Saint Anthony: Micro or Macro?

The question that occurs to me after reading The Kongolese Saint Anthony, at least with regard to the subject of our class, is how this book fits into our evolving concept of microhistory.

I felt like most of the book focused on setting out the historical context of the Dona Beatriz movement.  In the first half of the book, there were brief references to her in each chapter, but those references were infrequent and seemed forced, as if trying to place her in the story before she became relevant (for example, stating that while Dona Beatriz was "undergoing initiation" as a nganga, such and such else was happening  -- page 59).  The facts of her story do not begin until page 105 of a 214 page book.  Her life ends with 30 pages left in the book, so one can say that the majority of the book does not directly involve her story.  This does not harm the book or make it any less interesting, but it does make me wonder whether this is really a microhistory about Dona Beatriz or rather a macrohistory about a multi-decade period of Kongolese history that involved warring factions, religious conflicts, interfering priests, and a strange religious rebel who threatened both the religious and political establishment.

Does this book meet our definition of a microhistory: a social history that conveys personal experience and serves as a lens for larger issues?  With regard to being a social history, a large part of the book involves background information about Kongolese political maneuvering.  With regard to personal experiences, a majority of the book is a history of the Kongo rather than Dona Beatriz's personal experiences.  Finally, with regard to being a lens for larger issues, Saint Anthony does appear to fulfill this criteria.  The eventual focus on Dona Beatriz leads the reader to better understand what happened at this point in time in the Kongo and shines light on the origins of some American slaves.  If it meets some but not all of the definition, then perhaps this book can be best described as a hybrid microhistory.

By the way, perhaps I'll save some others the trouble of looking up two things that I didn't know: the word Capuchin is originally from the Italian word for hood, referring to the monk's habit, and the spelling of Kongo was later changed by the Belgians to the present day Congo.