Chasing Freedom

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An exquisitely crafted memoir, sweeping from Zimbabwe to Oxford, that lays bare the violent, enduring legacy of colonialism on both a country and a family Simukai 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? Chigudu'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. Racism 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