Pre-Colonial Africa in Colonial African Narratives: From Ethiopia Unbound to Things Fall Apart, 1911û1958

by Wehrs,Donald R.

• ISBN13: 9780754660880
• ISBN10: 0754660885
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In his study of the origins of political reflection in twentieth-century African fiction, Donald Wehrs examines a neglected but important body of African texts written in colonial (English and French) and indigenous (Hausa and Yoruba) languages. He explores pioneering narrative representations of pre-colonial African history and society in eight texts: Casely Hayford's Ethiopia Unbound (1911), Alhaji Sir Abubaker Tafawa Balewa's Shaihu Umar (1934), Paul Hazoumé's Doguicimi (1938), D. O. Fagunwa's Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1938), Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958). Wehrs highlights the role of pre-colonial political economies and articulations of state power on colonial-era considerations of ethical and political issues, and is attentive to the gendered implications of texts and authorial choices. By positioning Things Fall Apart as the culmination of a tradition, rather than as its inaugural work, he also reconfigures how we think of African fiction. His book supplements recent work on the importance of indigenous contexts and discourses in situating colonial-era narratives and will inspire fresh methodological strategies for studying the continent from a multiplicity of perspectives.

Author Biography

Donald R. Wehrs is Associate Professor of English at Auburn University, USA, where he teaches postcolonial studies, comparative literature, and eighteenth-century British literature.

Table of Contents

Preface

Embodied ethical life and the threat of cognitive imperialism in African contexts

Hayford, Balewa, and the representation of African culture and society

Articulations of empire and hatred of the other man in Hazoumé's Doguicimi

History, fable, and syncretism in Fagunwa's Forest of a Thousand Daemons

The ordeal of cognitive imperialism in Tutola's early fiction

Pre-colonial history and anticolonial politics in Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

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