POST-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE

A QUERY OF THE RACIAL LEXICON AND PROPOSITION FOR THE POST-INDEPENDENCE ALTERNATIVE

Abstract

The paper interrogates the rationality of the continued description of the literature of the former colonies, especially African literature, as post-colonial. This paper questions the relevance of post-colonial theory to contemporary African literary scholarship. The hegemonic practice that formed the basis for post-colonialism, that is, colonialism, ceased to exist at the independence of the countries of the former empire. Using Jacques Derrida’s Deconstructionist theory as a tool, the paper maintains that the literary convention of designating African literature as post-colonial in the age of globalization and universalism is erroneous and a misfit. The terms “Post-colonialism”, “Post-colonial Theory”, and “Post-colonial Literature” should cease to exist in African literary scholarship and, indeed, in the literature from the entire former empire. Continued reference to these terms runs counter to the social realities in the former empire, which are captured in their literatures. Again, “post-colonialism” massages the ego of the imperialist as the former empire nations are still psychologically tied to the atrocious hegemony. In the same vein, the sense of self-worth enshrined in the sovereignties of the colonized nations is ruptured in the term “post-colonialism”. Similarly, antecedent reveals that great countries that experienced dominion rule such as the United States did not persist in perpetual lamentation through such a nomenclature as “post-colonialism.” In the spirits of dignity and universalism and the social advancement of the former colonies, this work therefore argues that “Independence  Literature”, Independence Theory”, and “Independence Writings” are edifying phrases which appropriately substitute colonialism-oriented terminologies in use today.