Insiders' Views of the Colonial Experience

Historical Backgrounds

The British Empire

A brief historical overview of the formation and duration of the British Empire.
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An annotated timeline beginning with the Indian Revolt of 1857, noting significant moments that led up to Indian Independence.
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From a Public Broadcasting site, " Commanding Heights : The Battle for the World Economy," an annotated timeline, beginning with 1910, describing key events in the modern history of Nigeria .
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A comprehensive site devoted to the life and accomplishments of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi.
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The French in Algeria

A series of brief notes including geographical, economic, and historical perspectives on Algeria , with a good bibliography, from a Web site devoted to French topics.
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The Algerian War of Independence
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The Arab-Israeli conflict

From the Web site of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Illustrated with maps and photographs, from a Web site giving the Palestinian point of view.
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A letter from Sir Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild containing the text of the Balfour Declaration issued in 1917.
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The Web site of the Peace Now organization.
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A reflection on the need to solve the Arab-Israeli crisis, written by the Israeli novelist Amos Oz, one of the founders of the Peace Now movement.
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Post-colonial critiques

A very helpful teacher's study guide to Things Fall Apart .
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An ambitious site developed by Professor George Landow of Brown University .
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"On Categorizing Postcolonial Theorists" by Dr. Leong Yew of the National University of Singapore .
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From Landow's site, a student's summary of Frantz Fanon's ideological writings.
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Information about Frantz Fanon prepared for student audiences in connection with a television documentary about his life.
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Insights in language, culture, and authorial stances

A brief essay on Achebe's appropriation of English by Katharine Slattery from the Imperial Archive Project of Queen's University of Belfast .
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Mahasweta Devi

The Library of Congress site for Mahasweta Devi's work.
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A page on Mahasweta from a site devoted to several Bengali authors
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A difficult, thought-provoking critical article discussing Mahasweta's plays in particular as a means of reaching an audience not otherwise equipped to understand her work.
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Backgrounds for The Guest

From a personal Web site, an excerpt from a biography of Camus explaining the situation of the pieds noirs , the working-class indigenous inhabitants of pre-1962 Algeria who were of European extraction.
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A link to a Swarthmore College faculty site on the career and thought of Albert Camus.
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In his acceptance speech upon receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Camus explains his view of the responsibilities facing the artist in the twentieth century.
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Backgrounds for Facing the Forest

A Christian organization that sponsors the planting of trees in Israel , or "The Holy Land."
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The Jewish National Fund's site inviting people to plant trees in Israel.
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An article describing the planting of trees in Israel in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and the "righteous gentiles."
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A brief survey of the work of A. B.Yehoshua, with a photograph of the author, on the occasion of a lecture he delivered at the University of California at Santa Barbara .
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A plea from A. B. Yehoshua urging Israeli settlers in Palestianian territories to return to Israel proper.
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Another statement by Yehoshua about the current impasse in Arab-Israeli relations, written in 2002.
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Rudyard Kipling and imperialism

An illustrated biographical sketch, with links to several of Kipling's poems and a chronology.
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From the Web site of the Royal Family of Great Britain, a description of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration, the occasion for Kipling's Recessional .
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A site describing the involvement of Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War.
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A page on the "Philippine-American War" and the occupation of the Philippines by the United States , setting the context for Kipling's The White Man's Burden . This site, organized by some passionate liberals, includes a good deal of information about Filipino history.
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A comment on Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden , and a set of links to parodies and reactions that the poem has inspired.
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Okot p'Biket and the African Scene

A biographical sketch of Okot p'Bitek from the University of Florida Africana Collection .
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More information on Okot's and the Acoli's world from an interesting Finnish site.
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An excellent scholarly article by Ogo A. Ofuani of the University of Benin in Nigeria discussing the function of repetition in Okot's poetry and the conflict between Old and New in Song of Lawino . Many comments about African proverbs apply to the work of other writers in the anthology, including Achebe.
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