Life Writing in the Colonial Archives

The Case of Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996) of Nigeria

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9369692
AutoresStephanie Newell (0009-0001-0662-4493, Yale University, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume13
Fascículo3
Páginas307-321
Data de publicação2016-05-12
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLife Writing (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1448-4528 • E-ISSN: 1751-2964
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14484528.2016.1180807
OpenAlexW2367069387
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas23

Commentators on Europe’s colonial archives often highlight the lack of coherence to be found in official and national repositories. Even within a single file, the archives do not simply, or only, yield evidence about imperial intentions and colonial subjects in Europe’s diverse territories. Focusing on secret files compiled in the 1930s and 1940s around the activities of the prominent Nigerian newspaper editor and later first president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996), this article argues that Colonial Office archives reveal the tensions between imperialism as a hegemonic ideology and the diverse practices of individuals, including colonial governors, civil servants in London, and their critics in the colonial public sphere. The article shows how Azikiwe’s biography was produced by spies and informants in Nigeria, and by civil servants at the Colonial Office, but that Azikiwe himself cleverly exploited the meticulous record-keeping procedures in Whitehall to insert his political autobiography into the files for posterity

Art history · Biography · Civil servants · Colonialism · Hegemony · Ideology · Media studies · National archives · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · History · Law