POST-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE: A QUERY OF THE RACIAL LEXICON AND PROPOSITION FOR THE POST-INDEPENDENCE ALTERNATIVE
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2025
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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.
Keywords: Post-colonialism, African literature, Independence literature, Globalization,
Deconstructionist theory