This chapter traces a few key themes and challenges that have animated and sustained my life and career. Central to this has always been a desire to ensure, assisted by contributions provided, that all children get a “fighting chance” at thriving across the multitude of possible ecological contexts navigated given normal human development processes and task requirements. The diversity and inclusive perspective taken challenges scholarly traditions of the field that equate “difference with deficit.” Theoretical underpinnings for confronted efforts acknowledge the universality of human vulnerability, stress experience, and, thus, coping with the complex interactions between individuals’ challenges and supports. In keeping with this perspective, I also emphasize the many sources of strength and support secured in my personal and professional life. In sum, considered over the course of time – now more than three quarters of a century – ideally experiences shared might serve as motivation to future generations of young scholars.

The main focus of this chapter is the role of propaganda in influencing participation and opinions during the war. It analyzes how the British extensively used wartime propaganda to draw the support of the Nigerian people and explores the critical role propaganda played in Nigeria’s appropriation of the war and the enthusiastic support different sections of the population provided Britain during its hour of greatest need. It illustrates that the propaganda intended for African audiences reiterated the idea of the “interdependency” of the empire by stressing the unity of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The call on Africans to produce goods and conserve resources during the war was seen by the colonial government as an extension of its patriotism toward the empire. By creating space for the participation of the local population to consume a particular form of propaganda, the empire made Nigerians active participants in the creation of propaganda. Their intellectual contribution to this mission was largely based upon their appropriation of a new status and identity as “citizens of the empire.” Propaganda provided an effective avenue for expressions of imperial unity and acceptance of Britain’s self-image as a “virtuous imperial power,” in the words of Sonya Rose.