Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause

Description

On the eve of World War II, a small, impoverished group of Africans and West Indians in London dared to imagine the unimaginable: the end of British rule in Africa. In books, pamphlets, and periodicals, they launched an anti-colonial campaign that used publishing as a pathway to liberation. West Indians George Padmore, C. L. R. James, and Ras Makonnen; Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta and Sierra Leone's I. T. A. Wallace Johnson -made their point: that colonial rule was oppressive and inconsistent with the democratic ideals Britain claimed at home. Ending British Rule in Africa draws on previously unexplored manuscript and archival collections to trace the development of this publishing community from its origins in George Padmore's American and Comintern years through the independence of Ghana in the 1957. This original study will be of interest to scholars and general readers interested in social movements, diaspora studies, empire and African history, publishing history, literary history, and cultural studies. -- .

Carol Polsgrove is Professor Emeritus at the School of Journalism, Indiana University, Bloomington.

""Ending British Rule in Africa" is a path-breaking book. Polsgrove's excavation of one rich seam of the black presence in British print culture, and her exploration of some of the often underground networks of 'black internationalism' in and around the imperial metropole, is an important advance." As an inspirational account of the achievements of the Pan-Africanists around Padmore, it serves too as a reminder of the even deeper historical excavations needed to bring to light a host of lesser-known black anti-colonial thinkers and activists, of which at present we have only tantalising glimpses." --"History Workshop Journal""Excellent book...invaluable." --"Reviews in History" "Provides valuable new information on the relationship between these writers, their diverging opinions, and the personal antagonisms that grew up between them over decades....As a journalist herself, Polsgrove pays attention to the practical details of relations between agents, publishers, and editors -- an aspect of writing that she notes is too often ignored in intellectual histories." --"The Journal of African History "