Ron Singer - Manuscripts Available

THE ARMCHAIR AFRICANIST: Non-fiction (58,066 words, 205 pages)

For URL’s, see “articles, interviews, reviews, on Africa.”

This collection of my published writings about Africa comprises thirty-two articles, interviews, and reviews on politics and the arts. A Peace Corps stint in Nigeria, 1964-67, was the initial source of my interest in Africa, and it was rekindled by a lecture at a reunion in 1998. The largest single emphasis of the collection is Nigeria’s struggle for democracy since 1960. The pieces on contemporary and traditional arts may serve as a counterbalance to the negative feelings provoked in the West by African political failures, as may my writings about more successful polities, such as Botswana’s.

As my working title indicates, I have not returned to the continent since the 1960’s. However, I believe there is something to be said for arm’s-length objectivity about Africa, and I have also relied heavily on informants and friends on the ground, including the leaders of Nigeria’s pro-democracy movement.

The organization and index will make this book useful to researchers on a variety of African subjects. All of the pieces have appeared in/on magazines and e-zines, ranging from a small Peace Corps newsletter (Friends of Nigeria newsletter) and a pro-democracy website (opendemocracy.net), to better-known publications (The Wall Street Journal, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Poets & Writers online, and The Georgia Review).