{"product_id":"chasing-freedom-coming-of-age-at-the-end-of-empire","title":"Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exquisitely crafted memoir, sweeping from Zimbabwe to Oxford, that lays bare the violent, enduring legacy of colonialism on both a country and a family\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSimukai Chigudu grew up in the shadow of Africa's struggles for liberation. As he navigates the tangled threads of personal and political history, he is guided by one central question: What does it mean to be truly free? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChigudu's father fought in a guerilla war against the white supremacist regime of Rhodesia. He met Chigudu's mother while in exile in Uganda. After spending seven years apart, they reunite to build a life in newly independent Zimbabwe, hoping to offer their son the opportunities they never had. Yet Chigudu grows up in a world where colonialism never fully ended. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRacism persists: in the elite, white-run prep schools that groom him for life outside of Africa; in the British university where he is the only Black man in his class of 250; and finally as an Oxford professor, where a statue of the man who colonized his homeland--Cecil Rhodes--stands proudly on campus. As Zimbabwe convulses in the aftershocks of empire, facing political turmoil and economic collapse, Chigudu sees a parallel unravelling in his own family. His father, scarred by war, has turned to alcohol; his mother has grown distant and sorrowful. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this gorgeous and atmospheric family memoir, Chigudu embarks on a quest to understand how the trauma of decolonization has shaped not only his country, but his very identity--as an African, a migrant, a Black man, a doctor, a scholar, and a son. What he discovers is that colonization is a potent force that continues to upend lives and institutions. \u003ci\u003eChasing Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e is an intimate reckoning with the ghosts of the past that haunt our politics and our psyches in ways we can't always see.","brand":"Simukai Chigudu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52041520087341,"sku":"BS-8XD-443699","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/9780593443699-HD.jpg?v=1777994988","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/chasing-freedom-coming-of-age-at-the-end-of-empire","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}