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"Anxious to have Friends" : A Case Study of Transnational Letter Writing among Colonial Nigerian Children (1930s-1950s)

Titelangaben

Edeagu, Ngozi:
"Anxious to have Friends" : A Case Study of Transnational Letter Writing among Colonial Nigerian Children (1930s-1950s).
2023
Veranstaltung: Colonial Letters and the Contact of Knowledges : Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Colonial Correspondences , 11.-14.04.2023 , Bayreuth, Germany.
(Veranstaltungsbeitrag: Kongress/Konferenz/Symposium/Tagung , Paper )

Volltext

Link zum Volltext (externe URL): Volltext

Angaben zu Projekten

Projekttitel:
Offizieller Projekttitel
Projekt-ID
Writing Back to Empire: Newspaper, Non-Elites and Decolonisation in the Global Public Sphere, 1937-1957
Ohne Angabe

Projektfinanzierung: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

Abstract

In 1900, letter writing in Southern Nigeria became an officially recognized trade, governed by the Illiterates’ Protection Ordinance’. Utilising a pen or a typewriter, this new occupation of the colonial era produced professional letter writers who wrote business letters and those that “compel attention.” In addition, public letter writers, who also functioned as debt collectors, enabled the predominantly non-literate in English population to communicate their grievances in the form of petitions. However, letters held other uses besides venting which had become what Burns called “a national sport” in the colonial territory. Children, particularly in the colonial capital of Lagos, used letter writing to get in touch with others, create friendships and understand the world around them. Yet, the body of literature has not adequately addressed letter writing among children or outside the worn lens of petition writing. This paper aims to address this gap by examining letter writing among children in southern Nigeria. These children’s letters were found mainly in the Chicago Defender newspaper, a widely circulating national African American publication in the United States. Through this case study, this paper expands the scope of the literature by incorporating alternative voices and diverse understandings of letter writing during the colonial period. These letters of various lengths demonstrate children’s willingness to traverse space by reaching out to their brothers and sisters in the United States and affiliating with them through the instrument of the Bud Billiken children’s club. Thus, this paper also aims to show how racial and social identities were built and sustained through letter writing.

Weitere Angaben

Publikationsform: Veranstaltungsbeitrag (Paper)
Begutachteter Beitrag: Nein
Keywords: letters; children; Nigeria; newspapers; United States; friendship; Chicago Defender; West African Pilot; Bud Billiken Club
Institutionen der Universität: Fakultäten > Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät > Professur Geschichte Afrikas > Professur Geschichte Afrikas - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Joël Glasman
Graduierteneinrichtungen > BIGSAS
Fakultäten
Fakultäten > Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Fakultäten > Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät > Professur Geschichte Afrikas
Graduierteneinrichtungen
Titel an der UBT entstanden: Ja
Themengebiete aus DDC: 900 Geschichte und Geografie > 900 Geschichte
900 Geschichte und Geografie > 960 Geschichte Afrikas
900 Geschichte und Geografie > 970 Geschichte Nordamerikas
Eingestellt am: 15 Mai 2023 08:29
Letzte Änderung: 20 Jun 2024 09:17
URI: https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/76429