The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club
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Lumumba’s right hand woman
ROGER MCKENZIE recommends an insider's view of the fight for African independence, as experienced by an important and neglected woman
Andree Blouin, centre, Patrice Lumumba’s adviser and speechwriter, an image used for the film Soundtrack To A Coup D'Etat
[Modern Films/IMDb]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union
JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite
WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt
ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria
Andree Blouin, Verso, £18.99
THERE is much to unpick from the title alone of My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria.
The reference to Africa as a country describes the pan-Africanist philosophy of Andree Blouin, a mixed heritage woman born in the Central African Republic. It is important to understand that Blouin’s support for pan-Africanism — as she appears to interpret it, as a United States of Africa — does not mean she was a socialist. She was not.
Blouin makes it clear in this important book that her priority was fighting for the liberation of the African continent from colonial domination.
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