading guide, extensive historical context and the original court transcript, allowing readers to see how Getz's interpretation compares to the source material.

"In a very weird way, history is a tension between the subject who's being studied and the historian doing the work," he said. "I want students to think about our duty to write histories in which the people who are in them would recognize them. Would Abina recognize herself in this graphic history?"

Since its publication, "Abina" has sold more than 18,000 copies in North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Brazil. It has been used in classrooms at 208 colleges and universities in the U.S. -- including in five classes at SF State -- and a number of high schools. A second edition, which provides a deeper exploration of gender issues presented in the book as well as a commentary from leading historians on whether Mansah was actually a slave, is planned for next year. An animated mobile version of the novel is also in the works.