What is it about?
My Africa Reads is a memoir in which I travel from eurocentrism to a liberating and enriching encounter with postcolonial African literature. The Preamble identifies authors who shaped my worldview as a youth. The main body revisits my reading history which until my 20s was dominated by the writing of white anglo-saxon women. By my late 20s, Jewish literature had taken over and it was this that awakened my world vision and raised my awareness of human suffering provoked by racial discrimination. My exhilarating encounter with books by some of the most distinguished writers of African descent rounds off the main body of the memoir which concludes with theuplifting voices of the international women of the Africa Book Group with whom I shared the greater part of my Africa reads.
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Why is it important?
Today when the winds of change are propelling movements towards decolonisation and diversity and inclusion in all realms of human interaction, a memoir witnessing my liberation from eurocentrism to an empowering Africa consciousness through good postcolonial literature, is very timely.
Perspectives
Writing the memoir was an illumination: I was able to revisit how far I have come from a limiting eurocentrism. I was particularly happy to see the greater part of the journey to decolonise my mind situated in the Africa Book Group. This is an historic book club (since 1981) of international women readers based in Lagos. It was a pleasure full of nostalgia to feature the voices of some of the former members 'family members'; to have them close out my memoir, extolling the liberating function of great postcolonial literature and shared reading in good company.
Ms. Olatoun Kofoworola Gabi-Williams
Borders Literature for all Nations
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: My Africa Reads, Logos, September 2020, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/18784712-03102002.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea and the Genesis of Secrecy
Ato Quayson delivers a video analysis of the ground-breaking postcolonial novel set in the colonial Caribbean by Jean Rhys
What is Postcolonialism?
Professor Ato Quayson of Stanford University, US, analyzes the very rich realm of postcolonialism. He introduces the talk with the important and hardly understood distinction between post-colonialism and postcolonialism
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