Akiki Hosea K. Nyabongo
Attended Yale Graduate School 1931-1934
Biography
Born in 1907 in Fort Portal, West Uganda, Akiki K. Nyabongo was a hereditary prince from the Toro Kingdom who became a scholar, author, pan-Africanist, and political activist. He received his early education at King's College, Budo, East Africa, before coming to the United States. He earned an undergraduate degree from Howard University before enrolling at Yale, followed by a master's degree from Harvard University. Nyabongo received a PhD from Oxford University in 1939, where he was supported by a Rhodes Scholarship. His thesis in anthropology was entitled, “The Religious Practices and Beliefs of Ugandans.”
A noted author and intellectual, Nyabongo published the novel Africa Answers Back (1936), originally published as The Story of an African Chief (1935), based on his own life. The editor of The African Magazine, he was also the author of Bisoro Stories I, Bisoro Stories II, and Wind and Lights: African Fairy Tales, as well as other unpublished works.
An advocate for decolonization and the independence movement in Uganda, Nyabongo collaborated with American civil rights leaders W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul and Eslanda Goode Robeson. His papers are at Queen’s College, Oxford. Nyabongo died in Brooklyn in 1975.
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Publications
The Story Of An African Chief. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.
Africa Answers Back. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1936.
Lebensgeschichte eines Negerhäuptlings. Leipzig: P. List, 1937.
The Education of the African. Oberlin, OH: 1939: Self-Published, 1939.
Winds and Lights: African Fiary Tales. New York, NY: Voice: Voice of Ethiopia, 1939.
The Bisoro Stories. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1937.
"African Life and Ideals," The Journal of Negro History 26, no. 3 (1941).
"Know Thyself," Negro History Bulletin 6, no. 5 (1943).
"The Development of Iron," Negro Histroy Bulletin 6, no. 7 (1943).
Royal Charter: Customs, Norms, Traditions and Proceedings of Toro Kingdom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1945.
Oruhenda : obukama bwa toro : [Dialect of the palace]. Ganda
Hadithi za wanyama. Animal stories ... Swahili. London: Sheldon Press, 1961.
Hadithi za wabisoro: Kitabu cha kwanz. London: Sheldon Press, 1964.
Hadithi za wabisoro: zimeandikwa. London: Sheldon Press, 1966.
Ebiremberro. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1969.
Upepo na mwangaza : hadithi za kizimwi za Kiafrika. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1974.