African writers' use of symbolism, myth and allusion in presenting the ideology of leadership in post-independence Africa: a study of selected novels by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah

[摘要] This dissertation was aimed at examining African writers' use of symbolism, myth andallusion in presenting the ideology of leadership in the post-independence Africa.Specifically, it focussed on Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born,Ngugi Wa Thiongo's Petals of Blood and Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah.One of the basic problems of the African continent has been the quality of its politicalleadership. In most cases, leaders that take over power in Africa after independenceare not different from their colonial masters. Having attained power, these leadersexhibit worse oppressive tendencies than their erstwhile colonial masters. The Africanwriters of this period have responded to this harsh reality with works that are critical ofthe excesses of these leaders. Strange as it seems, although it was fashionable forblack writers to pit themselves against the system of apartheid at its peak in SouthAfrica, the same writers have in the main, not yet responded to some of the excessesof the country's leadership in the new dispensation.This research was therefore necessary because of the literary vacuum left by thedemise of apartheid in the literary output of South Africa's post-independence period.There is so much the writers have to say in this period especially when one considersthe fact that problems experienced in the post-independence Africa in general arebeginning to manifest themselves in South Africa as well. While writers in other partsof the continent have produced works that mirror the hopes and aspirations of themasses in the post-independence period, such has not been the case in South Africa.This dissertation was in a small way, intended to serve as a wake-up call to SouthAfrican writers. It was meant to signal a resuscitation of literary creative writing in thepost-apartheid South Africa; a type of literature whose concerns will resemble those ofthe general post-independence prototype in Africa. The dissertation examined criticalnovels of other African writers in the post-independence period and presented these asexamples for South African writers to follow.

[发布机构] University of the Free State