I AM sure you know by now how important history is to any unlocking of the contemporary.
Africa-centred analysis of literature is very much dependent on inspecting the past-present-and- future continuum.
Life is a series of causative correlations.
This series is a demonstration of the fact that Africa-centredness is a philosophical positionality that can be used to inspect literary works including those that exist outside the geo-politics of Africa.
One of the gains to Africa of studying Shakespeare’s works is to understand the background of British thinking.
An Africa-centred inspection of that thinking will enable you to evaluate it against our own African values.
To start this journey of psychological penetration into the whiteman’s wilderness, we begin by examining the historical context.
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in English history marked by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603).
The 16th and 17th centuries were a time of tumult and great social upheaval, both in England and in Europe as a whole.
Prior to Shakespeare’s birth, the reformation had swept through the continent, challenging longstanding religious practices and institutions, and resulting in the establishment of a number of alternatives to the Catholic Church of Rome, including Lutheranism and Calvinism.
This movement was initially resisted in England until Henry VIII’s decision to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn in 1527.
This decision pitted the king against the Pope who was until then regarded as God’s supreme representative on earth.
The Pope’s subsequent refusal to allow it led to a break from the Church of Rome and the eventual founding of a Protestant Church of England in 1536, with the king as its head.
The crown seized the properties and wealth of the monasteries, and England was thrown into a kind of religious identity crisis over the next few decades, as successive monarchs shifted the country back and forth from Catholicism to Protestantism several times.
Each of these shifts was accompanied by danger, persecution, and death.
After the death of Henry’s daughter Mary who was a staunch Catholic, her half-sister Elizabeth, a Protestant, became queen in 1558.
Elizabeth I, last of the Tudor monarchs, reigned until 1603, presiding over an extraordinary rise in England’s fortunes.
After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the country (along with its Protestant religion) had established itself as a political power within Europe, and embarked upon a process of imperial expansion.
Simultaneously, there was a great explosion in literary production, classical studies, historiography, geography and philosophy, which has made the Elizabethan era almost synonymous with the English Renaissance.
Any doubts about the capacity of a female monarch to rule effectively were subsequently laid to rest owing to her multiple achievements.
Elizabeth, also known as Virgin Queen, died without children, having spent her reign skilfully playing various suitors and factions against each other for political gain while remaining unmarried throughout.
On her deathbed in 1603 she appointed James VI of Scotland as her successor, and he was crowned James I of England, the first English monarch of the Stuart dynasty, ruling until his death in 1625.
The Jacobean era saw the country continue to emerge as a colonial and trading power, both westwards in Ireland and North America, and eastwards in Asia.
The so-called ‘Golden Age’ of English Renaissance writing continued — the Authorised King James Version of the Bible was published in 1611, and James himself was known to be a writer, and composed works on poetry, witchcraft, and on political theory and kingship.
Take note here that his biggest achievement was to oversee the re-writing of the Bible to suit Jacobean values, English monarchical values in line with his fervent belief in the divine right of kings.
His usurpation of divine might pitted him against the principles of parliamentary democracy and oversight which would lead to difficulties in his relations with the Parliament.
These difficulties would eventually lead to the English Civil War (1642–1651), and ultimately to the execution of James’ son and heir Charles I in 1649. 
You can already see how events in King Lear influence politics of empire as well as how the play itself reflects the political ideas of the time.
The civil war broke out after Shakespeare’s death.
While both monarchs were to some extent popular and inspired the devotion of their subjects, the changes set in motion by Henry VIII continued to have far-reaching effects.
While Elizabeth’s accession may have confirmed England as a Protestant nation, the next decades continued to be marked by religious tension, not only between England and Catholic Europe, but also within a populace for whom religious faith and identity had become a life-and-death matter.
The social structure and geography of England as a whole was being re-organised, and the possibilities for social advancement opened up due to the rise of London as a commercial centre.
While Shakespeare was undoubtedly a product of his age: Not only of the flourishing literary world of early modern England, but also of a vibrant theatrical world.
Theatre in particular was a commercial venture that sought to entertain as many people as possible.
The momentous transformation of the rich theatrical traditions of England into the commercial theatre of the late 1500s was closely linked to the transformation of London into a commercial centre, and the attendant population explosion.
Shakespeare was deeply involved in this theatrical world, as playwright, as actor and eventually as shareholder in one of the premier stage companies of the period, the Lord Chamberlain’s (later known as the King’s Men).
If Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers, then King Lear is often considered one of his greatest works.
King Lear has established its creator not only as one of the great tragedians, but as the foremost representative of a great age of tragedy.
As Africa-centred readers however, our interest is to find out if King Lear is equally appealing to us both as an art and as a drama of ideas.