The Trial of Christopher Okigbo

by Ali Mazrui

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803288321
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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.
ALI A. MAZRUI is Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He has published more than twenty books, and he has written extensively for magazines and newspapers around the world.