The African Novel: The Ongoing Battle against Literary and National Neo-Colonialism

Abstract

The African novel does not stand aloof from the historical and socio-political concerns of the African nation. It communicates an African reality, and it condemns the falsity of decolonization as it has turned to be a replica of colonialism. Chinua Achebe’s A Man of The People, Anthills of the Savannah and Aye Kwei Armah’s The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born are examples of African novels that play a political corrective role to denounce the double-sidedness of decolonization in Nigeria and Ghana, respectively. This article seeks to shed light on the uniqueness of the African novel as a genre that defies the simplistic imitation of the Western novel to dismantle such literary colonization. Additionally, this study focuses on the role of the African writer to make use of the novel as a carrier of social corruption and political criticism through the analysis of Achebe and Armah’s novels.