The aim of the paper is to trace how Postcolonial African Literature is not only about resistance to colonial violence, “norms” and oppression but also about the reconstruction of the norm/ideal itself particularly as depicted through Bessie Head’s stories. It will also show how colonialism and patriarchy are similar in their attempts to suppress/oppress the “other” based on ones supposed biological/physical superiority. The paper will demonstrate how Head as a black woman writer through her very act of writing, her stories, her characters, her use of bilingual idioms and language offers a narrative of resistance against the colonial ideologies, patriarchy and the traditional male canon. The paper would further demonstrate how her narrative
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It is closely tied to Edward Said’s concept of “Orientalism”, which is the artificial distinction that has been created between the “East” and the “West” (where the “East” traditionally referred to the Middle East but gradually extended to include Asia, Africa and Latin America), and thus, becomes responsible for creating a distinction between “us” and “them”, eventually leading to the idea of colonialism/imperialism by nations who considered themselves to be superior than …show more content…
Postcolonialism in Africa refers to the period between 1960 and 1970 when most of the African nations gained liberation from their colonial masters. Most of the writers writing during this time expressed concern over their country’s social and political state, and performed the dual role of artists and social activists. Their themes slowly graduated from those of joy and jubilation at the country’s emancipation from years of colonial domination to a sense of desolation and rage at the loss of their indigenous culture and the horror their countries endured as a result of both colonization and then the subsequent decolonization.
Patriarchy like colonialism, is a system of rigorous sexual and biological discrimination and segregation that values men over women and promotes their interests, and deprives women of their rights, privileges and freedom. Thus, African (black/coloured) women (and African women writers) were in this sense doubly marginalized as they were not only victims of colonialism but also of
It is closely tied to Edward Said’s concept of “Orientalism”, which is the artificial distinction that has been created between the “East” and the “West” (where the “East” traditionally referred to the Middle East but gradually extended to include Asia, Africa and Latin America), and thus, becomes responsible for creating a distinction between “us” and “them”, eventually leading to the idea of colonialism/imperialism by nations who considered themselves to be superior than …show more content…
Postcolonialism in Africa refers to the period between 1960 and 1970 when most of the African nations gained liberation from their colonial masters. Most of the writers writing during this time expressed concern over their country’s social and political state, and performed the dual role of artists and social activists. Their themes slowly graduated from those of joy and jubilation at the country’s emancipation from years of colonial domination to a sense of desolation and rage at the loss of their indigenous culture and the horror their countries endured as a result of both colonization and then the subsequent decolonization.
Patriarchy like colonialism, is a system of rigorous sexual and biological discrimination and segregation that values men over women and promotes their interests, and deprives women of their rights, privileges and freedom. Thus, African (black/coloured) women (and African women writers) were in this sense doubly marginalized as they were not only victims of colonialism but also of