Metaphors of Confinement: The Prison in Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy offers a historical survey of imaginings of the prison as expressed in carceral metaphors in a range of texts about imprisonment from Antiquity to the present as well as non-penal situations described as confining or restrictive. These imaginings coalesce into a 'carceral imaginary' that determines the way we think about prisons, just as social debates about punishment and criminals feed into the way carceral imaginary develops over time. Examining not only English-language prose fiction but also poetry and drama from the Middle Ages to postcolonial, particularly African, literature, the book juxtaposes literary and non-literary contexts and contrasts fictional and nonfictional representations of (im)prison(ment) and discussions about the prison as institution and experiential reality. It comments on present-day trends of punitivity and foregrounds the ethical dimensions of penal punishment. The main argument concerns the continuity of carceral metaphors through the centuries despite historical developments that included major shifts in policy (such as the invention of the penitentiary). The study looks at selected carceral metaphors, often from two complementary perspectives, such as the home as prison or the prison as home, or the factory as prison and the prison as factory. The case studies present particularly relevant genres and texts that employ these metaphors, often from a historical perspective that analyses development through different periods.

This is an extensive study of Kenule Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni Minority and Human Rights activist who was judicially murdered in 1995. Questions of nationhood, ethnic minority and power politics in Nigeria are discussed in a collection of essays that examine the corpus of his literary and political ideas, pointing out the direction of his thought and the enduring contribution that Sara-Wiwa made to Nigeria's literary and political arenas.

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

An omnibus collection of concise and up-to-date biographies of four influential figures from modern African history. Chris Hani, by Hugh Macmillan Chris Hani was one of the most highly respected leaders of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and uMkhonto we Sizwe. His assassination in 1993 threatened to upset the country’s transition to democracy and prompted an intervention by Nelson Mandela that ultimately accelerated apartheid’s demise. Wangari Maathai, by Tabitha Kanogo This concise biography tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who devoted her life to campaigning for environmental conservation, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty. Josie Mpama/Palmer: Get Up and Get Moving, by Robert R. Edgar Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered Black women’s political activism, South Africa’s Josie Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women’s social and political equality, a member of the Communist Party of South Africa, and an antiapartheid activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa, by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola A penetrating, accessible portrait of the Nigerian activist whose execution galvanized the world. Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr and symbolized modern Africans’ struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental exploitation.

"Professor Eldred Jones says 'African literature continues to be intensely political and seems destined to remain so for some time. The writers are in the thick of the fight for the true liberation of their countries, a position which is still fraught with dangers.' He believes that 'it is possible to distinguish in the literatures of most countries pre-independence from post-independence literature but only as trends rather than as sudden dramatic breaks.' The articles in this collection point up: The increasing importance of women writers; that war produces a significant change in focus; [and] the growth of literature of protest against the misuse of independence. Professor Jones says 'South African writers will now have to emerge from the dominating theme of apartheid into close examination of humanity in a "free" society ... The military phenomenon has provided Nigerian writers with a succession of sub-periods int heir literary history.'"--Publisher's description.

A new vision of politics “below the radar” One way to grasp the nature of politics is to understand the key terms in which it is discussed. Unexceptional Politics develops a political vocabulary drawn from a wide range of media (political fiction, art, film, and TV), highlighting the scams, imbroglios, information trafficking, brinkmanship, and parliamentary procedures that obstruct and block progressive politics. The book reviews and renews modes of thinking about micropolitics that counter notions of the “state of exception” embedded in theories of the “political” from Thomas Hobbes to Carl Schmitt. Emily Apter develops a critical model of politics behind the scenes, a politics that operates outside the norms of classical political theory. She focuses on micropolitics, defined as small events, happening in series, that often pass unnoticed yet disturb and interfere with the institutional structures of capitalist parliamentary systems, even as they secure their reproduction and longevity. Apter’s experimental glossary is arranged under headings that look at the apparently incidental, immaterial, and increasingly virtual practices of politicking: “obstruction,” “obstinacy,” “psychopolitics,” “managed life,” “serial politics.” Such terms frame an argument for taking stock of the realization that we really do not know what politics is, where it begins and ends, or how its micro-events should be described.

Beyond the critical examination of Isidore Diala’s award-winning poetry and drama, the essays in this collection offer fresh insights on the complex methodological and theoretical patterns underlying the readings of African literary landscapes. This is the first book to devote considerable attention to the study of Diala’s creative works The Pyre (drama) and The Lure of Ash (poetry). The majority of the contributors here are selected from among the finest of Diala’s former teachers, colleagues and students who know him very closely. The collection addresses fertile areas of African literary expression, such as the relationship between literature and national history, African ritual aesthetics; affirmation, denial and ambivalence as products of social constructions; and exile, migration and home-coming. Contributions also explore poetry and poetic truths; semiotics; anticolonial revolutions and postcolonial implosions; oil politics; discontent and militancy; and feminism and gender politics. The book stands out among its peers, and offers great insights to scholars, researchers and teachers working in the fields of African literature, cultures and aesthetics.

On November 10, 1995, Nigeria’s military dictatorship executed nine environmental activists. Among them was Ken Saro-Wiwa, the charismatic spokesman of the Ogoni people, whose land in the fertile Niger River delta has been grotesquely polluted by the Royal Dutch Shell Corporation. During Ken’s incarceration, his brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa, fought valiantly to save his life. When his quest failed, Owens narrowly escaped Nigeria with his life, first to London, and then to Toronto. His story is a heart-stopping saga of personal courage and official corruption, of individual selflessness and corporate greed.