The Novel in Africa

Many literary critics today and throughout the last century have viewed Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as one of the most outstanding and important works in English literature. However, a group led and exemplified by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe objects to this praise, and their argument, largely based on the inherent racism of Joseph Conrad that prevails in his writing, was summarized by Achebe in his 1975 lecture, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. Throughout the lecture/essay, Achebe picks apart Conrad’s racist tendencies, but not all of his arguments are sound. Essentially, Achebe focuses too much on the characters in the novel itself, as opposed to Conrad’s experience in his own life and connecting Conrad

The Novel Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was first published in 2006 and follows the interweaved narrative of three individuals living in Eastern Nigeria throughout the 1960s. The Novel, set within the backdrop of the Biafra secession movement and subsequent civil war, demonstrates how the daily life of Biafrans was riddled with conflict, turbulence and trauma. Additionally, the novel depicts how the effects of colonialism remain a strong force in the everyday lives of the characters as many continue to hold colonial sentiment. Furthermore, through the character Odenigbo, Adichie highlights how education is an important tool for decolonisation and allows citizens to create discourse on their own terms. Ultimately, the novel displays African life within the context of a newly-independent and turbulent state. This paper will aim to contextualise and discuss such themes in Adichie’s novel.

Before African writers emerged, the world viewed Africa as “‘the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization”(Adeche, 1977, p.3) Joseph Conrad’s idea of a civilized nation is Europe, but his ignorance towards other forms of civilizations, lead Conrad to publish Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s interpretation of Africa in Heart of Darkness, being the only one at the time, created the daunting beastial stereotype of Africa. Though Conrad’s story does not entirely embody Africa today, his opinions still sway the minds of Americans today. Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie encounter a like situation where she fell victim to the single story of Africa. When arriving at an American Adichie’s roommate immediately feels pity for her. When Adichie questions her assumptions she highlights the impoverishment present parts of Africa based on a newspaper article she previously read. Adichie roommate's lack of knowledge prompted her to form a false opinion about African based on one story. When we only embrace one story, we fail to embrace the stories of

I feel that the poem and the novel help to capture the way some will feel among the new kinship between the traditional African society and the introduction of the “white men”. Some will embrace this change as they see benefit in the new relationship with education, health care, and profits. However some will not embrace the change among the tribe, as they see how this new friendship is causing destruction of their culture and way of life. This continuing struggle is still being waged among many African tribes today. To me these pieces of literature help capture the ongoing

People draw certain stereotypes toward a group of people. Written in David Brooks' article, “when Africans, for example, are treated solely as pitiable poor, starving victims with flies on their faces.” Because of our skewed views, we fail to realize that not all African people live day to day on morsels of food. Some may become professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and scientists. Time to

J.M. Coetzee is one of many well-known post-colonial writers. He was born and spent hid childhood in South Africa. Therefore, many people think that his novel “Waiting for The Barbarians” is an allegory of the situation of South African in a time of apartheid (Head 75). In addition, Coetzee is strongly influenced by the famous author, Franz Kafka. As a result, it is not surprised that “Waiting for the Barbarians” has many similarities to Kafka’s “In The Penal Colony”. In terms of intertexuality, this essay will discuss the ambiguity of characters in Kafka’s ‘In The Penal Colony’ and Coetzee’s ‘Waiting for The Barbarians’ in order to learn

She appeals to her audience with an incident by admitting her faults of a single story when she “was startled” by the idea that her house boy’s family could do something such as making “a beautifully patterned basket,” when all she knew about them was “how poor they were.” Adichie makes her appeal to ethos stronger by admitting her faults of single stories of others, which allows the audience to understand the wrong doings of a single story. Though Adichie speaks of her own experiences of a single story, she gives an example of someone who stereotyped her from a single story of Africa. She develops a cultural ethos when her American roommate who is stunned by the idea that Adichie could “speak English so well” and how her “‘tribal music’” was Mariah Carey; her roommate had a preconceived story of Africa: “a single story of catastrophe.” This further develops her ethos using her credibility of a single story being used against her. Her reliability is further strengthened by her ethical appeals when she addresses the single story of Africa comes from Western literature. The single story started when there was a merchant who believed that black Africans to be animals who had no home or when poet Rudyard Kipling thought of them as “‘half devil, half child.’” The use of her

Generally, we believe that Africa is poor and rural. We believe the stories the American media only shows. Like Adichie’s roommate, we only know of one side of Africa, the poor, tragic side. Due to these stories, there is no opportunity for any other possible outcome to occur; there is not a possibility for Adichie to be who she is, middle class and educated. Here we find Adichie’s thesis – a single story is only one sided and leads to stereotypes, stereotypes lead to problems – buried almost six minutes in.

Achebe is a reactionary. From Things Fall Apart, to his criticism of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a novella that is an allegory against the imperialism, racism, and colonialism that plagued the world during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, a novella that tries to show the hypocrisy of the European countries; Achebe is reacting negatively to this novella that proves that European white guilt, the white man’s burden, are lies because Achebe does not want to see the evidence but wants to react with emotion. It is true Europeans never went to Africa to make the African continent like Europe; they never went to truly colonize for the benefit of the African people, nor did they go to truly spread their religion.

Literature has for centuries used to bring out an artist perception of the happenings in the community and also counter certain perceptions that some people may have in regards to a certain community. For a long time, the continent of Africa and Africans have been stereotyped as being uncivilized. Chinua Achebe who is one of the most renowned African writers in his book Things Fall apart counters the stereotyping of Africans by narrating the story of an African community that boasts of development and intellectuals. It is significant to note that the primary reason as to why Chinua Achebe wrote the novel Things fall apart was to counter the stereo types such as Joseph Conrad towards the continent of Africa. According to Conrad Africans were savages who did not have a specific language to communicate but used grants.

However, African literature was mainly available only for the privileged people like African or Western elite class and not for the oppressed people in South Africa. For postcolonial literature to be more responsive to the African people, African writers should use African indigenous languages in their writings. It would let more Africans to read their novels since many Africas do not speak or understand the European languages very well. The use of Europeans and American languages makes African literature to be the literature of the Western elite class. To rid colonialism, African writers including Alex La Guma should have written their novel in their native languages because literature in any other language other than African languages is not African literature but considered as Western colonial literature.

Chinua Achebe also wrote an essay called “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. In this essay, Achebe discusses his controversial thoughts on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and proves his argument. In these pieces, Chinua uses cultural context to give a more realistic version in Africa. Cultural context in Achebe’s writings is the use

J.M. Coetzee is one of many well-known post-colonial writers. He was born and spent hid childhood in South Africa. Therefore, many people think that his novel “Waiting for The Barbarians” is an allegory of the situation of South African in a time of apartheid (Head 75). In addition, Coetzee is strongly influenced by the famous author, Franz Kafka. As a result, it is not surprised that “Waiting for the Barbarians” has many similarities to Kafka’s “In The Penal Colony”. In terms of intertexuality, this essay will discuss the ambiguity of characters in Kafka’s ‘In The Penal Colony’ and Coetzee’s ‘Waiting for The Barbarians’ in order to learn the

She figures out ‘‘these bright Negro barristers…who talk so glibly about African culture, how would they like to return to wearing raffia skirts? How would novelist Achebe like to go back to the mindless times of his grandfather instead of holding the modern job he has in broadcasting in Lagos?’’ (qtd. in Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Post-colonial Studies Reader 58). Achebe replies this by writing the pros and cons of the Igbo society in all his novels. The researcher agrees with Katie Bacon that Achebe uses English language as an effective weapon, as a counterargument to colonialism. The researcher supports that the work of many major writers will be lost if it is not written in English, the world language which provides universal readership. But Thiong’o contends that the Africans should not use English as it enriches the European language by depriving the enrichment of the African

Creative Media Industries are swiftly shifting its focus to solely digital media and opportunities for creative writers are paid no attention but a Canada-based Nigerian scholar at the thirty first yearly covention of the Association of Nigerian Authors, points out that “writers are the world’s window into a culture” Adesanmi (2013). Novelists, biographers, historians, scriptwriters, and more recently, bloggers are the constant that record and catalogue the culture, norms and trends of a particular period or people.