Creative Writing (Social History of Africa,) Book

This book joins the study of African literature to the study of African history. Its focus is on the creative political work that writers in colonial central Kenya did with texts. Generations of African innovators wrote scripts, composed casts of characters, and drew people together as actors in a role play. Political entrepreneurs were also theater directors. In Bible translations, in record books, lists, and novels, innovators contrasted the corrupt present with the new era on the horizon, making social innovation seem like an urgent, immediate necessity. Their visionary work obligated people to commit themselves as partisans, bound to play a part in a project larger than themselves. In central Kenya, the work of political mobilization was like a casting call. As an interdisciplinary essay on the political uses of texts, Creative Writing will draw interest from scholars of comparative literature, from readers of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's fiction, and from historians interested in the nationalist imagination.Read More