Neo-Colonialism and alienation in African fiction: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments

This article examines the themes of neo-colonialism and alienation in Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel Fragments. It contends that these are two of the most topical subjects within African existence in the contemporary era and are still very directly related to the present African predicament of a seemingly developmentally slow and retrogressing continent. Alienation and neo-colonialism are also inextricably intertwined with the whole question of nation-building and nationalism and directly linked with issues relating to African identity in the aftermath of slavery and colonialism. The discussion suggests that Ayi Kwei Armah’s engagement of the themes of neo-colonialism, alienation, nationalism and nation-building offer some very useful insights into grappling with the present African condition. Ultimately, the point is made that examining and exploring the nature and intricacies of neo-colonialism and alienation of both individuals and community through the experiences of protagonists in the fiction discussed contributes to facilitating an understanding of the project of African self-rehabilitation and reclamation, which are pursued through nation-building and nationalism and which are currently ongoing

Writing Between ‘Self’ and ‘Nation’: Nationalism, (Wo)manhood and Modernity in Bessie Head’s The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales

Le présent article étudie trois nouvelles du recueil Collector of Treasures de Bessie Head, née en Afrique du Sud et immigrée au Bostwana où elle a fait carrière d'écrivain. Hommes et femmes, les personnages de son oeuvre illustrent la relation qui existe entre traditions africaines et modernit

Eldership, Ancestral Traditions and Cultural Identity in African Fiction: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost

This paper explores the place and significance of the representations of eldership and ancestral traditions in African fiction. It argues that what the examples located within the selected texts discussed are not merely co-incidental, but collectively represent and articulate an engagement in a discourse of African cultural and spiritual rehabilitation. Examples are chosen from the work of three of Africa’s most prominent and well-known writers to illustrate the argument that is being made, which is that when Africans refer to their ancestral traditions, they do so both as a form of commemoration and also as a means of establishing their belief and faith in age-old spiritual traditions

Writing Between ‘Self’ and ‘Nation’: Nationalism, (Wo)manhood and Modernity in Bessie Head’s The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales

Le présent article étudie trois nouvelles du recueil Collector of Treasures de Bessie Head, née en Afrique du Sud et immigrée au Bostwana où elle a fait carrière d'écrivain. Hommes et femmes, les personnages de son oeuvre illustrent la relation qui existe entre traditions africaines et modernit

The Nation as Imagined Community: Chinua Achebe\u27s No Longer at Ease

The discussion by Chinua Achebe of significant aspects of the postcolonial moment in Nigerian history in A Man of the People (1996) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) does not only signal disillusionment with and alienation from important traditional bonds of kinship and community; it also articulates a search for new forms of affiliation within the context of what Benedict Anderson would describe as a nationally \u27imagined community\u27 .1 This essay is concerned particularly with Achebe\u27s 1960 novel, No Longer at Ease. It explores the ways in which Achebc represents competing versions of nationalist ideology within the nascent Nigerian nation. Much of the novel\u27s reconstruction of Nigerian society in the years immediately preceding independence is dedicated to examining the socializing course which nationalism takes. Ache be\u27s narrative suggests that the alliances sought by individuals and groups are integral to their visions of the development of the socio-cultural and political processes of Nigeria\u27s post-colonial history