Reading on Post-Colonialism
A colleague asked me to list the best books for learning more about postcolonial theory. 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.
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 countries have the same issues with identity.
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
Rasta to Resistance: Fron Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney by Horace Campbell
From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969 by Eric Williams
Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James
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
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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