Uganda Prince Akiki K. Nyabongo's Signed First Edition: The Story of an African Chief, 1935

Akiki K. Nyabongo Colonial Uganda

First Edition

Colonial Uganda novel by Akiki K. Nyabongo, published in 1935, documenting an African aristocrat's literary response to missionary education, colonial rule, and the cultural transformations reshaping East Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on Nyabongo's own background as a prince of the Tooro Kingdom, the novel follows the education and political formation of an African chief negotiating competing systems of authority as Christian missions, European imperial expansion, and indigenous institutions collide. Published while Nyabongo was studying anthropology at Oxford under William Lyon Phelps's sponsorship, the work stands among the earliest English language novels by a Ugandan author and marks an early effort by an African writer to present colonial experience from an African intellectual perspective.

Nyabongo, Akiki K. The Story of an African Chief. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935. Signed and inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, dated May 15, 1939: "Dennis S. Rawland / Obugonza mukwo kwetegerezangawo / Hatali kufunga busaho kumanyangana / Nyabongo / May 15, 1939." First edition. Illustrated by Eleanor Maroney, with an introduction by William Lyon Phelps. 8vo. Original publisher's cloth in the original illustrated dust jacket. The jacket reproduces an illustration of an enthroned African ruler on the front panel and the publisher's promotional description on the rear, while the text includes black and white illustrations throughout.

Published at a moment when African authors writing in English remained exceptionally few, The Story of an African Chief predates the emergence of the better known generation of postwar African novelists and presents colonial East Africa through the voice of an educated African author rather than that of a European administrator or missionary. Nyabongo later became an anthropologist and writer whose work extended beyond fiction into political and cultural commentary, while this novel was republished in Britain as Africa Answers Back, reflecting its broader engagement with debates over empire, education, race, and African self representation. The contemporary presentation inscription places the volume within the author's lifetime and preserves a direct association with Nyabongo's readership only four years after publication. Some present edge wear and toning to the dust jacket with small losses at the spine ends and corners; clean interior; inscription strong and legible. Overall very good condition. A first edition preserving Prince Akiki K. Nyabongo's signed 1939 inscription from one of the earliest English language novels written by a Ugandan author.

Item #23598

Price: $850.00