Introduction
The task of global representation falls into the hands of Third World writers after years of misrepresentation by the colonizers. According to Walter Rodney, "the colonies could not rely on the writers from the European empires to represent a true picture about the events of colonization." Commenting on the paradox of underdevelopment, Rodney illustrates how one bourgeois economist fails to provide a historical explanation or a relationship of exploitation. This process of decolonization of retelling of the story embarked upon by many Third World writers such as Chinuq Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong'O, Wole Soyinka, Camara Laye, Mongo Beti, Ferdinand Oyono, Buchi Emecheta, Gabriel Okara, Sembene Ousmane, Elechi Amadi, Alex La Guma, Bessie Head (Africa); Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Salman Rushdie, Kamala Markandaya, Farrukh Dhondy, Jussawall (India); George Lamming, V. S. Naipaul, Wilson Harris, Samuel Selvon, Louise Bennett, Jan Carew, John Hearne, Jamaica Kincaid, and Derek Walcot (Caribbean) is a challenging one since it involves shattering the status quo. To shatter the status quo, theses writers have to create what said has called "an opposing point of view, perspective, consciousness to counteract the unitary web of vision entrenched in the dominant criticism."" The entire gamut of modern African writing derives from the politics of anti-colonial struggle: even today, the marks of the struggle are distinct. But here an interesting point arises. How did the Africans put up their fight against the Imperialists? What was the tool that turned the tide, the tool they employed in pressing their legitimate rights to self-determination? The answer is loaded with irony and provokes a series of questions. The African writers had to employ the language of their colonial masters. The natives hated their rulers and their tyranny, but did not hesitate to exploit the latter's language, even though the vast bulk of African masses could not read it, much less enjoy and appreciate the fruits of struggle. Historically speaking, the novel-form is not African by birth: it is an imported form, borrowed from the Western tradition. There is an ingrained incompatibility, which every African novelist has to bear in mind. But in a typically African novel, the reverse is true. The individual as character is relegated to a lesser position, while the protagonist is the environment, the community and the forces to which individuals must surrender. This is true to life and should be true to art as well. In a real sense, the chief obstruction to the characters is the community, with its tyranny and incomprehensibility, the community where the individual does not exist in his own right but is compelled to lose his identity for the sake of social cohesion. In a certain technical sense, then, we say that the character in traditional African society does not exist; yet the African novelist in order to make his craft possible is forced to hammer out character from this social block, which is amorphous in many ways. Ranging from Tutuola to Chinua Achebe and finally to the fine modernist experimentalist Armah, throughout these cases in point there is only one character, Okonkwo, who emerges in challenging proportions, at least in comparison to the nameless hero, the man, of Armah's novel, The Beautiful ones are not yet born. In Africa, writers discovered that euro-centric representation of their history and literature as a misrepresentation portraying a primitive and unrecognized culture. Following the examples of Fanon, Nehurah, and Rodney, they embraced the process of decolonization and recreation.
About The Book
This is a full Length study of important writers of African Literature, Who are novelists, poets and short story writers. It adds new dimension to the criticism of African Literature.
About The Author
Dr. D. N. Sinha has been teaching English Language and Literature since January 1992. At present he is posted in P. G. Department of English, B. N. College, Patna (Patna University). He has to his credit two books and number of research papers published in national and international Journals.
Dr. Binay Shankar Roy is an eminent teacher of English Language and Literature. He has been teaching English since August 1995. At present he is posted in Department of English, L. S. College, Muzaffarpur (B. R. A. Bihar University).
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