WINNER OF THE ASAUK FAGE & OLIVER PRIZE 2016
The author meticulously contextualises the experiences of Achebe and his
peers as students at Government College Umuahia and argues for a
re-assessment of this influential group of Nigerian writers in relation
to the literary culture fostered by the school and its tutors.
This is the first in-depth scholarly study of the literary awakening of
the young intellectuals who became known as Nigeria's "first-generation"
writers in the post-colonial period. Terri Ochiagha's research focuses
on Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Chike Momah, Christopher Okigbo and
Chukwuemeka Ike, and also discusses the experiences of Gabriel Okara,
Ken Saro-Wiwa and I.C. Aniebo, in the context of their education in the
1930s, 1940s and 1950s at Government College, Umuahia. The author
provides fresh perspectives on Postcolonial and World literary
processes, colonial education in British Africa, literary
representations of colonialism and Chinua Achebe's seminal position in
African literature. She demonstrates how each of the writers used this
very particular education to shape their own visions of the world in
which they operated and examines the implications that this had for
African literature as a whole.
Supplementary material is available online of some of the original
sources. See: http: //boybrew.co/9781847011091_2
Terri Ochiagha holds one of the prestigious British Academy Newton
International Fellowships (2014-16) hosted by the School of English,
University of Sussex. She was previously a Senior Associate Member of St
Antony's College, University of Oxford.
