W. E. B. Du Bois on Africa - Tapa dura

"Provenzo and Abaka (Univ. of Miami) have assembled a range of Du Bois's important writings on Africa, from Pan-Africanism and black diaspora to colonial terror, national liberation, reports from Africa, and politics of Ghana, building on Provenzo's earlier compilation, Du Bois on Education (CH, Feb'03, 40-3544), to make more easily accessible works by this significant figure and add to the store of still-neglected African oeuvres. Admirable is the breadth, from 1900s to 1960s, from articles to poems and chapters, though with few surprises to scholars. The book is a selection, not, as claimed, "...comprehensive"...; editorial engagement is basic and brief. The editors have taken several extracts not from published versions, but from drafts in library collections, and they do not advise readers of variations (in some cases elaborated by Du Bois or Ghanaians). There is a brief introduction plus an index with undivided entries. The brevity of editorial interventions will appeal to students, and the book may be a useful undergraduate text across several disciplines, while researchers will benefit from having these evergreen selections from the corpus of a giant of black thought brought together in a handy form. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." --CHOICE

W. E. B. Du Bois is arguably the most important Black intellectual of the twentieth century and among the most important intellectual figures in modern African social thought. One of the founders of Pan-Africanism and a key figure in the postwar African liberation movement, he was champion of Africa and its people throughout his life. Despite this fact, his work on Africa has been underemphasized in scholarly writing about him. This book brings together for the first time Du Bois’s writings on Africa from the beginning of the twentieth century to his death in the early 1960s. Including over 50 magazine and journal articles, poems and book chapters, the works included in this volume clearly show not only Du Bois’s genius as a writer, but his profound understanding of how the quest for racial equality involved all of the people of African origin who suffered under colonial rule in Africa and in the Black disapora. The editors include a historical introduction, headnotes and a bibliography of Du Bois’s work on Africa.