This book provides fresh insights into how the British press affected
both British perceptions of decolonisation in Africa and British policy
towards it during the 'wind of change' period. It also reveals, for the
first time, the extent to which British newspaper coverage was of
relevance to African and white settler readerships. British newspapers
informed the political strategies and civic cultures of African
activists, nationalists, liberal whites in Africa, the staunchest of
white settler communities, and the first governments of independent
African states and their opponents. The British press, British public
opinion and British journalists became etched into the lived experiences
of the end of empire affecting Anglo-African and Anglo-settler relations
to this day. Arguing that the press cast a transnational web of
influence over the decolonisation process in Africa, the author explores
the relationships between the British, African and settler public and
political spheres, and highlights the mediating power of the British
press during the late 1950s. The book draws from a range of British
newspapers, official government documents, newspaper archives,
interviews, memoirs, autobiographies and articles printed in African and
white settler papers. It will be of interest to historians of
decolonisation, Africa, the media and the British Empire.
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