Description
Book SynopsisLetter writing was a dominant form of communication for Western-educated elites in colonial Africa, especially in Nigeria. Through textual analysis and broad contextualization, Vaughan reconstructs dominant storylines, including kinship, social mobility, Western education, and elite consolidation in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria.
Trade ReviewReading this was a joy. It is precisely the kind of book that will command attention not only among Africanists but in adjunct and cross-fertilizing disciplines and cultural contexts where tensions and contestations around kinship, filiation, and familism—moral and otherwise—persevere, giving modernist claims of isolated individuality a run for their affective money." - Ebenezer Obadare, author of
Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria"By synthesizing a vast number of letters, Olufemi Vaughan reconstructs the trajectory of a class of Nigerians who were part of the colonial bureaucracy and sociopolitical system but were conscious of their filial responsibility not to allow the ties that bound them to break. . . . Innovative in its content and easily relatable for anyone interested in the development of modern literacy in Africa." - Toyin Falola, author of
A Mouth Sweeter thanSalt: An African MemoirTable of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword by Adesoji Adelaja
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The Brothers’ Letters
- 2. The Matriarchs’ Letters
- 3. Ibadan CMS Men: Kinship and Yoruba Civic Public
- 4. The Gladys Aduke Vaughan Files
- 5. From Freetown with Love
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
