Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child is a beautiful yet somber vision of life in colonized Kenya during the Mau Mau Uprising. Ngotho, a farmer who tends to a white man’s crops, and his family reveal the colonial strategies at work to secure the white occupation and ensure the colonized Africans’ inferiority, or rather to maintain the false stereotype. Through Ngũgĩ’s essay, “Writers in Politics: A Re-Engagement with Issues of Literature & Society,” one is able to understand Ngũgĩ’s own thoughts on colonization, of the land and of the mind, and its effects on Africa as a whole. In keeping with his own theories on literature’s subjectivity, it is evident that Weep Not, Child is infiltrated with Ngũgĩ’s own experience and ideas. The author advocates that the presence of cultural imperialism is vital and strikingly real. Ngũgĩ’ also initiates a discussion of racism’s deeper effects through his essay as his novel expresses them with names and faces. His idea of literature’s partisanship is clearly expressed through Weep Not, Child’s semi-autobiographical lens. Ngũgĩ’s essay serves to express his theories, while his novel brings them to life.
One of the principle concepts of Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o’s “Writers in Politics: A Re-Engagement with Issues of Literature & Society” lies in the idea of cultural imperialism. This strategy of mind control through culture serves to secure economic and political occupation, and, specifically in the case of colonial Kenya, force a people to see the world through the eyes of the West rather than experiencing an original interpretation more focused on one’s own social conditions. Ngũgĩ’s theory is clearly put to work by the colonizers in his own novel, Weep Not, Child. Njoroge’s schooling acquaints...
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...a part of the unique style that is the epistolary novel. This aspect of simple storytelling proves it is possible to write colorfully and expressively without complex language and burdening literary devices. Through casual, everyday storytelling the reader is able to see not only the simple nuances of a text, but truly the subtle lessons of everyday life.
The epistolary form can be noted as the most personal form of documentation other than direct thoughts themselves. They are often a raw expression of a writer’s own unburdening. They offer little prior context, initiating a relationship with the reader quickly and dramatically through feeling and story. This form embeds trust and easily relates a reader to a writer’s topics. Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter and J. Nozipo Maraire’s Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter are exemplary texts in the epistolary tradition.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
In the novel a Grain of Wheat written by Nugugi we explore in-depth the hardships and courage of African men and women who were forced to fight for their independence in the War of Independence. This book reveals to us the life of a man named Gikonyo. As a reader we learn that Gikonyo was through into a detention camp a poor and confused man. When released, Gikonyo is a new man with motivational and leadership abilities. Finding his true self in the camp and proving to be a true leader among his people. Although he is a new man after the camps, Gikonyo finds himself falling further apart from his beloved wife then he had ever been before.
This is a gripping novel about the problem of European colonialism in Africa. The story relates the cultural collision that occurs when Christian English missionaries arrive among the Ibos of Nigeria, bringing along their European ways of life and religion.
Written stories differ in numerous ways, but most of them have one thing in common; they all have a narrator that, on either rare occasions or more regularly, help to tell the story. Sometimes, the narrator is a vital part of the story since without him or her, it would not be possible to tell the story in the same way, and sometimes, the narrator has a very small role in the story. However, he or she is always there, and to compare how different authors use, and do not use, this outside perspective writing tool, a comparison between Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, Henry James’ Daisy Miller, and David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly will be done.
Evans, Jennifer. "Cultures and Resistance." African Literature Today. Trenton, New Jersey: African World Press, 1987. pages
The establishment of global empires greatly impacted the world as imperial powers tightened links between civilizations worldwide. Imperialism not only brought people together but it put divisions between them as well through the use of powerful tools and deadly weapons.
There were two different time periods where Imperialism occurred. The first wave of imperialism, called the 'Old' Imperialism, lasted from around 1500 - 1800. The 'New' Imperialism lasted from around 1870 - 1914. The three main differences that we will discuss today are the differences in economics, politics, and the motive behind all of this.
Instead of passively resenting his village’s colonization, Achebe productively channels his specific anger into global compassion, showing his readers the value in considering different cultures with objective and thoughtful rationality.
In Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton tells the story of his journey across Africa, his experiences with the colonized Africa, and the destruction of the beautiful, pre-colonialism native land of Africa. Heart of Darkness also tells the story of a man and his experiences with colonialism, but a man who comes from a different time period and a very different background than Alan Paton’s Stephen Kumalo. Although, both Joseph Conrad and Alan Paton portray the colonized areas as very negative, death filled, and sinful places, it is when one analyzes the descriptions of the native lands of Africa that the authors reasons for their disapproval of colonialism are truly revealed. When comparing the writing styles of Alan Paton and Joseph Conrad, their descriptions of the land and the people in both works reveal their different attitudes and views towards colonialism. While Paton and Conrad ultimately oppose colonialism, Paton is concerned with the disappearance of African tribal tradition, whereas Conrad is concerned with the perceived corruption of the white colonists.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
History has been told through various forms for decades. In the past, history was more commonly expressed through word of mouth, but more recently in the past century, through written text. While textbooks and articles give formal information with little to no bias, novels give a completely new perspective from the people who experienced it themselves. The Novels, God’s Bits of Wood, written by Sembene Ousmane, and No Longer at Ease, by Chinua Achebe give a more personal account of the effects of colonization. These two novels tackle the British and French method of colonization. God’s Bits of Wood takes place in the late 1940s and sheds light on the story of the railroad strike in colonial Senegal. The book deals with different ways that the Senegalese and Malians respond to colonialism during that time. No Longer at Ease is set in the 1950s and tells the early story of British colonialism and how the Nigerians responded to colonization. Comparing the two novels, there are obvious similarities and differences in the British and French ways of rule. African authors are able to write these novels in a way that gives a voice to the people that are most commonly silenced during colonialism. This perspective allows readers to understand the negative ways that colonization affects the colonized. Historical fiction like God’s Bits of Wood and No Longer at Ease are good educational tools to shed light on the history and effects of colonization, but they do not provide a completely reliable source for completely factual information.
Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa.” EXPLORING Novels. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Gold. Gale. Ascension Academy. 9 June 2008.
In the novel Purple Hibiscus, culture is paramount to the development of both Kambili and Jaja while being a source of personal conflict or pride for other characters in the novel. There is a clear juxtaposition presented between cultural rejection and cultural acceptance of Nigerian culture by Nigerians which is depicted by contrasting characters like Papa Eugene, a product of colonialism, and Papa Nnukwu, a traditionalist. Adichie manipulates culture throughout the novel in order to emphasize its importance to personal identity and one’s authenticity, highlight the dangers of cultural intolerance and ignorance, and expose the implicit misconception of the superiority of Western civilization.
In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attempts to use history in order to gain leverage on the present, to subvert the single story stereotypes that dominate many contemporary discourses on Africa. Written in the genre of historical fiction, Adichie’s novel transcends beyond mere historical narration and recreates the polyphonic experiences of varying groups of people in Nigeria before and after the Civil War. She employs temporal distortion in her narrative, distorting time in order to illustrate the intertwining effects of the past and present, immersing deep into the impact of western domination that not only catalyzed the war, but continues to affect contemporary Africa. In this paper, I will analyze her portrayal of the multifaceted culture produced by colonialism – one that coalesces elements from traditional African culture with notions of western modernity to varying degrees. I will argue that Adichie uses a range of characters, including Odenigbo’s mother, Ugwu, Olanna and Kainene, to each represent a point in a spectrum between tradition and modernity. Through her juxtaposition, she undermines the stereotypes that continue to characterize Africa as backwards and traditional, proving instead that colonialism has produced a cross culture where the two are intertwined.
Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.