Review by Richard Jeffries
(Ex-Lecturer in African Politics, Now Honorary Research Associate
Department of Political Studies, SOAS, London)
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The writings of Thomas Hodgkin are famously associated with a radically different
perspective. Hodgkin was staunchly anti-imperialist and highly sympathetic to emergent
African nationalism, about which he was to publish, in 1956, his seminal work,
Nationalism in Colonial Africa. Most of the material for this work was collected during a
series of journeys to and around Africa, more especially in Nigeria, the Gold Coast and
Sudan, then Francophone Africa, in 1947-56. The book under review presents a selection
of the letters he wrote during these travels, mostly to his wife, Dorothy. Anyone expecting
these to be full of thoughtful observations or of insightful comments on the nationalist
politicians Hodgkin met will be sorely disappointed. The earlier letters from Nigeria and
the Gold Coast are especially uninformative about anything except the scenery and
Hodgkin's most recent travel difficulties. Although he records meeting numerous
nationalist politicians and other famous historical names, he scarcely says anything
interesting about them. They are almost all uniformly characterised as "nice, intelligent
chaps"; and, for all Hodgkin's populist and democratic sympathies, there is a patrician
tone to his language far more pronounced than in the writings of an author like Philip Dennis the DC.
On the positive side, Hodgkin's generosity of spirit shines through many of the letters
and the tedium of most of them is occasionally broken by a description of an interesting
episode. They certainly give the impression of someone who was, by all accounts, a
lovely man. Yet subsequent developments have surely also emphasised how naive he
was, how credulously accepting of the propaganda of African nationalist leaders, and
how fundamentally wrong in his reading of the basic historical dynamics.
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Editors
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Elizabeth Hodgkin Michael Wolfers
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Published
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2000
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Pages
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214
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Publisher
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HAAN Associates
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ISBN
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1 87420 993 6
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Availability
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Abebooks
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