The Archive

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561 works of pan-African thought. 25 matching current filters.

The Dark Child (L'Enfant noir)
1953
Camara Laye

An autobiographical novel of the author's youth in Kouroussa, French Guinea, depicting traditional Malinke society and the conflict between tradition and modernity.

West AfricaAutobiography
Tell Freedom
1954
Peter Abrahams

Abrahams' autobiography detailing his experiences growing up colored in South Africa, his education, and eventual exile.

Southern AfricaAutobiography
Black Boy
1945
Richard Wright

Memoir of Wright's childhood and young adulthood in the Jim Crow South, depicting poverty, racism, and hunger.

DiasporaAutobiography
Dust Tracks on a Road
1942
Zora Neale Hurston

Hurston's autobiography from her childhood in Eatonville, Florida, to her career as a writer and anthropologist.

DiasporaAutobiography
The Big Sea
1940
Langston Hughes

Hughes's autobiography covering his childhood, travels, and the Harlem Renaissance.

DiasporaAutobiography
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
1965
Malcolm X (with Alex Haley)

Malcolm X's life from childhood to his transformation from criminal to Nation of Islam minister to independent leader.

DiasporaAutobiography
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
1982
Audre Lorde

Biomythography of Lorde's coming of age as Black lesbian in 1950s New York.

DiasporaAutobiography
Dusk of Dawn
1940
W.E.B. Du Bois

Autobiography subtitled 'Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept' exploring race and ideology.

DiasporaAutobiography
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
1845
Frederick Douglass

Douglass's first autobiography detailing his life as a slave and his escape to freedom, becoming a powerful abolitionist text.

DiasporaAutobiography
My Bondage and My Freedom
1855
Frederick Douglass

Douglass's expanded second autobiography with deeper analysis of slavery and his development as an intellectual.

DiasporaAutobiography
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
1881
Frederick Douglass

Final autobiography covering Douglass's entire life including post-Civil War period and diplomatic career.

DiasporaAutobiography
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
1861
Harriet Jacobs

Jacobs's account of her life as a slave and her escape, focusing on sexual exploitation of enslaved women.

DiasporaAutobiography
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1969
Maya Angelou

First of seven autobiographies chronicling Angelou's childhood in the segregated South and her coming of age.

DiasporaAutobiography
Gather Together in My Name
1974
Maya Angelou

Second autobiography covering Angelou's young adult years as single mother navigating post-WWII America.

DiasporaAutobiography
Angela Davis: An Autobiography
1974
Angela Davis

Davis's account of her life, FBI most wanted status, imprisonment, and political activism.

DiasporaAutobiography
Long Walk to Freedom
1994
Nelson Mandela

Mandela's autobiography from childhood through his release from 27 years in prison.

Southern AfricaAutobiography
Revolutionary Suicide
1973
Huey P. Newton

Newton's autobiography explaining Black Panther Party philosophy and his political evolution.

DiasporaAutobiography
Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party
1970
Bobby Seale

Seale's account of founding Black Panthers, written while imprisoned.

DiasporaAutobiography
Assata: An Autobiography
1987
Assata Shakur

Shakur's account of her life, Black Liberation Army membership, and escape to Cuba.

DiasporaAutobiography
For Bread Alone
1973
Mohamed Choukri

A raw autobiographical account of childhood poverty, hunger, and survival in Tangier. Learning to read at 20, crime, drugs, and the streets. Translated by Paul Bowles, it became an international sensation and was banned in Morocco for decades.

North AfricaAutobiography
Brother, I'm Dying
2007
Edwidge Danticat

A memoir about Danticat's father and uncle, two brothers separated by migration, and their parallel deaths in 2004, one from illness, the other in US immigration detention after Hurricane Ivan. A profound meditation on family and American policy toward Haiti.

CaribbeanAutobiography
To Sir, With Love
1959
E.R. Braithwaite

An educated Guyanese engineer, unable to find work due to racism in postwar Britain, becomes a teacher in London's East End, a memoir of navigating race, class, and the possibilities of connection across the color line.

CaribbeanAutobiography
Down Second Avenue
1959
Es'kia Mphahlele

Mphahlele's autobiography of growing up in the Marabastad township in Pretoria, navigating apartheid's violence and humiliations, and his journey to becoming a writer and exile.

Southern AfricaAutobiography
The African Child
1953
Camara Laye

Camara Laye's lyrical memoir of his childhood in Kouroussa, Guinea — his father's blacksmith shop filled with gold and spirits, the rituals of initiation, and the bittersweet departure for school in France.

West AfricaAutobiography
Dark Child (L'Enfant noir)
1953
Camara Laye

An alternative translation/edition of The African Child — Camara Laye's account of his Guinean childhood, his father's sacred blacksmith work, and his journey to France.

West AfricaAutobiography