My Odyssey: An Autobiography

Nnamdi Azikiwe played a prominent role in the fight for the emancipation of Black Africa from colonial rule. During his secondary education, he was introduced to the writings of Marcus Garvey, the sermons of Dr. Kweygir Aggrey, and a biography of President Garfield. The messages of these men -- Garvey's call for the liberation of Africa from the colonial governments, Dr. Aggrey's hope for a social rebirth and a new spiritual outlook among and toward Africans, and President Garfield's frontier spirit and willpower in the face of poverty -- inspired Zik to pursue his university education in the United States in the hope that it would prepare him for leadership of the Nigerian independence movement. A key figure among West African nationalists who envisaged a united Ibo people, he was the first and only President of independent Nigeria before the coup in 1966. This autobiography covers his formative years up to 1947, when, at the age of forty-five, he entered politics as the President of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, the majority party of the Eastern region.