Essay
Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe · 1961
Synopsis
Speeches delivered between the speaker's return from America and independence, arranged by subject: Africa's place in the world, the unity of the continent, schooling, a free press, parliamentary government, the federation to be built. One follows the formation of a doctrine that took its author's name and that holds the freedom of the country to be inseparable from that of the whole continent. The tone is that of the rostrum, often polemical.
Context
Philip Harris gathered these texts and arranged them in chapters, one subject per chapter, for Cambridge University Press: three hundred and forty-four pages published in January 1961, a few months after the end of British rule. Their author had just been made governor-general, a ceremonial post after twenty-five years of struggle waged first through the newspaper. Many of these pieces were first read in the press he had founded, then at the rostrum of the regional parliament. The volume has remained in the catalogue and is still being reprinted.
Who it is for
In English, never translated. Each speech can be taken separately and read quickly. It is worth knowing that the country became independent in October 1960, in a federal form which these pages discuss.
Prizes and reception
Reviewed as early as 1963 by the international journals of foreign affairs, which at the time read the leaders of the new Africa together; the book is still reprinted today.