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Written during the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo boldly tackles questions of Pan-Africanism, the importance of art, and the struggle for independence. In the celestial courts of an imagined African afterlife, the answers may lead to blissful immortality or eternal damnation...
After a fatal car accident, Hamisi wakes up in a strange land called After-Africa - an afterworld for all Africans who have died since history began. He soon finds out, however, that his place in the afterlife hangs in the balance.
To be allowed to stay, Hamisi must participate in the absurd trial of the renowned poet and solider, Christopher Okigbo, who was recently killed on the front lines of the Nigerian-Biafran War. Okigbo's crime? The offence of putting the military needs of society before his poetry.
With the trial taking place in a magical football stadium capable of seating millions of dead souls, and with celebrity testimonies from Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, and Kwame Nkrumah, the stage is set for this bizarre debate. Although thoroughly bewilidered, if Hamisi fails in his defence of Okigbo, Hell awaits them both.
The Trial of Christopher Okigbo is a surrealist examination into the responsibilities of art and war and their often uncomfortable coexistence.
'[
The Trial of Christopher Okigbo is] its own best proof that important political questioning and art are not mutually exclusive.'
New York Times'Whether in speech or in writing, Mazrui dissected and unravelled Africa in a delightful manner.'
Guardian
A propos de l'auteur
Ali Mazrui was a prolific academic writer and professor born in Mombasa, Kenya Colony in 1933.
Mazrui obtained his B.A. degree in Politics and Philosophy at Manchester University, going on to earn an M.A. from Columbia University and a doctorate from Oxford University in 1966.
He worked as a professor at Makerere University, University of Michigan, and held the Albert Schweitzer chair at Binghamton University from 1989. During his career, Mazrui formed an international reputation as a prestigious academic and contentious critic of all forms of marxism.
Alongside his academic positions, Mazrui wrote and produced a groundbreaking and controversial television series,
The Africans: A Triple Heritage (1986), exploring the influence of indigenous African culture, Islam and Christianity on modern-day Africa. It was met with huge backlash in the United States for its criticism of Western interference and colonialism.
Of his many published books and articles,
The Trial of Christopher Okigbo remained his only work of fiction.
Mazrui died in 2014 in New York.
Résumé
Written during the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo boldly tackles questions of Pan-Africanism and independence - with the answers leading to blissful immortality or eternal damnation...
After a fatal car accident, Hamisi wakes up in a strange land called After-Africa - an afterworld for all Africans who have died since history began. He soon finds out, however, that his position in the afterlife hangs in the balance. To be allowed to stay, Hamisi must participate in the absurd trial of the renowned poet and solider, Christopher Okigbo, who was killed on the front lines. His crime? Choosing war over his art...
The Trial of Christopher Okigbo is a wondrously surreal examination into the responsibilities of art and war and their uncomfortable coexistence.
'[The Trial of Christopher Okigbo is] its own best proof that important political questioning and art are not mutually exclusive.' New York Times
'Whether in speech or in writing, Mazrui dissected and unravelled Africa in a delightful manner.' Guardian
Préface
Written during the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo boldly tackles questions of Pan-Africanism and independence - and the answers may lead to blissful immortality or eternal damnation...
Texte suppl.
[Mazuri was] a towering academician whose intellectual contributions played a major role in shaping African scholarship.
