This is the story of the life and career of a provincial creole printman, James Vivian Clinton, who edited the Nigerian Eastern Mail, in Calabar, South Eastern Nigeria, from 1935 to 1951.1 It investigates his position in the politics of race, nation, and empire in the lead-up to the Second World War, taking one year, 1937 as its focus. The episode intersects with the central historical lens on the relationship between print and nation by addressing the significance of race and identity, both local and transcontinental, in the imaginings of African nationalism.
