Writing the New Nation in a West African Borderland by Skinner, Kate; Yayoh, Wilson;

Rövid leírás:

This volume focuses on the translations of a single African language newspaper Ablɔɖe ('the Key to Freedom'). It follows the story of decolonisation and the history of the Ghana-Togo borderlands, demonstrating that engagement with specific African-language texts is indispensable to the study of Africa and Africans in global history.

Hosszú leírás:

This book rethinks the history of decolonisation and new nationhood in the Ghana-Togo borderlands, and speaks to an increasingly urgent debate on the production of knowledge about Africa. It does this through the close reading, translation and analysis of a unique primary source - a newspaper entitled Ablɔɖe Safui(meaning 'the Key to Freedom').

Ablɔɖe Safui was initiated and sustained by a shoemaker named Holiday V. K. Komedja, and written almost entirely in his mother-tongue, Eʋe. Whilst many studies of nationalism have highlighted the importance of anti-colonial newspapers, this volume is unique - in its intensive focus on a single African-language newspaper, in providing translations of entire issues, and in following the story of decolonisation into the era of new nationhood. The manner in which Komedja recounted and explained political events challenges existing scholarly accounts of the rise and fall of Togo's first independent government, and of ethnic nationalisms and local loyalties within new nation-states.

In re-reading the history of the Ghana-Togo borderlands through the pages of Ablɔɖe Safui, this volume demonstrates that intensive inter-disciplinary engagement with specific African-language texts is indispensable to the meaningful study of Africa and Africans in global history.

Tartalomjegyzék:

• Acknowledgements


• Glossary


• The Eve Alphabet


• Map


• PART 1: EDITORS' INTRODUCTION


• I: Preamble


• II: An overview: Holiday Vincent Kwasi Komedja and his newspaper


• III: The Aguawo: Asante invasion and the mission encounter


• IV: A historiographical intervention: Aguawo and approaches to empire


• VI: Coercion and coercion: the colonisation of Agu


• VI: Petitioning against plantations: the particularities of protest in Agu


• VII: The Togolese press: political history and regional print culture


• VIII: Journalist-activists: newsprint and politics in the borderlands


• IX: Writing the new nation: Ablɔɖe Safui and the work of citizenship


• X: Ablɔɖe Safui is my name! Komedja as patriot and truth-teller


• XI: Translating Ablɔɖe Safui: culture, communication and context


• XII: Conclusion


• PART 2: ABLƆƉE SAFUI (THE KEY TO FREEDOM): 22 ISSUES, EACH WITH TRANSLATION AND COMMENTS


• A S6 of 31 March 1959


• AS 20 of 6 October 1959


• AS 21 of 27 October 1979


• AS 22 of 26 November 1959


• AS 23 of 26 February 1960


• AS 24 of 23 March 1960


• AS 25 of 13 April 1960


• AS 26 of 2 May 1960


• AS 27 of 20 May 1960


• AS 28 of 13 July 1960


• AS 29 of 11 November 1960


• AS 30 of 31 December 1960


• AS 31 of 28 January 1961


• AS 32 of 20 February 1961


• AS 34 of 20 April 1961


• AS 36 not dated


• AS 37 not dated


• AS 38 of 5 May 1962


• AS 39 of 11 July 1962


• AS 40 of 2 August 1962


• AS 49 of 2 May 1965


• AS 56 of 28 December 1965


• Bibliography


• Index