Autobiography, Memory and Nationhood in Anglophone Africa

David Ekanem Udoinwang, James Tar Tsaaior

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032275215
• eBook ISBN: 9781000632866
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Literature

This book provides an important critical analysis of the autobiographies of nine major leaders of national liberation movements in Africa. By examining their self-narratives, we can better understand how decolonisation unfolded and how activist-politicians sought to immortalise their roles for posterity.

Focusing on the autobiographies of Peter Abrahams, Albert Luthuli, Ruth First and Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), George Mwase (Malawi), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Maurice Nyagumbo (Zimbabwe), and Oginga Odinga (Kenya), the book uncovers the social and cultural forces which galvanized the anti-colonial resistance movement in African societies. In particular, the book explores the disdain for foreign domination, economic exploitation and cultural imperialism. It delves into themes of African cultural sovereignty before the colonial encounter, the disruptive presence of colonialism, the nationalist ferment against European imperial domination, the achievement of political autonomy by African nation-states and the corpus of contradictions which attended postcolonial becoming.

With important insights on how these key historical figures navigated the process of self-determining nationhood in Africa, this book will be of interest to researchers of African literature, history, and politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: Autobiographies, Colonisation and Decolonisation
• 2 Autobiography, Self-Making and National Be-Coming: From Theory to Practice
• 3 Imagining a Continental Statehood: The Autobiographies of Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe
• 4 Narrating Violence and Non-Violence as Roadmaps to Nationhood: Not Yet Uhuru (NYU), Strike a Blow and Die (SBD) and Zambia Shall Be Free (ZSBF)
• 5 Narrating Apartheid State Violence: The Autobiographies of Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela
• 6 ‘The Negro Is Not Free’: Visualising a Humane Nationhood in Peter Abrahams’ Tell Freedom and Maurice Nyagumbo’s With the People
• 7 Life Narratives, the Female Voice and the National Liberation Experience: Ruth First’s 117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation under the South African 90-Days Detention Law
• 8 Conclusion: African Autobiographies, Memory and the Making of Nationhood
• Index