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This book transforms our contemporary understanding of the recent political history of Central Africa. It charts the complex life and thought of Harry Nkumbula (ca. 1917-1983), the first openly nationalist African politician in Northern Rhodesia and, later, the leader of parliamentary opposition during Zambia´s multi-party First Republic.

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Introduction: Historical Biography and Rival African Nationalisms Imagining the Nation: Methodism, History and Politics in Nkumbula´s Early Years ´The Father of Zambian Politics´ between Padmore and Maala The Explosion of Contradictions Nkumbula, UNIP and the Roots of Authoritarianism in Nationalist Zambia Resisting UNIP: Liberal Democracy and Ethnic Politics in Zambia´s First Republic ´The Last Battle I Will Ever Fight´: Nkumbula and the Drive towards the One-Party State Epilogue: Nkumbula´s Last Initiatives and Legacy

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"In this most accomplished of books, Giacomo Macola has completely reworked the significance of Nkumbula´s life and times. Macola successfully invests the study of nationalism with an historical complexity that until very recently had largely escaped its academic practitioners. This excellent book rescues Nkumbula from the condescension of posterity, even as it marks the coming of age of Central African biography." - Journal of African History

"Well-researched biographies of post-colonial African political leaders are few and far between, so Giacomo Macola´s excellent study of the life and politics of Harry Nkumbula, Zambian nationalist pioneer and opposition leader, is particularly welcome. This then is a book about the deconstruction of established narratives of nationalism, with relevance not just to Zambia but to the continent as a whole. Macola´s distinctive polemic is one of the most important studies of African nationalism published in recent years." - Journal of Southern African Studies

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GIACOMO MACOLA is Lecturer in African History at Rutherford College, part of the University of Kent in the UK and a researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

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