Writing the New Nation in a West African Borderland

Writing the New Nation in a West African Borderland

Ablɔɖe Safui (the Key to Freedom) by Holiday Komedja
Buch | Hardcover
352 Seiten
2019
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-726652-6 (ISBN)
87,25 inkl. MwSt
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.
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(meaning 'the Key to Freedom').

Ablɔɖe 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, 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.

Kate Skinner has a longstanding interest in issues of decolonisation and new nationhood in Africa. Her first book, The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland (Cambridge University Press, 2015) examined the connections between literacy, formal education and networks of political activism in the Ghana-Togo borderlands. This gave rise to a broader interest in African-authored and African-language texts such as Ablɔɖe, which engaged in the work of nation-building. Kate is now working on West Africa's first coup d'état (which occurred in Togo in 1963) and on gender activism and the reform of family law in post-colonial Ghana. Wilson Yayoh is the Founding Director of the Centre for African and International Studies at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research addresses colonial policy in Africa, ethnicity and national identities, historical perspectives on democratisation in Africa, and Africa in world affairs. Articles by Wilson have been published in the International Journal of Research in the Humanities, the Contemporary Journal of African Studies, the Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, the Journal of History and Cultures, the Ghana Social Science Journal, the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, and the Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. He is now working on a monograph entitled Contested Territory: Governing Colonial and Post-Colonial Ewedome (Ghana), c. 1922 to 1974.

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

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Fontes Historiae Africanae
Übersetzer Kate Skinner, Wilson Yayoh
Zusatzinfo 96 images
Verlagsort Oxford
Sprache englisch
Maße 196 x 255 mm
Gewicht 850 g
Themenwelt Literatur Essays / Feuilleton
Geisteswissenschaften Geschichte Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Geschichte Teilgebiete der Geschichte Wirtschaftsgeschichte
ISBN-10 0-19-726652-5 / 0197266525
ISBN-13 978-0-19-726652-6 / 9780197266526
Zustand Neuware
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