Narrating a White Africa: autobiography, race and history

The last three decades have witnessed a radical transformation in the political and social make-up of Southern Africa, evidenced especially than in the areas of race and power relations. 'Narrating a White Africa: Autobiography, race and history' examines the ways in which life-writing forms are being 'conscripted' to make sense of the fraught and traumatic political and historical conditions of postcolonial Africa. That in the context of life-writing this occurs through the highly charged notions of intimate suffering and traumatic aftermath highlights the significance of the link between race, identity and history in contemporary memoirs by White African writers. © 2005 Third World Quarterly.