Colonial Africa saw an explosion of writing and printing, produced and circulated not only by highly educated and visible elites, but also by wage laborers, clerks, village headmasters, traders, and other obscure aspirants to elite status. The ability to read and write was considered essential for educated persons, and Africans from all walks of life strove to participate in the new literary culture. Karin Barber and an international group of Africanist scholars have uncovered a trove of personal diaries, letters, obituaries, pamphlets, and booklets stored away in tin-trunks, suitcases, and cabinets that reveal individuals involved in the new occupation of the colonial era—putting pen to paper. Africa's Hidden Histories taps into rare primary sources and considers the profusion of literary culture, the propensity to collect and archive text, and the significance attached to reading as a form of self-improvement. As it explores the innovative, intense, and sociable interest in reading and writing, this book opens new avenues for understanding a rich and hidden history of Africa's creative expression.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction: Hidden Innovators in AfricaKarin Barber Part 1. Diaries, Letters, and the Constitution of the Self 1. "My Own Life": A. K. Boakye Yiadom's Autobiography—The Writing and Subjectivity of a Ghanaian Teacher-CatechistStephan F. Miescher 2. "What is our intelligence, our school going and our reading of books without getting money?" Akinpelu Obisesan and His DiaryRuth Watson 3. The Letters of Louisa MvemveCatherine Burns 4. Ekukhanyeni Letter-Writers: A Historical Inquiry into Epistolary Network(s) and Political Imagination in Kwazulu-Natal, South AfricaVukile Khumalo 5. Reasons for Writing: African Working-Class Letter-Writing in Early-Twentieth-Century South AfricaKeith Breckenridge 6. Keeping a Diary of Visions: Lazarus Phelalasekhaya Maphumulo and the Edendale Congregation of AmaNazarethaLiz Gunner 7. Schoolgirl Pregnancies, Letter-Writing, and "Modern" Persons in Late Colonial East AfricaLynn M. Thomas Part 2. Reading Cultures, Publics, and the Press 8. Entering the Territory of Elites: Literary Activity in Colonial GhanaStephanie Newell 9. The Bantu World and the World of the Book: Reading, Writing, and "Enlightenment"Bhekizizwe Peterson 10. Reading Debating/Debating Reading: The Case of the Lovedale Literary Society, or Why Mandela Quotes ShakespeareIsabel Hofmeyr 11. "The present battle is the brain battle": Writing and Publishing a Kikuyu Newspaper in the Pre–Mau Mau Period in KenyaBodil Folke Frederiksen 12. Public but Private: A Transformational Reading of the Memoirs and Newspaper Writings of Mercy Ffoulkes-CrabbeAudrey Gadzekpo Part 3. Innovation, Cultural Editing, and the Emergence of New Genres 13. Writing, Reading, and Printing Death: Obituaries and Commemoration in Colonial AsanteT. C. McCaskie 14. Writing, Genre, and a Schoolmaster's Inventions in the Yoruba ProvincesKarin Barber 15. Innovation and Persistence: Literary Circles, New Opportunities, and Continuing Debates in Hausa Literary ProductionGraham Furniss List of Contributors Index