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Chapter 3 - Print Cultures and Printing Diasporas

Gandhi, Dube and White Printworkers in Durban

from Part I - Producing Print

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2025

Stephanie Newell
Affiliation:
Yale University
Karin Barber
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

This chapter frames African print and printing in a diasporic context, since most major African cities are or were home to a rich array of printing traditions. In coastal cities in southern and East Africa, one was likely to encounter Muslim printers from Bombay; Africans tutored at Protestant evangelical presses; Indians (and Britons) trained in mission, state-run or commercial printing concerns in South Asia; British printers as well as print workers from diasporic locales. This chapter investigates these presses and the literary forms associated with them. The chapter discusses three literary texts connected with three printing presses (or printing traditions) in Durban. Thereafter the focus widens to consider the characteristics of a range of diasporic printing presses. The conclusion returns to the three literary texts and speculates on how placing them in proximity to the print shop shifts our understandings of African literary genealogies.

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