Though many historians of colonial Africa are familiar with petitions preserved in archives, few have looked at what this genre of letter writing tells us about broader colonial society. In a meticulously researched and rich analysis, Petition Writing and Negotiations of Colonialism in Igboland, 1892-1960: African Voices in Ink fills this gap through the exploration of petitions written by Igbo petitioners in southeastern Nigeria to British officials which shows how these Igbo individuals influenced colonial decision-making. In challenging colonial authority through petition writing, Igbo petitioners used language of rights and justice to navigate the colonial system. By extracting African voices through a largely untapped archive of petitions, Bright Alozie provides insights into petition writing as a significant tool for understanding colonialism beyond the contestation of power and highlights petition writers' agency and engagement with colonial administration. This book brings together transnational, historical, geographical, and gender perspectives to explore an archive of petitions and to inspire critical inquiry and further exploration of the intricate dynamics and multifaceted aspects of petition writing in colonial Igboland.
Industry Reviews
Many historians of colonial Africa are familiar with petitions preserved in archives, but few have looked at what this genre of letter writing tells us about broader colonial society. In a meticulously researched and rich analysis, Bright Alozie presents an important study of how the many petitions written by ordinary Nigerians to British officials show that colonial rule was not entirely top-down and that the authors of petitions adopted the imperial language of rights to navigate the colonial system. This is an outstanding history of African agency. -- Timothy Stapleton, University of Calgary Empirically rich and conceptually sophisticated, Alozie's analysis sheds significant new light on evolving forms of colonial governance while simultaneously centering the 'voices' of petitioners. Through a careful reading of thousands of petitions, scattered across archives across the world, Alozie brings to life the requests, claims, and life-stories of Igbo subjects, as well as their negotiations with the colonial state. -- Henry Miller, Northumbria University Alozie offers an imaginative and innovative study of petition writing in Eastern Nigeria from the late nineteenth century to independence. This book combines an ambitious chronological scope with an assured and original discussion of Igbo social history. Alozie reveals how the petition represents a critical source for histories of gender, imprisonment, conflict, and development in Africa. His assured analysis and novel connections between diverse fields assures that Alozie's work will be of significance not only to historians of Nigeria, but to the colonial historiography of Africa. -- Oliver Coates, Cambridge University
