LIFT: The Journal of Literature and Performing Arts
LIFT: Journal of Literature and Performing Arts is an open access journal published in open access format under the Creative Commons License by the Department of Literature, Linguistics, Foreign Languages and Film Studies, for maximum dissemination and use. It welcomes only original research that has not been submitted to any other journal. Contributions must be in English (or translated into English by the author before submission), and articles are subjected to a review process where the author and the reviewers remain anonymous, and only in special circumstances is the doctrine of anonymity not invoked.
This paper examines the complexities of diasporic conditions in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2003), The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and Americanah (2013), with particular attention to how displacement shapes identity, memory, and lived experience. It investigates the interplay between longing for home, nostalgia, and emotional dislocation, highlighting how characters navigate the tension between past and present, and how exile functions as a paradoxical state of both survival and dispossession. Grounded in postcolonial theory, the study draws on Said’s theorization of exile and Hall’s articulation of cultural identity to interrogate the psychological, social, and political dimensions of migration. Findings reveal that domestic rituals, sensory memories, and language mediate the experience of nostalgia, producing fragmented identities shaped by historical and cultural legacies. Memory operates simultaneously as rupture and resistance, enabling characters to reconstruct selfhood through reflection, silence, and imaginative engagement with the past. Displacement is shown to generate persistent psychological exile, as exemplified by forced and voluntary migrations that result in marginalization, emotional fragmentation, and alienation. Characters confront systemic barriers, gendered oppression, and racial hierarchies, which amplify the paradoxical burdens of migration and the disjunction between homeland and hostland. Through these narratives, Adichie portrays diaspora not as linear movement but as a recursive and multifaceted condition marked by loss, longing, invisibility, and uneven belonging.
On November 10, 2024, Qatari news channel Al Jazeera released a YouTube feature called “Kenya’s Exploding ‘Manosphere’” decrying the rise of online spaces in Kenya, populated by loudmouths, shock artists, and unapologetic chauvinists.” The report drew reactions of anger, frustration, and derision from a portion of Kenyan commenters, who viewed it as an unfair attack on popular masculinity influencer Eric Amunga, also known as Amerix, and a blind imposition of Western gender realities onto Kenyan masculinity discourse. This paper situates those reactions within a broader literary and linguistic inquiry. Through a thematic analysis of the online comments, it identifies recurring articulations of masculinity in popular Kenyan discourse that Al Jazeera’s framing overlooks. It completes a qualitative reading grounded in critical discourse analysis and social constructionist theory of 20 tweets made by Amerix in 2024, 2 episodes of the Man Talk KE podcast, and 2 episodes of Iko Nini to reveal how Kenyan men use language today to perform and negotiate masculinities in digital spaces and how foreign framing obscures this. Finally, it recommends that scholars undertake a more nuanced inquiry into the languages of African masculinities.
Recent studies on ‘coming out’ stories among the queer increasingly show that the internet and new forms of online and digital media play significant roles in defining gender nonconforming sexualities and identities in modern societies. This article examines the late Binyavanga Wainaina’s online stories I Am a Homosexual, Mum and Alien Taste within the genre of ‘coming out’ narratives that are mediated, staged and performed as a ritual of ‘queer politics’ within local and global spaces. It examines the author’s use of the confessional storytelling mode to intertextually reference his earlier memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place to reenact a deliberate ‘gay visibility’ agenda while in the same instance performing new forms of queer sexuality and desires in a virtual space. The article also analyses the implications of online media participation in the process of gay self-disclosure in order to show how new media influences visibility and agency in homophobic African cultural spaces. Because of the reaction that his disclosure elicited in multiple publics, the article argues that the three texts represent a process and continuum of media formats within the milieu of storytelling, ritualized ‘coming out’ and a staging of queer identities and desires. Ultimately the article unravels how online self-disclosure narratives perform new forms of queer desires in virtual spaces.
This article examines the interconnection between apartheid, exile, and isolation as reflected in the major characters of Athol Fugard’s ‘Port Elizabeth’ plays, also known as ‘The Family Plays’, because of their special focus on the family unit. It argues that Fugard’s dramatic vision consistently prescribes solidarity between white and coloured characters as an antidote to the alienation imposed by apartheid. Building on earlier scholarship (Rayner, 1976; Gray, 1982; Walder, 1984; Vandenbroucke, 1986; Colleran, 1988, 1995), the study treats apartheid as the root cause of the psychological exile and isolation that afflict Fugard’s protagonists in Hello and Goodbye (1965), The Blood Knot (1968), People Are Living There (1969), Boesman and Lena (1970), and A Lesson from Aloes (1981). Through close textual analysis informed by Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, the article demonstrates how apartheid engenders conditions of estrangement across racial categories, producing a shared sense of the void.
Representations of African Democracy as Prescription for Africa’s Governance in David Mulwa's "Inheritance" and Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk To Freedom"
The introduction of the nation state and democratic governments in Africa were considered the most appropriate prescriptions for the economic and political malaise in African communities. The nation state supplanted traditional forms of governance, but decades after establishment of nation states in Africa, political upheavals continue to rock the continent. The advent of Western democracy has exacerbated negative ethnicity as leaders mobilize their ethnic communities to attain political mileage. This study examines the merits of African democracy in governance as represented in David Mulwa’s Inheritance and Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. In the recent past, scholars have underlined the need to establish Western democracy despite its susceptibility to binaries uncharacteristic of African culture. Using postcolonial theory, the study juxtaposes traditional and modern systems of government as represented in the two primary texts. Utilizing qualitative inquiry, the study deploys narrative research to analyze data from primary and secondary texts, anchored in the ideas of Edward Blyden and Aimé Césaire as the bases of interpretation, and concludes with attributes of a system of government believed to be best suited for contemporary Africa.
This paper offers a feminist reading of Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah. Employing a close reading and content analysis methodology, the study interrogates the novel through a feminist lens, particularly focusing on the portrayal of power dynamics, gender roles, and the silencing of dissent. The central research question guiding this analysis is: How does Achebe utilize feminist perspectives to expose the patriarchal structures that perpetuate political corruption and social injustice in post-colonial Africa? The study argues that Achebe’s narrative reveals the insidious nature of patriarchal power, which manifests in various forms, including political oppression, gender-based violence, and the suppression of women’s voices. By examining the characters of Beatrice and Chris, the novel highlights the limitations imposed on women and the dangers faced by those who challenge the status quo. Through a close reading of the text, this paper seeks to identify the specific ways in which patriarchal norms and values contribute to the downfall of the Kangan state. By analyzing the characters’ actions and motivations, the study explores the ways in which gender intersects with power and how these dynamics shape the political landscape of the novel.
Environmental Degradation as a Form of Identity Loss and (Re) Construction in Imbolo Mbue’s "How Beautiful We Were"
A people’s identity is closely related to their environment. Their sense of belonging can be strengthened or eroded based on how they relate to it. This is one of the reasons why communities make efforts in ensuring that their environment is kept clean. However, in some instances, environmental pollution may arise as a result of the decisions made by those in power which may end up having adverse effects on people’s relationships and rituals. This paper examines how the identity of a village named Kosawa in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were is eroded as a result of environmental degradation that is fueled by the greed of local leaders and international corporations. Ironically, these environmental problems provide an avenue for women to redefine their identity by challenging traditional gender norms. The paper employs the theory of postcolonial ecocriticism to demonstrate how environmental problems arise from systems of domination. Taiye Selasi’s concept of identity as relationships and rituals has also been used to demonstrate the link between identity loss and environmental degradation. Additionally, this paper uses Judith Butler’s theory of performativity to discuss identity reconstruction.
This study examines the influence of gengetone music in mainstream Kenyan media, particularly its effect on social perceptions of gender, sexuality, and cultural identity. It investigates the genre's endorsement of sexualisation, misogyny, and skewed gender representation, by employing feminist and cultural analysis frameworks to investigate how gengetone both mirrors and perpetuates gender stereotypes, frequently representing women as objects for male pleasure while depicting themes of nightlife, casual sex, and substance consumption. It focuses on understanding how gengetone sustains these stereotypes and the implications for female agency and gender dynamics in Kenya's music industry. It posits that gengetone's material, although aligned with urban youth culture, may unintentionally perpetuate detrimental gender biases. The study thus establishes its topical significance, as the swift rise of gengetone's popularity among Kenyan youth renders the analysis of its cultural meanings essential for comprehending its broader social implications. It evaluates the genre's capacity to influence the identities and viewpoints of young listeners on gender roles, investigating how exposure to these representations may affect self-esteem, body image, and societal norms. The scope encompasses an emphasis on Kenyan gengetone, particularly analysing lyrics and video content as the principal data sources. This research enhances discourse on gender representation in popular music, calling for a balanced and socially aware portrayal of women that honours diversity and empowers audiences. The research therefore deepens comprehension of gender dynamics in Kenyan popular culture, emphasizing the media's capacity to uphold or contest existing gender norms.
Tendai Huchu’s The Hairdresser of Harare is arguably a queer text. It presents the homosexual orientation of one of its male characters, Dumisani. By positioning this character in-between, the normal and abnormal spaces, this essay attends to the politics that coalesce around homosexuality and demonstrates how Huchu’s novel gestures towards queerness, but narrative techniques undermine these overtures. Adopting deconstruction as a theoretical framework, the essay gets down to the nitty-gritty of what constitutes queer sexuality and measures this with the liminal presentation of Dumi as a queer character to show how he falls short of the queerness that he is deemed to harbour. The paper challenges prevailing interpretations of queerness in the novel by examining the politics of representation through the lens of unreliability and logo-centrism. By interrogating the reliability of the narrator and the centrality of language in shaping perceptions, the essay reveals the complexities of interpreting identity and sexuality in literature.
This article examines revenge as a response to trauma in Kinyanjui Kombani’s The Last Villains of Molo (2004). It explores the motivations and the goal for revenge and the effects of this revenge on both the perpetrators and the victims of violence and trauma, and those who carry out the revenge. The trauma from violence that is deemed intentional attracts fantasies of revenge, which is aimed at not only inflicting pain on those who harm them but also taking back the power, they feel that they have been robbed from. The article, therefore, examines the use of revenge as a response to the frustration of the body’s inability to react “appropriately” at the time of the hurt and as a way of taking back power lost during traumatic situations by examining the effects of revenge on the avenger and the avenged. Using the ideas of Helsel, Etts, Horowitz, Grobbink, and Collens, among others, the article analyses revenge as a response to an injury that is deemed deliberate. Methodologically the article conducts a close textual analysis of the text to determine the trauma that the characters presented, their response to it at the time it occurred and their response later when they are considered physically and psychologically able to inflict retribution that equals their pain or one that exceeds the damage they once received, and further demonstrate the effect of revenge on those who carry out the revenge and the targets of the revenge. The findings reveal that the author presents revenge as a two-edged sword that affects both the perpetrator of this revenge and the victim.
A Psychoanalytic Examination of Visual Art as a Tool of Protesting Hegemonic Masculinities in Nurrudin Farah’s "Hiding in Plain Sight" and Yvonne Adhiambo Owour’s "Dust"
This paper examines the role of art in propagating, challenging and reversing hegemonic masculinities. Art in this context is a form of expression that encompasses music, painting, photography and sculpturing among others. Artistic expressions by women who cannot physically confront the hegemonic masculinities serve as an avenue through which the muted voices of the dominated women are voiced, while also acting as a vortex through which the hegemonic male exercises his domination over the vulnerable woman. The paper is thus an investigation of how art is used either as a platform for advancing hegemonic masculinity and/or confronting and challenging male hegemony. It focuses on the characters who express themselves through art as portrayed in Nuruddin Farah’s Hiding in Plain Sight (2014) and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust (2014). Artistic expressions in the two texts are depicted as an articulation of the characters’ imagination, some of which are meant to fill the void created through a dominated, unspoken past. The muted past constitutes the unspoken memories of the atrocities committed by hegemonic males, analyzed through the psychoanalytic theory. The paper makes the assumption that art is a representation of repressed memories or wishes stored in the artist’s unconscious self that are expressed to the conscious self through the artistic expressions where the dominated characters deliver a subtle message of defiance against the socio-culturally constructed patriarchal structures. The paper therefore concludes that in pursuit of freedom from gender binary antagonisms, art as an aspect of culture is a platform through which either domination is exercised and/or challenged by dominated characters to claim their space in society.
Strategies of Signification and Subversion in Post-Colonial Writing
This article delves into the complex criticality of signifying strategies utilized by Derek Walcott in his play Pantomime, analysing how these techniques enrich the text’s narrative and thematic resonance. Through an in-depth scrutiny of the play, the article investigates Walcott's masterful use of intertextuality and the ways it creates a multi-layered narrative that transcends the immediate context of the play and engages with larger themes of identity, colonialism, and cultural hybridity. Drawing on key concepts from postcolonial theory and Semiotics, the article explores how Walcott infuses the play with nuanced meaning that challenges traditional power structures and reflects the complexities of postcolonial identity. Central to this analysis is the titular parrot, a potent symbol of Caribbean identity and voice, which serves as a poignant reminder of the colonial legacy of cultural mimicry and erasure. Through this critical lens, the article illuminates Walcott’s strategic use of signification and challenges readers to reconsider colonial narratives that reflect on the dynamic interplay between cultural heritage and the pursuit of self-determination.
Critical Explorations of Modern African Literature in Selected Texts
The articles herein reflect not only contemporary scholars’ engagement with aspects of African literature, but also the main themes that African authors gravitate towards in their attempts to diagnose the malaise that ails Africa and attempt a lasting solution. At one point in history Chinua Achebe had laid a solid finger on the problem of leadership, and exempted everything else. Over the years, failure of leadership is still no doubt the leading problem, but others subtler and more insidious have cropped up: corruption, ethnicity, neo-colonialism, environmental degradation, social media and uneven advancements in technology, civil wars, unplanned urbanity, gender bias, mental health, consensual and forced migrations, LGBTQ+ issues and above all, the people of Africa. This last category, of course, arising from the assumption that a people get strictly the leadership they deserve, and doubles back to the first and foremost African problem – her political leadership. The articles in this issue, in essence, seem to agree that until we change the kind of political leaders we choose – we are still deeply imbedded in the long night of knives.
Orality and Informality in Video-Film Distribution in Kenya
The history of Cinema in Africa is clearly one of marginalization at all levels, including film making, distribution and access. As various film scholars have noted these processes of exclusion were closely tied to the colonial and imperialist interests of domination and exploitation and later the ideological concerns of the African postcolonial state which not only inherited colonial structures and policies but employed these instruments to privilege the political class and serve the interests of the powerful and wealthy citizenship. This paper examines the strategies employed by the traders marginalized from access to formal structures of distribution of films who have established informal modes of transaction with their equally economically disenfranchised clients in Eldoret town. We employ Erving Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical framework to analyze data obtained through ethnographic field study involving interaction with traders and their clients in the streets of the town through observation, interviews and personal testimonies. Our findings are that (i) Informal trade in video is a consequence of marginalization in access to films (ii) There is a close link between informal trade in video films and the broader Jua Kali informal systems which can be traced back to strategies of coping in urban economies established by marginalized African populations during the colonial era (iii) Despite the digital transformation in the way cinema is produced and watched, the in-formalization of film distribution continues in Kenya and traders find innovative ways of linking with their clients (iv) Orality which has been part of the African cultural heritage of communication and social interaction remains an important mode of transaction in informal video trade in Kenya.
Unsung Hero(ine)ism in the Making of a Nation
This article delves into the exploration of unsung Hero(ine)ism, with particular focus on the role of heroines, in the context of nation-building through an in-depth analysis of Muthoni Likimani's work, Fighting Without Ceasing. Likimani's self-narrative serves as a rich source for understanding the often-overlooked contributions of individuals in shaping a nation's destiny. We uncover and elucidate the unsung heroine(s) portrayed in the text, shedding light on their pivotal roles in the making of a nation. Through a close reading of Likimani's autobiography, the paper unveils the nuanced facets of Hero(ine)ism, emphasizing the multifaceted efforts that go beyond conventional narratives. It underscores the importance of recognizing and acknowledging these unsung heroines as integral contributors to the collective story of nationhood, thereby enriching our understanding of the complex dynamics involved in the formation of a nation.
Images of Women in Agikuyu 'Mwomboko' Poetry
The position of women in African societies has been contested in terms of their treatment in social and poetic discourse in contemporary society. The case of traditional and modern poetic dances is spelt out in the composing and rendition of Mwomboko poetry of the Agikuyu people of Mount Kenya Region. The objectives of this study are: (a) To assess how select compositions of Mwomboko poetry spell out treatment of women in Mount Kenya region community; (b) To analyze how figurative language is applied in select compositions of Mwomboko poetry to approximate images of women in Mount Kenya region community, and (c) To explore the innovativeness of oral poets’ poetic architecture in charting out the position of women in contemporary society. Popular artists in Africa have tended to be the mouth pieces of revealing the societal structures that spell out the relationship between men and women as shown through poetic discourse. The place of performance has emerged as a central pivot for linking up members of the community in their efforts to understand their worldview. The emergence of modern performers has created a new forum for capturing the imagination of target recipients in an open multi–ethnic audience. The audience has been mainly in hotels, motels and bars, social halls, wedding reception halls/grounds, political rally grounds, and church service halls among others. The current work hinges on the level of deconstruction theory as seen through feminist and gender lens in contemporary times. The images of women revealed in Mwomboko poetry are constructions by architects of the traditional cum modern poetic genre, and the findings reveal a move towards balanced portrayal of both genders in emergent renditions. The study uses descriptive techniques in analysis of figurative language applied by traditional and modern singers to approximate old meanings to new meanings in their performances as far as images of women are represented.
Women Navigating Minority Status in Selected Stories in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "The Thing Around Your Neck"
This paper provides an intertextual reading of three stories purposely selected from Chimamanda Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neckagainst the theoretical backdrop of her feminist treatise ‘A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions’. The ‘Manifesto’ is her theoretical attempt to condense the practical application of African feminism into the modern context within which her stories are set. In this paper, I distil the practical implications of Adichie’s postulations on a feminist manifesto through a reading of selected stories in The Thing Around Your Neck. I rely on a close reading of the text, in which key concerns and aesthetic approaches of African feminism are identified and critically assessed. Through the three short stories from the collection, namely ‘Imitation’, ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’ and ‘The Headstrong Historian’ Adichie demonstrates her feminist philosophy: In ‘Imitation’ and ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’, for example, she tells the stories of two women who are both physically and psychologically uprooted from their cultures and forced to struggle for their identities and place in society by circumventing the patriarchal order. They embrace sisterhood as one of the strategies to overcome their segregation. These women also refuse to be defined by society and instead choose to assert their identities and value. They are more than just mothers or wives of rich Nigerian men. In ‘The Headstrong Historian’, Adichie dramatizes the story of a woman who, despite living in a traditional and highly patriarchal society where women have no voice, is able to rise and confound men (both native and foreign). Therefore, the most engaging feature in Adichie’s writing is how she uses marriage as a dramatic stage to test out her theories on feminism and gender issues and to demonstrate how women navigate their minority status.
Narrating Feminine Rebellion, Dynamism and Resilience in Meja Mwangi’s "The Last Plague"
The postcolonial literature that underscores feminist realization has used varied ways to engage and interrogate the many aspects of the fight against the enduring grip of patriarchy. However, as this paper shows, to defeat the plague, believable human effort laced with such enduring virtues as dynamism and resilience should be cultivated. This paper argues that Meja Mwangi’s The Last Plagueis an inspiring metaphor that, with a slant, narrates female rebellion, dynamism and resilience in taming HIV/AIDS in the context of cultural and patriarchal resistance. What Janet and right-minded people like Frank do to have people accept the plague is real and can be deduced through acceptance and change of people’s sexual behaviour. Thus, using Psychoanalytic and Feminism theories, this paper examines the apparent resistance to combating HIV/AIDS and the reasons why Janet rebels and, with evident dynamism and resilience, at first and second, take a bold step to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Using The Last Plague as the unit of analysis, the paper utilizes a close reading textual analysis methodology for data collection, analysis, discussion and presentation. This paper argues that ‘The Last Plague’ is a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, and in Mwangi’s thinking, this disease is wiping humanity to the bubonic plague level.
Most postmodern authors narrate societal ills by conferring foregrounded traits to selected characters. Often, the traits ascribed to these individual characters reflect events that affect the bigger or larger society outside the text. Published in 2019, Yvonne A. Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea, to a great degree, encompasses this aspect of postmodern fiction. The novel revolves around the life of the Pate island-born Ayaana. From her relationship with her mother, Munira; to her obsession with Muhiddin; to her experience with rape; to her expedition at sea en route to China then to Turkey; and her eventual experiences in foreign lands and back to Pate, Ayaana’s experiences provide the image of a character whose tribulations depict the challenges faced by the poor, girls/women and black minority people in the postmodern world. This paper analyzes the extent to which the author uses Ayaana’s experiences as a microcosm of Africa as a minority in the global socio-political and economic interactions. Guided by Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak”, the paper explores incidences where this character [and others] is treated as “the other” and establish how this treatment accurately serves as a representation of the treatment of Africa as a minority in global affairs.
Dominant literary conversations like post-structuralism have crowned the literary writer as an impartial and reliable voice for the voiceless in oppressive cultural settings. Since the marginal group is weak and cannot speak for themselves, the intellectual is given express authority to articulate their issues. Emerging voices have nonetheless questioned the author’s eligibility to speak for the marginal groups. Given the diversity typical of the marginal group, these voices doubt the author’s ability to perfectly represent it. This article extends the conversation that the literary writer lacks the capacity to speak for the marginal group because of their heterogeneity. Using the postcolonial concept of representation, the article overturns the literary writer’s articulation of issues affecting marginal groups in Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Nuruddin Farah’s Close Sesame, Brian Chikwava’s Harare North and Zukiswa Wanner’s London, Cape Town, Joburg. The ideas of Gayatri Spivak will form the theoretical basis of interpretation. One major finding of the study is that the author cannot perfectly represent the marginal groups without silencing some of them.
Domestic Workers and the Politics of Space Within the Household in Ferdinand Oyono’s "Houseboy"
Domestic workers have constantly been disregarded within the domestic space. However, owing to their immense contribution to the smooth running of the household, this disregard comes at a cost. The mistreatment of the house servants inevitably results to the detriment of the home owners or the employers. The frosty relationship that frequently exists between the domestic workers has been a subject of concern for some post-colonial Africa literary writers. Literary critics have however paid minimal attention to the tense relationship that exists between house servants and their employers. Critics have chosen to concentrate on the more ‘serious issues’ of colonialism pitting the colonizer versus the colonized. This research paper epitomizes the plight of domestic servants in the course of re-reading Ferdinand Oyono’s Houseboy (1966). The tools of analysis employed are Karl Marx and Frederick Engel’s strand of Marxism.
This paper examines symbolism in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to unravel the two faces of colonisation in Africa. In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, colonisation, on the one hand, is a symbol of conquest, subjugation and marginalisation of Umuofia clan and Igbo society by West and arguably, on the other hand, a symbol of the similar process for Africa. Therefore, this paper uses Historicism as an ideological praxis to examine the Umuofia-Igbo’s colonial encounter with the West while drawing some parallelism to Africa’s colonisation by the West. Artistically, Achebe has delved into the history to present colonial encounter with Africa, especially the Umuofia-Igbo society, the latter’s reactions to this crippling process and the far-reaching consequences on its social, political and economic organisation. In Achebe’s thinking, reflections and presentation “Things Fell Apart” for Umuofia-Igbo in the aftermath of this encounter. This paper contends that Africa’s encounter with the West from the late 18th century to the early 20th century is a similar narrative. Thus, Achebe utilizes proverbs, allegorical forms and anecdotes among other stylistic devices to underline symbolism to advance the colonisation narrative in Umuofia-Igbo and Africa at large. Indeed, the focus of this paper in most part is on the allegory of colonialism: The Double Edged Symbolism of Colonisation in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Ultimately, the paper reiterates its central argument that colonisation in whatever form is racist, exploitative, impoverishing and dehumanizing to the colonized.
Informational Social Power in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s "Purple Hibiscus"
This paper establishes how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Purple Hibiscus (Fourth Estate, 2004) depicts the use of informational social power as an alternative hegemonic trope that characters rely on in the negotiation for social power. The study is justified by the fact that studies on Purple Hibiscus have tended to deal with the gender-based portrayal of patriarchal power while ignoring a sociological approach to the study of power in the text. The gap addressed by the paper is hence an elucidation of how manipulation of knowledge as provided, supported, and underscored by the discourses of one’s orientation and background, is responsible for the tragic twist of the text under study. The theoretical lens used in the paper is Michel Foucault’s idea of power and discourse. This study is ‘interpretivist’ with primary data on informational power collected through a reading of the primary text while secondary data is acquired from a reading of related print and electronic sources. The conclusion reached is that the author uses different aspects of traditions to entrench informational social power and by so doing contest influence that hinges on modernity and its attendant indifference.
Most studies done on the subject of deformity and gender always seek to investigate the extent to which society generates and sustains biasness against minorities. They highlight the conditions and factors that engender biasness and segregation plus the resultant stigma. This study however, takes the view that oral narratives do go beyond the mere exposure of cultural/social limitations; that they, in effect project more vibrant, incisive and radical alternatives to matters oppression. The essay takes cognizant of the fact that language is a formidable force in social construction that shapes identities and influences perceptions. Language is not only a purveyor of social attitudes but a crucial tool in engineering and sustaining created attitudes. In this study, I use two oral narratives, “Simbi Nyaima” recorded by Onyango-Ogutu (1974) and “Simbi” recorded by Jane Nandwa (1983), to reflect on deformity and disability as a form of marginalization. Both narratives are centered on women with some form of physical disability or limitation, which inspires socio-cultural distancing, fear or revilement. Both are doubly marginalized: as women and as deformed. They suffer open and hostile discrimination. Specifically, the essay seeks to: First, analyze the dynamics of social construction and labeling. Second, analyze the tension/ironies between the dynamics of good and evil as they are given physical identity and value. Thirdly, demonstrate how the selected oral narratives transpose the dominant/minority relations and images in society.
The Treatment of Minority Rights in African Literature in Selected Texts
The eleven articles in this volume cover a wide variety of the minority issues in African Literature. Two articles deal with materials from oral texts, namely Narratives and Songs, two others handle Ngozi Adichie’s texts – Purple Hibiscus and The Thing Around Your Neck – while Achebe comes in with Things Fall Apart, Oyono with Houseboy, as Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Farah’s Close Sesame, Chikwava’s Harare North and Wanner’s London, Cape Town, Joburg also earn a prominent place in focusing on minorities. Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea, Meja Mwangi’s The Last Plague, and Noadia Muthoni Gachanja Likimani’s autobiography Fighting Without Ceasing too receive substantial attention from researchers in this volume, while the film subsector receives its fair share of analysis from the article by Waliaula et al. From the oral to the written, from the 1960’s to our contemporary times, from West to South to East Africa, not forgetting the diaspora, this volume comprehensively tackles the thorny subject of minority issues in African literature, and opens up space for more research in this area.
“Tell Your Neighbour Life is Very Tricky”
There has been phenomenal growth in the entertainment and creative industries in Kenya, especially since the turn of this millennium. The emergence and rising popularity of comedy shows in the country attests to this trend. To illustrate this development in Kenya, this paper offers a close reading of performances by MCA Tricky, a comedian who appears on Churchill Show, which is broadcast on Nation Television (NTV) and whose recorded videos are available on the YouTube channel of the same name. Focusing on various aspects of humor and the trickster motif, the multilayered nuances and meanings of these performances are examined. Based on everyday life experiences, the Kenyan audience can easily identify with and relate to the jokes and comedy of MCA Tricky. MCA Tricky satirizes the actions and choices of various characters in the urban space of Nairobi, including the street boys, whom his persona exemplifies. Following Bakhtin’s notion of “carnivalesque,” the comic performances of MCA Tricky can be considered as subversions of dominant narratives and political power. These comedies generate humor particularly due to how Tricky fashions his persona along the lines of the trickster figure, found in many traditional African oral narratives, through the use of such techniques as parody, paronyms, puns, and ellipsis. By mocking their actions and ways of thinking, Tricky lets members of the audience laugh at their own miscalculations and bad decisions. At the same time, the audience can obtain insight into situations in their lives that are similar to the ones Tricky dramatizes. Just as his stage name suggests, the performances of MCA Tricky portray him as tricky and streetwise. Ironically, he often finds himself in tricky circumstances. For instance, in the episode where he addresses a letter to the president with the aim of applying for employment, the boundaries separating two social categories—the ordinary person and the political elite—are demolished. But this closeness to the presidency, albeit through epistolary form, does not alter his status as a street boy. All in all, most of MCA Tricky’s performances help to promote a democratic mindset among the citizenry, since the underprivileged can be seen here to subvert hegemonic discourses. To arrive at these conclusions, I outline nine steps in one of MCA Tricky’s performances, “MCA Tricky Writes A Letter to the President.” Clearly, what this episode exemplifies is that comedy serves the dual function of entertainment as well as sociopolitical critique.
Quaseilhas (“Almost Islands”), a theater play written by Afro-Brazilian author Diego Araújo, premiered at Barbalho Fort, Salvador da Bahia (Brazil), in April 2018. The set consists of a three-room wooden shed placed in the courtyard of a historic castle in Salvador da Bahia, designed to contribute to the entanglement of various memories inscribed in time and space: as the spectators can only attend the play in one room at a time, they have only limited access to the overall events of the play which moreover is transmitted in an unknown language, namely Yorúbà. The shed also refers to the stilts built close to the shore, where the majority of the population is of Afro descent. Araújo borrows features from the alárinjótheatrical form, which blends performance, song, dance, projections of clips, and music, drawing the spectators into a vortex of a polyphonous and intermedial process of remembering fragments of the Middle Passage, slavery, and the difficult living conditions of socially marginalized communities. In its aesthetic, the play also refers to Afrofuturism, highlighting how the memory of the past should be the basis for reimagining the future.
East African Indian Writing and the Worlding of Diasporas
This paper proceeds from the understanding that artworks can constitute worlds that are different from present realities. In this process of world-making, art and literature, in general, constitute fictional spaces that either contest the existing ones or are relational to them. What this means, then, is that the process of “worlding” can equally be understood as that of undoing hegemonic formations and spaces. This article explores how diasporic writings produce political and cultural realities—imagined and utopic—that contest and transform relations based on national rootedness and territorial logic. I will use the term “world-making” to mean the artworks’ ability to contest and transform existing relations of power—whether or not these relations are subsumed under such categories as gender, religion, ethnicity, nation, class, or race—to call alternative temporalities into being. In this sense, I take diaspora-making as a constitutive process that seeks to challenge certain dominant premises,including capitalist globalization, that structure being in the world or being of the world.
Dividual Processes of Worlding from Philosophical, Sociological, and Aesthetic Perspectives
This philosophical essay starts with an explanation of the concepts of “world” and “worldliness” in the philosophy of Heidegger in order to trace their transformation into processes of worlding in the philosophies of Deleuze & Guattari and Edouard Glissant. Their reinterpretations insist on the temporal, relational, and composite-cultural character of processes of worlding and on the necessity of the respective actors and agents becoming minor, other, multiple, and heterogeneous. Secondly, the essay traces the explanation of sociopolitical and digitalized processes in sociological and philosophical texts: the concept of “world society” as defined by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck, characterized as a positive form of transnational collaboration between different nongovernmental organizations. As in Deleuze’s negative assessment of digital control together with the constraint of personal flexibilization and dividuation in his final text (from the mid-1990s), the late Beck also provides rather negative descriptions of more recent processes of worlding. According to his analysis, these are provoked by global economic, technological, and political players and national interests exporting risks and catastrophes to neighboring countries, and subjecting certain people and populations to precarious dividual border existences. Finally, the text tries to uncover dividual processes as defined by Deleuze, including dividual processes in aesthetic articulations—in film, art, and exhibitions—due to their temporal, composite-cultural, and digital character and the inevitable mutual appropriations and resonances between these different aesthetic manifestations. Once again, using the concept of dividuation, this essay also diagnoses trends of aesthetic repetition and differentiation as well as of progressive homogenization due to international exchange and competition in the art sphere.
Artistic Imaginaries of War in East Africa
This article explores the idea of “worlding” as a form of agency in war-intervention imaginaries in East Africa. The article argues that these imaginaries draw their materiality from experiences of war and in return attempt to provide these “worlds” of wars with new and alternative meanings and possibilities. It is these new alternative meanings and possibilities that indeed constitute peace culture. The agency of (re)imagining a peace culture is what constitutes “worlding.” That is, the power of the imaginary to transform lived realities as found in the worlds of these artists as they know and experience them, and in return, the worlds their imaginations (en)vision. Thus, “worldings” in these war imaginaries are construed as a means of devising a world by choosing its chaotic and dysfunctional present while similarly aiming at its transformative future. “Worlding” in a work of art is the process of bringing into being or “setting up” a world or worlds; it is therefore the process of defamiliarizing the world as we know it, investing it with new meanings, and opening it to new possibilities. In demonstrating how “worlding” manifests as an agency of peace culture, the following imaginaries of war are the key subjects of analysis: Ni Sisi, a film for community development; the play Thirty Years of Bananas, by Alex Mukulu; and the novel Murambi, the Book of Bones, by Boubacar Boris Diop.