African Memoirs and Cultural Representations

Oral traditions and creative oratures have been celebrated in African studies over the years, specifically from the 1950s, as the most important and viable correspondence, aside from material artefacts, between social 'archaeologists' attempting to penetrate the African preliterate past and the social-political and economic productions of that same past.

In the memoirs chosen for inclusion in this book, oral traditions are braided with personal experiences in the formation of the self, providing the basis of some African literary outputs and championed as having the ability to engineer the African knowledge system in global academe. In this regard, this work synthesises the concept that most memoir writing scholars feel that the production and presentation of the autobiographical self is dependent on the categories of individualism and relationality.

The memoirists depict their own identities in their tales as not simply a part of their society but also one strongly impacted by prominent persons in their many lived settings. The chapters discuss an approach that enables West African memoirs to review their cultural backgrounds in the light of living in other spaces and acquiring different experiences.