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03Theme · 10 books

Liberation and the Decolonized Mind

The manifestos, memoirs and theory of the independence and anti-apartheid struggles. These writers fought on two fronts at once: to seize the colonial state, and to reclaim the mind, language and culture it had tried to remake.

01Liberation theory· 1961· Martinique / Algeria

The Wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon

The psychiatrist of the Algerian revolution anatomizes colonial violence.

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02Political economy· 1965· Ghana

Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

Kwame Nkrumah

Independence on paper, control in practice.

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03Liberation theory· 1973· Guinea-Bissau / Cape Verde

Return to the Source

Amilcar Cabral

Culture as a weapon of the liberation struggle.

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04Black Consciousness essays· 1978· South Africa

I Write What I Like

Steve Biko

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

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05Autobiography· 1994· South Africa

Long Walk to Freedom

Nelson Mandela

From a Transkei childhood to Robben Island to the presidency.

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06Political essays· 1968· Tanzania

Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism

Julius Nyerere

Socialism drawn from African familyhood, not imported class war.

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07Speeches· 1988· Burkina Faso

Thomas Sankara Speaks

Thomas Sankara

He who feeds you, controls you.

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08Ethnography· 1938· Kenya

Facing Mount Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta

An African turns anthropology into a defense of his own people.

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09Political memoir· 1967· Kenya

Not Yet Uhuru

Oginga Odinga

Flag independence was not yet real freedom.

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10Literary criticism· 1986· Kenya

Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

His farewell to English as a language of fiction.

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