{"product_id":"9780593443699","title":"Chasing Freedom","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exquisitely crafted memoir, sweeping from Zimbabwe to Oxford, that lays bare the violent, enduring legacy of colonialism on both a country and a family\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimukai Chigudu grew up in the shadow of Africa’s struggles for liberation. As he navigates the tangled threads of personal and political history, he is guided by one central question: What does it mean to be truly free?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChigudu's father fought in a guerilla war against the white supremacist regime of Rhodesia. He met Chigudu’s mother while in exile in Uganda. After spending seven years apart, they reunite to build a life in newly independent Zimbabwe, hoping to offer their son the opportunities they never had. Yet Chigudu grows up in a world where colonialism never fully ended. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRacism persists: in the elite, white-run prep schools that groom him for life outside of Africa; in the British university where he is the only Black man in his class of 250; and finally as an Oxford professor, where a statue of the man who colonized his homeland—Cecil Rhodes—stands proudly on campus. As Zimbabwe convulses in the aftershocks of empire, facing political turmoil and economic collapse, Chigudu sees a parallel unravelling in his own family. His father, scarred by war, has turned to alcohol; his mother has grown distant and sorrowful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this gorgeous and atmospheric family memoir, Chigudu embarks on a quest to understand how the trauma of decolonization has shaped not only his country, but his very identity—as an African, a migrant, a Black man, a doctor, a scholar, and a son. What he discovers is that colonization is a potent force that continues to upend lives and institutions. \u003ci\u003eChasing Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e is an intimate reckoning with the ghosts of the past that haunt our politics and our psyches in ways we can’t always see.","brand":"Simukai Chigudu","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":47603140067586,"sku":"9780593443699","price":44.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0747\/0012\/8514\/files\/BNCImageAPI_fef00598-bdf3-4219-bf9c-3cae23a5fd9e.jpg?v=1774894826","url":"https:\/\/www.downtowncomics.ca\/products\/9780593443699","provider":"Downtown Comics","version":"1.0","type":"link"}