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Series:   Elements in Publishing and Book Culture

African Literature and the CIA

Networks of Authorship and Publishing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2020

Caroline Davis
Caroline Davis
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University

Summary

During the period of decolonisation in Africa, the CIA covertly subsidised a number of African authors, editors and publishers as part of its anti-communist propaganda strategy. Managed by two front organisations, the Congress of Cultural Freedom and the Farfield Foundation, its Africa programme stretched across the continent. This Element unravels the hidden networks and associations underpinning African literary publishing in the 1960s; it evaluates the success of the CIA in secretly infiltrating and influencing African literary magazines and publishing firms, and examines the extent to which new circuits of cultural and literary power emerged. Based on new archival evidence relating to the Transcription Centre, The Classic and The New African, it includes case studies of Wole Soyinka, Nat Nakasa and Bessie Head, which assess how the authors' careers were affected by these transnational networks and also reveal how they challenged, subverted, and resisted external influence and control.
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Keywords

CIAAfrican literaturecultural cold warCongress for Cultural Freedomliterary publishingauthorshipWole SoyinkaNat NakasaBessie Head
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
Online ISBN: 9781108663229
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 21 January 2021

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African Literature and the CIA
  • Caroline Davis, Oxford Brookes University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108663229
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African Literature and the CIA
  • Caroline Davis, Oxford Brookes University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108663229
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African Literature and the CIA
  • Caroline Davis, Oxford Brookes University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108663229
Available formats
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