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.
Maps the literary awakening of the young intellectuals who became known
as Nigeria's "first-generation" of postcolonial writers: Chinua Achebe,
Elechi Amadi, Chike Momah, Christopher Okigbo, Chukwuemeka Ike, Gabriel
Okara, Ken Saro-Wiwa and I.C. Aniebo. 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 and examines the implications 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 is a Teaching Fellow in the History of Modern Africa at
King's College, London and a Honorary Research Fellowat the Department
of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. She
was previously a British Academy Newton Fellow at the University of
Sussex.
