Greed, frustrated love, traffic jams, infertility, politics, polygamy. These--together with depictions of traditional village life and the impact of colonialism made familiar to Western readers through Chinua Achebe's writing--are the stuff of Nigerian fiction. Bearing Witness examines this varied content and the determined people who, against all odds, write, publish, sell, and read novels in Africa's most populous nation. Drawing on interviews with Nigeria's writers, publishers, booksellers, and readers, surveys, and a careful reading of close to 500 Nigerian novels--from lightweight romances to literary masterpieces--Wendy Griswold explores how global cultural flows and local conflicts meet in the production and reception of fiction. She argues that Nigerian readers and writers form a reading class that unabashedly believes in progress, rationality, and the slow-but-inevitable rise of a reading culture. But they do so within a society that does not support their assumptions and does not trust literature, making them modernists in a country that is simultaneously premodern and postmodern. Without privacy, reliable electricity, political freedom, or even social toleration of bookworms, these Nigerians write and read political satires, formula romances, war stories, complex gender fiction, blood-and-sex crime capers, nostalgic portraits of village life, and profound explorations of how decent people get by amid urban chaos. Bearing Witness is an inventive and moving work of cultural sociology that may be the most comprehensive sociological analysis of a literary system ever written.
Each chapter focuses on an event or person and demonstrates how a particular peacemaker vow is put into practice. Through these stories and Glassman's personal testimony we come to understand the essence of peacemaking.
Some of these personal stories from doulas about their shared birthing experiences will give you goosebumps. Inspiring and diverse stories are contained in this beautiful anthology.
Bearing Witness While Black tells the story of this century's most powerful Black social movement through the eyes of 15 activists who documented it.
To commemorate the opening of their new museum, Spelman College presents an unprecedented exhibition of the work of contemporary African American women artists.Twenty-five of the most outstanding African American women...
It tells the story of this landmark case through carefully curated court materials, including searing eye-witness testimony, groundbreaking legal testimony, and the Tribunal's advisory opinion.
Upon completing this work, you will have a better understanding of the social causes of the violence epidemic and concrete suggestions for its long-term control.
Testimony/Bearing Witness establishes a dialogue between the different approaches to testimony in epistemology, historiography, law, art, media studies and psychiatry.
People who witness acts of terror and violence are often called after the event to bear witness to what they saw. In cases where this violence is inflicted by the...
Bearing Thorough Witness about God's Kingdom (Vol. 5)
Thomas A. McMillan provided a full confession to the abduction and sexual assault of both girls. He identified the location “In the country” (Powhatan County) where the sexual assaults had taken place. He confirmed the younger victim's ...