Muriel Spark and Africa

Muriel Spark’s centenary year has offered opportunities to explore elements of her writing that deserve wider attention. Her time in Africa is vital in this respect. An exhibition at the National Library of Scotland reveals aspects of Spark’s sojourn in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa (https://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/muriel-spark/Africa); critic Eleanor Byrne has begun to map out the impact of time there on her work (https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/11/go-away-bird-muriel-spark-southern-rhodesia/?print=print); and one of the fruits of the Muriel Spark 100 celebrations is a new book by writer Shane Strachan linking Spark’s African experiences with Scotland (http://www.shanestrachan.com/blog/2018/10/20/nevertheless-muriel-spark-in-bulawayo-murielspark100). Here, with a view to contributing to the discussion around Scotland’s colonial past, I want to look at the afterlife of Africa in Spark’s writings beyond the poems and stories that expressly draw on her experience of that continent