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Imperial Travelers: the Formation of West African Urban Culture, Identity, and Citizenship in London and Accra, 1925-1935

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Imperial Travelers: the Formation of West African Urban Culture, Identity, and Citizenship in London and Accra, 1925-1935 Imperial Travelers: The Formation of West African Urban Culture, Identity, and Citizenship in London and Accra, 1925-1935 by Jinny Kathleen Prais A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History and Women‘s Studies) in the University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mamadou Diouf, Co-Chair Professor Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Co-Chair Associate Professor Michele Mitchell Reader in English, Stephanie M. Newell, University of Sussex © Jinny Kathleen Prais 2008 Dedication For Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Whose example it is my greatest ambition to emulate ii Acknowledgements This dissertation is the product of many institutions and people. First, I would like to acknowledge the West African students who set up clubs and newspapers in London and Accra, sent copies of their journals to the British Museum, and made their way into public archives and records. They have left behind a rich and endlessly stimulating set of documents. I am grateful to a number of schools, programs and departments at the University of Michigan for providing funding for this project: the Rackham Graduate School, the Program in Women‘s Studies, the Department of History, the Center for African and AfroAmerican Studies, the Gayle Morris Sweetland Writing Center, the Seminar on Global and Ethnic Literatures, and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. I especially acknowledge the generous support of the Center for the Education of Women. The staff and faculty of the Sweetland Writing Center have provided invaluable feedback on this project. I am particularly grateful to Charlotte Boulay for guiding me as I worked through each chapter, and for her editorial assistance. I also thank Martha Vicinus for including me in the Sweetland Writing Seminar, and introducing me to writing pedagogy. I would like to thank the Women‘s Studies and History staff and faculty for their generous and unwavering support and assistance during my education at Michigan, especially Donna Ainsworth, Jennifer McJunkin, Jen Sarafin, Shelley Shock, Sandra iii Vallie, Lorna Altstetter, Diana Denney, Kathleen King, Deborah Keller-Cohen, Dena Goodman, Anne Hermann, Peggy McCracken, Domna Stanton, Abigail Stewart, Valerie Traub, Sonya Rose, and Rebecca Scott. Several people have influenced the direction that this project has taken. I would like to thank Karen Paige Ericksen and Susie Tharu for putting me onto this path, and Mamadou Diouf and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg for seeing me through it. They have provided me with critical examples of intellectual curiosity and creativity, and have inspired me to carve out my own path within and between the disciplines. I especially thank Mamadou Diouf for his sustained enthusiasm and interest in this project, for introducing me to books and ideas that challenged my assumptions and pushed me to work and think harder, and for embarking on this intellectual conversation with me. I also thank my committee members Michele Mitchell and Stephanie Newell. Michele Mitchell introduced me to black nationalisms and has encouraged me to think more rigorously about the complicated role of gender in nationalist projects. Her insightful reading of this dissertation coupled with her advice over the years has greatly improved the quality of this work and will continue to shape the future of this project. Stephanie Newell‘s research is the foundation upon which this project is built. I am indebted to her for creating a space for me and other scholars to examine press and club debates as a significant part of the history of Anglophone West Africa. I would also like to acknowledge the mentoring and guidance that I received from Naomi André, Antoinette Burton, Deborah Keller-Cohen, Anne Hermann, Jesse Hoffnug-Garskof, Nadine Hubbs, Martha Jones, Mary Kelley, Hannah Rosen, Bill Schwarz, and Martha Vicinus. iv Many people have housed and nurtured me, and provided friendship and encouragement throughout this process. They include: Naomi André; Stefano Adamo; Auntie Emily Asiedu; Jacqueline Bignell; Dennis Chernin; Tina Delisle; Andrew Faludy; Jordan and Adam Farmer; Beverly Fauman; Aurélien Gillier; Alvia Golden; Chantal Gossel; Frank Hernandez; Martha Jones; Deb LaBelle; Gilles Marschall; Jamie McGowan; Ramzi Nasser; Stephanie Newell; Marianetta Porter; Jana and Joseph Prais; Jeff and Kim Prais; Joey Prais; Hali Rowen; Manjeet and Ranvir Singh; Sisters Pauline, Jo and Tessy; Haju Sunim; Sarah Womack; and Taymiya Zaman. I also want to thank Ana Powell, Jo Horn, and Christy DeBurton for teaching me to appreciate and value myself and this project at every stage. My deepest and most heartfelt gratitude goes out to my loyal friends and allies who have sustained me through this process and beyond it. They include: June Gin, Susan Hildebrandt, Ken Mandler, and Pavitra Sundar. I am also grateful to Hannah Rosen for offering me the wonderful gift of her friendship when I needed it the most. Her hard work and dedication continue to provide me with a special source of inspiration. I will miss sharing the second floor of Lane Hall with her. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, to whom this dissertation is dedicated, has been my greatest source of encouragement and support during this process. This project could not have been realized without her determination and mentorship. I would like to thank her for being my teacher and dear friend, for patiently and persistently listening to me talk about this project for several years now, and for reading and commenting upon nearly every word of this dissertation. But, most of all, I thank her for her confidence and trust in me. v Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 Introduction: Africa, the Empire, and the World ............................................... 1 Chapter 2 Students, Citizenship, Nationhood and a West African Public Sphere in London .............................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 3 Who is a British Subject? Questioning Imperial Boundaries and Rights ....... 99 Chapter 4 From Lombard Street, London to High Street, Accra: Introducing Accra‘s Public Sphere of Clubs and Newspapers ........................................................................ 128 Chapter 5 Creating Accra ―Society‖ in the West Africa Times ....................................... 203 Chapter 6 Constructing a Modern Nation in the ―Ladies‘ Corner‖ ................................ 237 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Rethinking Citizenship and Empire after 1935 .......................... 326 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 336 vi Abstract Imperial Travelers: The Formation of West African Urban Culture, Identity, and Citizenship in London and Accra, 1925-1935 by Jinny Kathleen Prais Co-Chairs: Mamadou Diouf and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg At the end of the First World War, increasing numbers of West Africans traveled to London to pursue degrees in higher education. Their educational experiences abroad presented new political and social opportunities. While living in London, and later as members of West Africa‘s urban and educated elite, these students founded a West African public sphere of clubs and newspapers in which they attempted to form a modern West African nation and subject. This dissertation is an historical study of this process as it developed in London and Accra between 1925 and 1935. As these students traveled between metropolitan, colonial and African spaces, they engaged in a type of ―imperial citizenship‖ that involved using the institutions of public spheres, empires, and nations, and blending concepts of modern governments and citizenship, internationalism and co-operation, vii national self-determination, self-help, and racial equality to create an increasingly empowered position for West Africa within the Empire. The nation they envisioned stood in sharp contrast to the political structures associated with British colonial policies of indirect rule. Their nation was to be a singular, self-governing, united West African nation. At its core would be an educated citizenry of men and women, and critically, a monogamous couple and nuclear family. In London, the students‘ political endeavors focused on the establishment of a West African presence within the Empire and the international community through the founding of the West African Students‘ Union. In Accra, the students struggled to create ―modern‖ subjects out of a diverse group of locally-educated Africans whose modernity would legitimize their claim for self-government. They used the newspapers and clubs of Accra to ―educate‖ locally-educated men and women about how to be ―West Africans.‖ These efforts included newspaper articles on appropriate dress and behavior in public, alongside examples of ―respectable‖ courtship practices and marriages. Their advice to readers on how to be citizens of West Africa met with fierce resistance that involved heated debates in the press between former WASU members and locally-educated readers on gender, love, marriage, and family—issues
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