Richard Wright

This chapter examines Richard Wright’s views on Africa, colonialism, and Black Power by looking at a sample of his non-fiction works: Black Boy (1945), Black Power (1954), and The Color Curtain (1956). As an expatriate living in France, Wright and a group of intellectual heavy weights—Alioune Diop, Aime Cesaire, Leopold Senghor, Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus—founded the journal Presence Africaine in 1947. This journal became a leading voice in terms of interrogating the colonial system for the oppressed. In addition to the above-mentioned intellectuals, Wright had also developed a close friendship with C. L. R. James and George Padmore, who were seen as radicals for decrying colonialism as exploitative and calling for a Pan-Africanist movement. In 1953, with the encouragement of George and Dorothy Padmore, Wright traveled to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to see and chronicle African life. Upon his return to France, he published Black Power (1954), which captured his views of Ghanaian politics, culture, and customs. Next, Wright published The Color Curtain (1956), which synthesized his observations of the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. In these books, Wright explores the physical and psychological harm caused by colonialism. What makes these books compelling is that they were written as travel journals and, thus, they reveal autobiographical insights into his outsider gaze on Africa. At the same time, these works capture the trauma of the colonial system on all people of color. While his fiction work has received tremendous attention, few scholars have studied Wright’s contributions to the decolonization of Africa. This chapter hopes to fill this gap.