African Literature and the CIA: Networks of Authorship and Publishing

Caroline Davis

doi:10.1017/9781108663229

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

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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

CIA African literature cultural cold war Congress for Cultural Freedom literary publishing authorship Wole Soyinka Nat Nakasa Bessie Head

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Type: Element
Information: Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108663229 [Opens in a new window]

Online ISBN: 9781108663229

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication: 21 January 2021

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