The Best Books: Post-Colonial Theory
Maryse Condé recently won the Alternative to the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Guadeloupean writer is best known for her work dealing with race and gender in the Caribbean.
When I was in college, I minored in postcolonial studies, which looks at the political and cultural history of formerly colonized people. My family is from Jamaica, and I always struggled with understanding the relationship between this Caribbean island and its “mother” country, England. I learned in school that many formerly colonized country have the same issues with identity.
A colleague asked me to list the best books for learning more about the topic. I think it is safe to say that any book by Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney or Edward Said is a good start, but there are many other great authors that you should look at as well. Most of these books below I read in college. Please note: most of these books focus on the African Diaspora. Of course, this isn’t the definitive list; just some books that came to mind.
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon
From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969 by Eric Williams
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Facing Mt Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta
Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire
Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba
The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayati Chakravorty Spivak
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
The Politics of Change by Michael Manley
The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
The Black Album by Hanif Kureshi
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta
God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureshi
The Longest War: Northern Ireland and the IRA by Kevin Kelley