Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria

Chika Okeke-Agulu's Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria examines the emergence of postcolonial modernism following Nigeria's independence from Great Britain. He focuses on the arts discourse within Nigeria from 1957 to 1967. Because any discussion of postcolonial modernism must acknowledge Nigerian sociopolitical and intellectual landscapes, Okeke-Agulu grounds his thesis in historical context. He addresses art historical discourses that have shaped the reception of Nigerian modernism, and he offers new interpretations of the fraught relationships between the educated classes of Nigeria and British colonial administrators while introducing the thread of hope that connects each chapter (p. 2). Nigerians on the cusp of independence hoped for political and economic freedom that would be pan-Nigerian in terms of both representation and governance (p. 19). This hope had all but disappeared within six years of independence and Okeke-Agulu concludes his book by discussing how that euphoria devolved into ethnic regionalism and civil...