Description
Book SynopsisOn June 30, 1960—the day of the Congo’s independence—Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a fiery speech in which he conjured a definitive shift away from a past of colonial oppression toward a future of sovereignty, dignity, and justice. His assassination a few months later showed how much neocolonial forces and the Cold War jeopardized African movements for liberation. In
Students of the World, Pedro Monaville traces a generation of Congolese student activists who refused to accept the foreclosure of the future Lumumba envisioned. These students sought to decolonize university campuses, but the projects of emancipation they articulated went well beyond transforming higher education. Monaville explores the modes of being and thinking that shaped their politics. He outlines a trajectory of radicalization in which gender constructions, cosmopolitan dispositions, and the influence of a dissident popular culture mattered as much as access to various networks of act
Trade Review"
Students of the World is richly referenced in the endnotes and stands as an example of the creative possibilities of scholarly monographs.
Students of the World will prove an enduring reference point for global histories of Cold War-era activism." -- Ismay Milford * H-Soz-Kult *
"With his well-researched and meticulously wrought study, Monaville has conjured up a bygone world of possibilities that clashed with the realities of Africa’s postcolonial hubris, a world that ended up crushed in the vortex of global politics.
Students of the World possesses all the trappings of the kind of seminal works that pave the way for a historiographical renewal." -- Didier Gondola * The Global Sixties *
"This study is a significant, well-written contribution to the history of youth movements in the late 20th century. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- J. M. Rich * Choice *
"The beauty of this book lies in both its content and form. . . . . Monaville’s book exemplifies an approach that integrates ‘theory and form’, thereby offering a valuable contribution to the historiography of student activism, decolonization, the Cold War, and the Global Sixties." -- Emery Kalema * Journal of African History *
Table of ContentsPreface. Memory Work in the Age of Cinq Chantiers ix
Note on Toponyms xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction. The School of the World 1
Interlude I. Postal Musings 20
1. Distance Learning and the Production of Politics 23
2. Friendly Correspondence with the Whole World 42
Interlude II. To Live Forever Among Books 63
3. Paths to School 65
4. Dancing the Rumba at Lovanium 84
Interlude III. To the Left 103
5. Cold War Transcripts 109
6. Revolution in the (Counter)revolution 129
7. A Student Front 144
Interlude IV. The Dictator and the Students 161
8. (Un)natural Alliances 166
9. A Postcolonial Massacre and Caporalisation in Mobutu's Congo 179
Epilogue. The Gaze of the Dead 201
Notes 213
Bibliography 287
Index 323
