On Feb. 19, Dr. Maghan Keita presented his latest book, The Black Knight, which offers a critique of how the medieval past has been constructed and remembered. Hosted in Falvey Memorial Library with the support of the LePage Center for History, Keita discussed how race, gender, and class have shaped understandings of the medieval world.
The talk began with Keita thanking everyone who was involved in the development of this book. He described the book as a “labor of love,” shaped by years of research and feedback from colleagues.
Keita explains that the central purpose of writing this book is rooted in the present political moment.
“The why of this book has everything to do with the present political moment in which we all exist globally,” Keita said.
He argued that popular and political invocations of the medieval often rely on narrow, Eurocentric imagery. They influence how societies understand identity, heritage and power.
Keita said two things influenced his work most: illusion and the global medieval. Illusion refers to the ways societies fail to see what is in plain sight. He claims that in texts, we often don’t see things because we are trained not to see them. This selective vision shapes the way we read novels.
His second idea, presented in the novel, challenges the idea that the Middle Ages were exclusively European. Keita touched on the 13th-century imagery from the court of Kublai Khan that depicted figures of African descent among elite retainers. He argued that these depicted figures disrupt the assumption of a racially homogenous medieval world.
Much of the book focuses on Arthurian literature, including Tristan and Parzival. Keita emphasizes that Africans appear in these sources more often than is acknowledged. Although over time, modern productions at least minimized this.
He highlighted the importance of the work of Sir Walter Scott and Richard Wagner and how they reshaped medieval imagery. According to Keita, these works contributed to the push against racial conventions that gained attention in the 18th and 19th centuries.
This book Keita wrote extends beyond European texts. He also looked into the role of women known as qiyan, often translated as “singing girls,” in the medieval Islamic world. He wanted to highlight how these women shaped the culture that influenced Iberia and many parts of Europe. He suggested that these women represent the interconnectedness of medieval societies.
Throughout the talk, Keita described himself as more committed to historiography than to narrative history. His goal, he said, is not to provide answers.
“That wasn’t my intention,” Keita said. “It’s to pose questions. Others will answer them.”
Keita’s book invites readers to reconsider the interconnectedness and racial diversity of the medieval world. By doing so, it challenges assumptions and represents more engagement with the past.
