'Your Secret Language': Classics in the British Colonies of West Africa

by Barbara Goff

Overview

This book is the first to examine the complex and contradictory history of Classics in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. It investigates how Classical Studies, as an integral part of colonial education, enforced a notion of cultural inferiority on African subjects, but conversely played an enabling role in nationalist expression. The enquiry is structured around three main questions: how Classics contributed to the formation of a new class of Europeanising West Africans in the late 19th century; how Classics was implicated in the ideological struggles of the early twentieth century over the desirability of 'practical' or 'agricultural' education; and how the uses of Classics changed in the years leading up to independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780934662
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/28/2013
Series:	Classical Diaspora
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	582 KB

About the Author

Barbara Goff is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Colonial Contradictions
Classics and Cultural Nationalism
Twentieth-Century Struggles
Classics and West African Modernity
Notes
Bibliography
Index