The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku

Stephanie Newell

Ohio University Press, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 233 pages

Between 1905 and 1939 a conspicuously tall white man with a shock of red hair, dressed in a silk shirt and white linen trousers, could be seen on the streets of Onitsha, in Eastern Nigeria. How was it possible for an unconventional, boy-loving Englishman to gain a social status among the local populace enjoyed by few other Europeans in colonial West Africa?

In The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku Stephanie Newell charts the story of the English novelist and poet John Moray Stuart-Young (1881-1939) as he traveled from the slums of Manchester to West Africa in order to escape the homophobic prejudices of late-Victorian society. Leaving behind a criminal record for forgery and embezzlement and his notoriety as a "spirit rapper," Stuart-Young found a new identity as a wealthy palm oil trader and a celebrated author, known to Nigerians as "Odeziaku."

In this fascinating biographical account, Newell draws on queer theory, African gender debates, and "new imperial history" to open up a wider study of imperialism, (homo)sexuality, and nonelite culture between the 1880s and the late 1930s. The Forger's Tale pays close attention to different forms of West African cultural production in the colonial period and to public debates about sexuality and ethics, as well as to movements in mainstream English literature.

Contents

• Introduction Buried beneath Imperial History: 1
• 1 Forging Ahead: 21
• 2 The Palm Oil Traders View: 33
• 3 Fragments of Oscar Wilde in Colonial Nigeria: 56
• 4 Uranian Love in West Africa: 75
• 5 The Politics of Naming: 89
• 6 The Strange Toleration of StuartYoung in the African Owned Press of Nigeria: 108
• 7 A Class Apart: 119
• 8 The Production of a Poet: 138
• Conclusion Tales That Lie Awake: 159
• Notes: 171
• Bibliography: 213
• Index: 227

About the author

Stephanie Newell is a reader in English literature at the University of Sussex and the author of West African Literatures: Ways of Reading, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana, and Ghanaian Popular Fiction: How to Play the Game of Life.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Forger's Tale: The Search for Odeziaku; New African histories series, ISSN 2691-8927
• Author: Stephanie Newell
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0821417096, 9780821417096
• Length: 233 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Criminals & Outlaws; Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; History / Africa / General; History / Africa / West; History / Europe / Great Britain / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / LGBTQ+ Studies / Gay Studies