{"id":74,"date":"2019-05-13T06:22:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T06:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp06.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=74"},"modified":"2019-05-13T06:33:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T06:33:41","slug":"african-and-caribbean-prose-an-overview","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/chapter\/african-and-caribbean-prose-an-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"African and Caribbean Prose – An Overview"},"content":{"raw":"
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\r\nIntroduction to Caribbean and African Prose<\/strong><\/span>\r\n

Summary: The lesson introduces some of the key authors who have attempted to theorize literary production from Africa and Caribbean world. The aim of the lesson is providing an overarching survey of prose produced in English from Africa and Caribbean, deal in detail with the works of a few authors and discuss their chief concepts.<\/p>\r\n

Module I: Introduction to African Prose<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Africa, the world\u2019s second largest continent, enjoys diverse topography and is inhabited by thousands of tribes. Since the turn of the sixteenth century various European countries including Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and England vied with one another to colonize various parts of Africa. In nineteenth century the new imperialist powers including Prussia, Germany, Italy and United States also vied to establish colonies in Africa. Though Africa, like most parts of the third world, was a victim of colonialism; it is no exaggeration to say that the most heinous crimes of colonialism were committed in Africa. The colonial powers subjected the local population to violent subjugation, used coercive modes to traffic millions of humans as slaves, completely ravaged the human and natural resources on the continent and systematically tried to eliminate the cultural diversity of the continent.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

As the new imperialist powers sought more territory in Africa, the continent witnessed several bloody battles. To avert wars among themselves, the European powers under the chairpersonship of the German Otto Van Bismarck met in Berlin in 1884-85. The fallout of the conference was that the European powers, seeking to end the territorial wars in Africa, agreed to divide the continent among themselves. In their efforts to reach a consensus, Europeans disregarded the fact that Africa was a land of immense cultural diversity where several tribes existed either as independent or autonomous political entities.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Such a political arrangement between the European nations, besides aiding the rampant exploitation of natural resources in Africa, also disallowed the growth of nationalism in the colonies. Unlike in other parts of the world, the anti-colonial struggles that were waged in Africa did not create strong waves of nationalism. This was due to the fact that Africa countries were inhabited by diverse tribes which often fought with each other. In many cases, a tribe was divided among different countries. Among Africans the affiliation to the tribe was always stronger than the association with nation. A tribe which is divided across several countries often fought for its unification and demanded an exclusive territory for itself. This tendency among the African tribes led to severe civil wars in several countries.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Africa has been fraught with the issues of race, tribe and religion. Africa witnessed massive relocation of human beings even in the twentieth century. East coast of Africa housed several communities that relocated from South Asia and West Asia. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, Europeans established several settlements and within a span of two centuries spawned a\u00a0significant white population in these countries. The white population which was in minority continued to govern the native population even after these countries assumed their independence. The introduction of Christianity into Africa also caused severe political strife. Though the European powers introduced several modern institutions in Africa including health clinics, systems of judiciary, governance and education system, and mechanized road transport system (each of which without doubt aided the imperial mission); these modern institutions in every nation-state of postcolonial Africa were hijacked by the elite and were used to subjugate the rest. Often these institutions conflicted with the existing modes of life. Western institutions like schools, courts, and government were often viewed as intrusive instruments even as both the colonial and postcolonial administrations privileged them over conventional forms of tribal life. The western epistemologies subdued the oral, memory based knowledge systems in Africa. The colonial rulers and the elites among the natives, very frequently, assumed that the majority of the population is intellectually incapable of comprehending modernity and utilizing these institutions.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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English literature produced in Africa discusses the themes listed above. Several African writers attempted writing novels in English in twentieth century. These include Alan Paton, Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, Nadime Gordimer, M.G. Vassanji, Nuruddin Farah, J.M. Coetzee and Wole Soyinka.\u00a0 These writers used their novels, short stories and poems began\u00a0 to explore the question of Africa. Chinua Achebe\u2019s Things Fall Apart <\/em>was the first novel written by a native African author to win international acclaim. Soon several writers from Africa including Essays contextualising the literary production in Africa soon followed. Most of the prominent critics from Africa, inspired by the theories of Marxism and Postcolonialism, began to offer an alternate critique on the African condition, its history and its future. The prominent among these critics include Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Simon Gikandi, Neil Lazarus and Achille Mbembe. All of these writers advocate for and celebrate the decolonization of African public sphere, and contextualize the literary and cultural production which is emerging out of the continent amidst constant political changes. While Chinua Achebe offered an impressive critique of Josef Conrad; Ngugi through his works such as Decolonizing the Mind, The Language of African Literature <\/em>brought the relationship between language and the politics of epistemology into spotlight. We will\u00a0 discuss the works of Achebe and Ngugi in detail in the subsequent modules.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Neil Lazarus explores postcolonial literatures and cultures. Using postcolonial theory, Lazarus examines the dynamics of imperialism, nationalism and anti-colonial resistance. His work questions issues of capitalist modernity and the effects that globalisation has had on the literary and cultural production in Africa. Lazarus has explored these topics and issues in Resistance in Postcolonial African Fiction <\/em>(1990), Nationalism and Cultural Practice in the Postcolonial World <\/em>(1999), Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial Studies <\/em>(CUP, 2002);The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies <\/em>(CUP, 2004); and The Postcolonial Unconscious <\/em>(CUP, 2011).<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Achille Mbembe, born in Cameroon, writes primarily in French. He is an extremely influential postcolonial critic whose only work in English is the acclaimed On the Postcolony <\/em>(2001). Mbembe rejects the idea of \u2018postcolonial\u2019 and instead argues that every ex-colony is\u00a0now a \u2018postcolony\u2019. Mbembe views the contemporary state in Africa as a \u2018necro-politan\u2019 system which uses the administration and governance structures inherited from the colonialists to advance its violent causes. Mbembe argues that the modern state in Africa has gone back on the promises made by the founding fathers. The state is no longer postcolonial in its outlook and functioning, but exists as a \u2018postcolony\u2019 which has inherited the institutions of violence from its previous colony self. It uses war machinery, military establishments, and weapons to exploit and destroy its own population. Such a rule of terror, Mbembe argues is used by the nation-states in contemporary Africa to subjugate the already emaciated subject.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\nModule II: Introduction to Caribbean Prose<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

The Caribbean world consists of over 700 islands, islets and reefs which are situated in the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding coasts. The region is situated southeast of North American mainland and north of South Africa. There are 13 countries and 17 dependent territories in the Caribbean world. Since Christopher Columbus discovered the islands in 1492, various European powers including the England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, and Denmark ruled over several of these islands. The English speaking nations of the Caribbean islands are collectively called the West Indies.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The Caribbean islands are a part of the new world. Since their discovery, these islands bore the brunt of European imperialism. Given that most of these islands are congenial to agriculture and are blessed with sunny weather and abundant rainfall, plantations emerged as the most important source of local economy. Since the climate did not suit the Europeans, the colonial powers began to engage the local population and slaves brought from Africa to work on the plantations. Hence, millions of slaves were transported from Africa to these islands. By the turn of the eighteenth century Spain, France and England were the dominant powers in the region. Spain, gradually, lost its influence and by the nineteenth century England and France were the major European players in the Caribbean Sea. In nineteenth century as England and France declared slavery illegal, to sustain the plantation economy \u2018indentured\u2019 labourers were imported from Asia. However, by then a huge population of African blacks began to see themselves as the residents of the islands. By the turn of the twentieth century several populations of Africa, South Asian, Chinese and native tribes inhabited the region. Due to colonialism, European mode of education, transport, economy, administration and healthcare were introduced into these islands. English, Spanish and French were used as the official languages on the islands.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Since the dawn of the twentieth century several authors, essayists and poets have emerged from the Caribbean region. They include CLR James, Errol John, V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, George Lamming, Jean Rhys, Edward Brathwaite and Jamaica Kincaid. From the Francophone (French speaking) Caribbean Aim\u00e9 C\u00e9saire, \u00c9douard Glissant and Frantz Fanon emerged as formidable intellectuals. Most of the novelists and poets from the Caribbean region also doubled up as theorists who evaluated and contextualized the work of their peers. Their works offer critiques of political economy, histories and the decolonization of the islands. Some of the popular theorists from the Caribbean islands that I suggest you look up from Anglophone Caribbean include CLR. James, Gordon Rohlehr, Edward Brathwaite, V.S.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Naipaul, Derek Walcott, George Laming, Kenneth Ramchand and Paul Gilroy. Likewise from the Francophone nations please look up the works of Aim\u00e9 C\u00e9saire, \u00c9douard Glissant and Frantz Fanon.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In the subsequent modules we will look up the works of CLR. James and Kenneth Ramchand, and Gordon Rohlehr and Paul Gilroy in some detail.<\/p>\r\n

Module III: Introduction to Chinua Achebe\u2019s essay<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Chinua Achebe, besides being rated the best African novelist, is also one of the most highly regarded literary critics of the twentieth century. In a career spanning over five decades, Achebe authored several essays which touched upon various pertinent issues. These essays, besides throwing light on the chequered history of Africa, explain the effects that dynamics\u00a0 of race, class and religion have had within several nations of Africa. As we have read earlier, Achebe is a prolific writer and has written extensively on diverse issues. However, for the sake of representation we have chosen the anthology Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987 <\/em>published in 1988, is one of the best works to have come out of Africa.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Through these essays, Achebe argues against generalizing Africans into a monolithic culture. For Achebe, Africa is not to be used as a simple metaphor. In the opening essay of the anthology which is the widely acclaimed \u201cAn Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness\u2019, <\/em>Achebe critiques both Josef Conrad and his western reader. Till the middle of the twentieth century Josef Conrad\u2019s novel Heart of Darkness <\/em>was regarded as a masterpiece and Conrad was considered to have been sympathetic to the African cause. Achebe demonstrates Conrad\u2019s builds on the imperialists\u2019 vision of Africa and creates a \u2018xenophobic\u2019 image of Africa. Achebe also discusses several notable authors and shares his opinion on the role of writers and writing in cultures. In a contemporary review, Chris Dunton argued: \"The essays in ... [this] book remind us ... how tough-minded, how properly insistent, [Achebe] can be in exposing false and demeaning ideas about Africa and its culture.\" Through the fifteen essays included in the anthology, Achebe discusses several causes including the problems that come up as the North and South engage (\"Impediments to Dialogue Between North and South\") and the role of novelists in the third world in the essays such as \u201c\"The Novelist as Teacher\" and \"The Writer and His Community\".<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The essay \u201cThe Novelist as Teacher\u201d consists of two parts. In the first part, Achebe argues that the work of art exists in relation to its readers. Drawing on his personal experience, Achebe lists out the functions of author in society. Achebe states that unlike the European authors African writers need to write for African readership and argue that they need to be organic and also function as a guide and teacher to their readers.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Achebe also throws light on the culture of Africa and contextualized contemporary writing emerging from the continent. Through articles such as the \u201cThe Igbo World and its Art\u201d, \u201cThoughts on the African Novel\u201d Achebe brings to foregrounds the fact that art of Igbo\u00a0population closely reflects the lives and beliefs of the people. Since the Igbo population and its culture are \u2018non-permanent\u2019 and are always in motion, the art reflects the same. He transcribes Igbo words.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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In \u201cColonialist Criticism\u201d, Achebe argues that African authors write the novels which are published and analysed by Europeans. He states that these novels are \u201cjudged from European perspective\u201d and hence is evaluated outside its context. Thus African tests never get the correct evaluation and \u201cthe essence of the text is killed\u201d. He successfully demonstrates that what appears to be \u2018Universalism\u2019 is in its essence \u2018parochialism\u2019 of Europe. Hence, Achebe explains that European analysts deem that African novels are not universal.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The theme of \u2018universalism versus parochialism\u2019 is a recurrent theme in most of Achebe\u2019s writing. For instance in the essay \u201cThoughts on the African Novel\u201d Achebe argues against the idea that that the \u201cAfrican novel has to be about Africa\u201d. He says that such an assumption imposes a \u201cpretty severe restriction\u201d on the author and the reader. For Achebe Africa does not exist as never a \u2018geographical expression\u2019 alone, but also a \u2018metaphysical landscape\u2019. Based on its complex history, Achebe argues that that African literature can represent the \u201cview of the world\u201d and perceives the whole world from its particular perspective.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Through other essays such as \"Work and Play in Tutuola\u2019s The Palm-Wine Drinkard<\/em>\", \"Kofi Awoonor as Novelist\" and \"Don\u2019t Let Him Die: A Tribute to Christopher Okigbo\" Achebe contextualizes the works of contemporary African writers. Achebe\u2019s writings profoundly impacted the lives and works of several contemporary writers, activists, authors, and theoreticians. Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o whose work we are going to discuss in the next module was largely influenced by the ideas of Achebe.<\/p>\r\n

Module IV: Introduction to Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o emerged as one of the most influential postcolonial voices from Africa. Like Achebe, Wa Thiong\u2019o is a public intellectual and his works dealt with diverse issues. We will discuss Wa Thiong\u2019o\u2019s Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature <\/em>in this lesson. Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature <\/em>is a collection of non-fiction essays which discuss issues such as language, ideology, national culture, history and identity and its publication established Wa Thiong\u2019o as one of the most prominent theorist on issues such as language debates. The book is a collection of four essays, each of which was inspired by his lectures. The four essays are \"The Language of African Literature,\" \"The Language of African Theatre,\" \"The Language of African Fiction,\" and \"The Quest for Relevance.\" Ngugi describes his personal engagement with the politics of language. Ngugi begins his essay by informing the reader about his life growing up in Kenya.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Ngugi melds autobiography, post-colonial theory, pedagogy, African history, and literary criticism to effectively articulate his ideas on language, culture, memory and politics. Ng\u0169g\u0129 dedicates \u201cDecolonising the Mind\u201d to those who write in the African languages (and vernacular languages across) and to those who over the years have maintained the dignity of the literature, culture, philosophy, and other treasures carried by African languages.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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For Ngugi, the role of language goes beyond communicating thought. It is the essence of human being and acts as the repository of thought and history. It is the \u201cthe medium of [African] memories\u201d and provides the \u201clink between space and time\u201d and is the \u201cbasis of [African] dreams\u201d. Ngugi was vocal against the imposition of European languages and as a protest began writing in the vernacular. His mode was not a reaction against Anglicisation; but was aimed at resurrecting the African soul from centuries of slavery and colonialism. He believed that Africa\u2019s encounter with the west left it spiritually and economically exploited.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Ngugi believes that erasing people\u2019s language means deleting their memory. People without memories are rudderless and lack of language ensures that they mimic the colonizer and unsuccessfully appropriate their culture. Since he began writing in the 1960s, Ngugi has resisted colonial labels. He disowned his Christian past and changed his name from James Ngugi to Ngugi wa Thiong\u2019o in 1976. Incidentally Decolonising the Mind<\/em>, published in 1981 was his last work in English.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

For Ngugi colonialism resulted in the linguicide of Africa. This killing of the language resulted in Africans attempting to adopt foreign languages and this resulted in its population incapable of accessing their cultures and memories. Ngugi calls this phenomenon a \u201cdeath wish\u201d that occurs in societies which have never fully acknowledged their loss\u2014like a trauma victim who resorts to drugs to kill the pain.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Besides due to the linguicide, post-colonial Africa is incapable of decolonizing itself. This has resulted in African population incapable of shaking away the effects of slavery and colonialism. This has resulted in the alienation of African bourgeois and elite from the local population. They end up writing their stories in foreign languages, adding to the vast pool of literature written in English and French, rather than contributing to the growth of literature in African languages.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

It should not be thought that Ngugi is for the exclusive promotion of the vernacular languages. He is a votary of multilingual societies and believes that they are better placed to deal with the complexities of this world. He urges that parents, schools and societies need to encourage the use of vernacular languages among the younger generation, even as they are exposed to the foreign languages.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Ngugi\u2019s work is very relevant today and he has influenced a generation of postcolonial thinkers. His work has ramifications across several spheres besides literature and theory. His work is extensively used by political activists and artists to create inclusive, pluralistic and tolerant cultures.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

I would suggest that you look up the works of Kenya born writer Simon Gikandi too. Gikandi worked on the literary production in Africa (Reading the African Novel, <\/em>1987) lives and works of Chinua Achebe (Reading Chinua Achebe, <\/em>1991) and Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o (Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o<\/em>, 2000). A colleague and a co-worker of Achebe and Thiong\u2019o, Gikandi was one of the first African scholars to engage with Caribbean literature (Writing in Limbo: Modernism and Caribbean Literature<\/em>, 1992). In this seminal piece Gikandi engaged with the works of several Caribbean writers including CLR James, Samuel Selvon and Kamau Brathwaite amongst others. He highlights the historical anxiety and ambivalence that several of Caribbean authors and poets grapple with as they express themselves. In the next two\u00a0modules let us examine how the Caribbean writers engaged with these issues of anxiety and ambivalence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\nModule V: Introduction to the ideas of CLR James and Kenneth Ramchand<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

In this module we examine the writing of CLR. James and Kenneth Ramchand. Cyril Lionel Robert James (1901-1989), popularly called CLR James, was the first noted essayist in English to have emerged from the Caribbean region. CLR. James, a leading theorist of decolonization in the twentieth century, in many ways is the precursor of some of Caribbean\u2019s best known litterateurs including Aim\u00e9 Fernand David C\u00e9saire, Frantz Fanon and \u00c9douard Glissant. However, C\u00e9saire, Glissant and Fanon (all of them were born in Martinique a French speaking colony), wrote in French. Though James, a first rate writer, has authored texts on diverse issues ranging from history of islands (Black Jacobins), <\/em>cricket (the acclaimed Beyond a Boundary), <\/em>governance (Every Cook Can Govern) <\/em>and several treatises on Marxism and decolonization. I suggest that you read Fanon\u2019s influential works such as Black Skins and White Masks, A Dying Colonialism <\/em>and The Wretched of the Earth. <\/em>The ideas that Fanon propounded in these works resonate across the world.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

In this module we briefly discuss James\u2019 essay \u201cDiscovering Literature in Trinidad: Two Experiences\u201d. The essay, often anthologised, is very succinct, provocative and provides us an idea of the tradition of literature in the Caribbean world. James states that writers of his generation including George Padmore and Aime C\u00e9saire\u2019 and himself were all schooled in and were influenced by western European philosophy, history and idea of literature. He says \u201call of us had this literary tradition; all of us had the European training; all of us wrote in the definite tradition of English literature. For us in the thirties there was no literature otherwise\u201d.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

James states that till the 1930s the literature produced in the West Indies mirrored that which was produced elsewhere. He also states that the careers of the writers were largely affected by the dynamics of race and class. James wrote this essay in 1969 and very briefly comments on the works of Earl Lovelace and Michael Anthony who he deems are a \u2018new type of West Indian writer\u2019. Lovelace and Anthony, James states are \u201cnot writing with all the echoes and traditions of English literature in their minds. As I see them\u2026 they are mature writers in the sense that their prose and the things that they are dealing with spring from below\u201d. These writers, James argues do not see life through a \u2018European-educated literary sieve\u2019.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Trinidad born novelist Kenneth Ramchand, who came a generation later than James, is perhaps the first celebrated literary chronicler to have emerged out of the postcolonial Caribbean islands. He is the author of the widely read The West Indian Novel and Its Background <\/em>(1972). Juxtaposing the writings of the second generation West Indian writers including John Hearne and Roger Mais with their predecessors, Kenneth Ramchand makes the following points. He argues that the earliest of West Indian writers sought European precedents which were not always appropriate to the Caribbean context. Hence the West Indian intellectual, artist or academic, is so unsure of relevant values.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Kenneth Ramchand argued that the second generation Caribbean novelists deliberately experiment with the form (including the plot and characters) of the novel. This\u00a0experimentation makes most of the Caribbean writers adopt modernist outlook. However, these authors do not experiment for the sake of experimentation but to reflect the Caribbean reality including its ambivalent relationship with the metropolis and the historical anxiety. Ramchand analysis of the characters in the West Indian novel buttresses this claim. Most of the characters in a West Indian novel are largely formless. The authors make their characters deliberately formless, not because they are incapable of fleshing out well rounded or developed characters, as they want these characters to reflect the formlessness of the West Indian society. He argues that \u201cthe existential position of the individual\u201d in the society is such that a pattern does not seem relevant or comes \u2018spontaneously to the writer from the West Indies\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Ramchand also goes on to argue that it is not productive to compare Caribbean writers with European (English) authors. He points out that \u201cthe similarity between the intellectual and cultural states of the labouring classes in nineteenth century England, and the liberated slaves in the West Indies is misleading\u201d. He successfully argues that the a cultured, reading class existed in England from the fourteenth century onwards which helped the English novel gradually find its form. He reminds us that the novel became an accessible text for the working class only towards the nineteenth century. The \u2018liberated slave\u2019 in the Caribbean, Ramachand points out, is a \u2018cultural void\u2019 and he does not have a precursor in the history.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Most West Indian writers (of the nineteenth and twentieth century) sought to address this cultural void by deeming Europe their home. Ramchand also points out that for second generation Caribbean writers, unlike their European counterparts; social consciousness is not class consciousness. Instead the West Indian writers produce literature based on the larger Caribbean society.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Ramchand\u2019s work inspired several of his contemporaries examine the literary production in the Caribbean region. Gordon Rohlehr, a colleague of Ramchand, analysed the oral culture in the Caribbean (Calypsos) and argued that they should be placed alongside novels and poems coming out of the Caribbean. In the next module we will briefly deal with the works of Paul Gilroy and Gordon Rohlehr.<\/p>\r\n

Module VI: Introduction to Paul Gilroy, Gordon Rohlehr<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Gordon Rohlehr, Guyanese born writer, is one of the first Caribbean academics to have theorised oral literature from the West Indies. Abandoning the apologist stance that first generation Caribbean writers exhibited vis-\u00e0-vis popular culture, Rohlehr dedicated most of his career in theorizing the popular texts including the calypso music (including individual calypsos), cricket literature, short stories and oral stories.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Some of his best known essays are written around the calypso\u2014an art form which originated in Trinidad and Tobago and soon became an integral component of pan-Caribbean culture. The Calypso can be traced to Western Africa music traditions and over the centuries was influenced by French beats and Caribbean creole. A typical calypso is a beat poem which is sung to a tune. As Rohlehr demonstrates, Calypsos were useful as a tool for political mobilization during the anticolonial struggles, acted as carriers of nationalism and functioned\u00a0as sources of collective memory in the islands. Calypsos were used by the West Indians to valorise their fellowmen, document everyday life and commemorate special occasions. I suggest you checkout the essays \u201cCarnival Cannibalised or Cannibal Carnivalised: Contextualising the \u2018Cannibal Joke\u2019 in Calypso and Literature\u2019 and \u2018Calypso, Literature and West Indies Cricket\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Rohlehr contextualises the Caribbean cultural production with the political transformations as the backdrop. Rohlehr also theorised the lives and works of his worthy predecessors and luminous contemporaries including CLR. James, Wilson Harris, V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming and Kamau Brathwaite. His criticism of James and Naipaul in the essay \u2018Intersecting Q.R.C. Lives: James, Williams and Naipaul\u2019 is very original. Reading the works of Naipaul and CLR. James, both of whom were graduates of the imperial Queen\u2019s Royal College (QRC); Rohlehr demonstrates that James, who was educated during the high-noon of British imperialism, was burdened by his duty to function as the Ariel [whose job is to make sense of the Calibans (his fellowmen) and educate them]. However, the subsequent Caribbean writers, such as Naipaul, who wrote in a postcolonial milieu were relieved of adhering to the European aesthetic and could express themselves easily.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Paul Gilroy (born in London to Guyanese parents) in his works introduced the theme of \u2018Afro-centricism\u2019. Through his works There Ain't no Black in the Union Jack <\/em>(1987), Small Acts <\/em>(1993), The Black Atlantic <\/em>(1993), Between Camps <\/em>(2000; Gilroy has demonstrated that Caribbean intellectuals need to re-examine the new world\u2019s relationship with Africa. We will be discussing Gilroy\u2019s idea of the \u2018double consciousnesses as demonstrated in The Black Atlantic <\/em>in the subsequent module. Double Consciousness was first proposed by W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk. <\/em>Du Bois used the term to describe the Afro-American\u2019s experience of \"always looking at one's self through the eyes\" of a racist white society. The black community which is disadvantaged, strives to \"measure\u201d itself through by the measures of \u201cnation that looked back in contempt\" at it. Gilroy's work The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness <\/em>(1993) is an important contribution to the study of African diaspora. Gilroy deems the Black Atlantic as a \u2018transnational cultural construction\u2019 which is an inclusive space and argues that populations that suffered from the slave trade across the Atlantic constitute a diaspora. His efforts have resulted in widening the idea of diaspora which until 2000 was comprehended as people who are separated by a communal source or origin. Drawing on Du Bois\u2019 work Gilroy's theme of \u2018Double Consciousness\u2019 demonstrates how the constituents of the Black Atlantic are coerced to be both European and Black simultaneously.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Gilroy does not read black writers (including African, Caribbean and Afro-American writers) within national or provincial contexts. He reads them with the trans-Atlantic context as the backdrop. It would be very productive to read the Black Atlantic <\/em>to comprehend the role that trans-Atlantic movement of bodies shaped the literary production not just in Africa and the Caribbean region but also in the Metropolitan centres.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
you can view video on African and Caribbean Prose - An Overview<\/strong><\/td>\r\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

References<\/strong>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. Brathwaite, Edward. \u201cGordon Rohlehr's 'Sparrow and the Language of the Calypso' \u2013 CAM Comment\u2013.\u201d Caribbean Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 14, no. 1\/2, 1968, pp. 91\u201396. JSTOR<\/em>, www.jstor.org\/stable\/40653060.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. WILLIAMS, PATRICIA. \u201cCaribbean Quarterly.\u201d Caribbean Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 16, no. 4, 1970, pp. 80\u201382. JSTOR<\/em>, www.jstor.org\/stable\/40653186.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Kenneth Ramchand (1939-). The West Indian Novel and its background<\/em>. Faber 1970; Heinemann, 1993. Revised edition published by Ian Randle Publishers, 2004.<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. James, C. L. R. Michael Anthony.\u201d Discovering Literature in Trinidad: Two Experiences \u201cThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature <\/em>Vol 4, Issue 1, pp. 73 - 87<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Ng\u0169g\u0129, wa T. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature<\/em>. London: J. Currey, 1986. Print.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","rendered":"
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    \nIntroduction to Caribbean and African Prose<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    Summary: The lesson introduces some of the key authors who have attempted to theorize literary production from Africa and Caribbean world. The aim of the lesson is providing an overarching survey of prose produced in English from Africa and Caribbean, deal in detail with the works of a few authors and discuss their chief concepts.<\/p>\n

    Module I: Introduction to African Prose<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Africa, the world\u2019s second largest continent, enjoys diverse topography and is inhabited by thousands of tribes. Since the turn of the sixteenth century various European countries including Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and England vied with one another to colonize various parts of Africa. In nineteenth century the new imperialist powers including Prussia, Germany, Italy and United States also vied to establish colonies in Africa. Though Africa, like most parts of the third world, was a victim of colonialism; it is no exaggeration to say that the most heinous crimes of colonialism were committed in Africa. The colonial powers subjected the local population to violent subjugation, used coercive modes to traffic millions of humans as slaves, completely ravaged the human and natural resources on the continent and systematically tried to eliminate the cultural diversity of the continent.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    As the new imperialist powers sought more territory in Africa, the continent witnessed several bloody battles. To avert wars among themselves, the European powers under the chairpersonship of the German Otto Van Bismarck met in Berlin in 1884-85. The fallout of the conference was that the European powers, seeking to end the territorial wars in Africa, agreed to divide the continent among themselves. In their efforts to reach a consensus, Europeans disregarded the fact that Africa was a land of immense cultural diversity where several tribes existed either as independent or autonomous political entities.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Such a political arrangement between the European nations, besides aiding the rampant exploitation of natural resources in Africa, also disallowed the growth of nationalism in the colonies. Unlike in other parts of the world, the anti-colonial struggles that were waged in Africa did not create strong waves of nationalism. This was due to the fact that Africa countries were inhabited by diverse tribes which often fought with each other. In many cases, a tribe was divided among different countries. Among Africans the affiliation to the tribe was always stronger than the association with nation. A tribe which is divided across several countries often fought for its unification and demanded an exclusive territory for itself. This tendency among the African tribes led to severe civil wars in several countries.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Africa has been fraught with the issues of race, tribe and religion. Africa witnessed massive relocation of human beings even in the twentieth century. East coast of Africa housed several communities that relocated from South Asia and West Asia. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, Europeans established several settlements and within a span of two centuries spawned a\u00a0significant white population in these countries. The white population which was in minority continued to govern the native population even after these countries assumed their independence. The introduction of Christianity into Africa also caused severe political strife. Though the European powers introduced several modern institutions in Africa including health clinics, systems of judiciary, governance and education system, and mechanized road transport system (each of which without doubt aided the imperial mission); these modern institutions in every nation-state of postcolonial Africa were hijacked by the elite and were used to subjugate the rest. Often these institutions conflicted with the existing modes of life. Western institutions like schools, courts, and government were often viewed as intrusive instruments even as both the colonial and postcolonial administrations privileged them over conventional forms of tribal life. The western epistemologies subdued the oral, memory based knowledge systems in Africa. The colonial rulers and the elites among the natives, very frequently, assumed that the majority of the population is intellectually incapable of comprehending modernity and utilizing these institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    English literature produced in Africa discusses the themes listed above. Several African writers attempted writing novels in English in twentieth century. These include Alan Paton, Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head, Nadime Gordimer, M.G. Vassanji, Nuruddin Farah, J.M. Coetzee and Wole Soyinka.\u00a0 These writers used their novels, short stories and poems began\u00a0 to explore the question of Africa. Chinua Achebe\u2019s Things Fall Apart <\/em>was the first novel written by a native African author to win international acclaim. Soon several writers from Africa including Essays contextualising the literary production in Africa soon followed. Most of the prominent critics from Africa, inspired by the theories of Marxism and Postcolonialism, began to offer an alternate critique on the African condition, its history and its future. The prominent among these critics include Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Simon Gikandi, Neil Lazarus and Achille Mbembe. All of these writers advocate for and celebrate the decolonization of African public sphere, and contextualize the literary and cultural production which is emerging out of the continent amidst constant political changes. While Chinua Achebe offered an impressive critique of Josef Conrad; Ngugi through his works such as Decolonizing the Mind, The Language of African Literature <\/em>brought the relationship between language and the politics of epistemology into spotlight. We will\u00a0 discuss the works of Achebe and Ngugi in detail in the subsequent modules.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Neil Lazarus explores postcolonial literatures and cultures. Using postcolonial theory, Lazarus examines the dynamics of imperialism, nationalism and anti-colonial resistance. His work questions issues of capitalist modernity and the effects that globalisation has had on the literary and cultural production in Africa. Lazarus has explored these topics and issues in Resistance in Postcolonial African Fiction <\/em>(1990), Nationalism and Cultural Practice in the Postcolonial World <\/em>(1999), Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial Studies <\/em>(CUP, 2002);The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies <\/em>(CUP, 2004); and The Postcolonial Unconscious <\/em>(CUP, 2011).<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Achille Mbembe, born in Cameroon, writes primarily in French. He is an extremely influential postcolonial critic whose only work in English is the acclaimed On the Postcolony <\/em>(2001). Mbembe rejects the idea of \u2018postcolonial\u2019 and instead argues that every ex-colony is\u00a0now a \u2018postcolony\u2019. Mbembe views the contemporary state in Africa as a \u2018necro-politan\u2019 system which uses the administration and governance structures inherited from the colonialists to advance its violent causes. Mbembe argues that the modern state in Africa has gone back on the promises made by the founding fathers. The state is no longer postcolonial in its outlook and functioning, but exists as a \u2018postcolony\u2019 which has inherited the institutions of violence from its previous colony self. It uses war machinery, military establishments, and weapons to exploit and destroy its own population. Such a rule of terror, Mbembe argues is used by the nation-states in contemporary Africa to subjugate the already emaciated subject.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Module II: Introduction to Caribbean Prose<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Caribbean world consists of over 700 islands, islets and reefs which are situated in the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding coasts. The region is situated southeast of North American mainland and north of South Africa. There are 13 countries and 17 dependent territories in the Caribbean world. Since Christopher Columbus discovered the islands in 1492, various European powers including the England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, and Denmark ruled over several of these islands. The English speaking nations of the Caribbean islands are collectively called the West Indies.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Caribbean islands are a part of the new world. Since their discovery, these islands bore the brunt of European imperialism. Given that most of these islands are congenial to agriculture and are blessed with sunny weather and abundant rainfall, plantations emerged as the most important source of local economy. Since the climate did not suit the Europeans, the colonial powers began to engage the local population and slaves brought from Africa to work on the plantations. Hence, millions of slaves were transported from Africa to these islands. By the turn of the eighteenth century Spain, France and England were the dominant powers in the region. Spain, gradually, lost its influence and by the nineteenth century England and France were the major European players in the Caribbean Sea. In nineteenth century as England and France declared slavery illegal, to sustain the plantation economy \u2018indentured\u2019 labourers were imported from Asia. However, by then a huge population of African blacks began to see themselves as the residents of the islands. By the turn of the twentieth century several populations of Africa, South Asian, Chinese and native tribes inhabited the region. Due to colonialism, European mode of education, transport, economy, administration and healthcare were introduced into these islands. English, Spanish and French were used as the official languages on the islands.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Since the dawn of the twentieth century several authors, essayists and poets have emerged from the Caribbean region. They include CLR James, Errol John, V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott, George Lamming, Jean Rhys, Edward Brathwaite and Jamaica Kincaid. From the Francophone (French speaking) Caribbean Aim\u00e9 C\u00e9saire, \u00c9douard Glissant and Frantz Fanon emerged as formidable intellectuals. Most of the novelists and poets from the Caribbean region also doubled up as theorists who evaluated and contextualized the work of their peers. Their works offer critiques of political economy, histories and the decolonization of the islands. Some of the popular theorists from the Caribbean islands that I suggest you look up from Anglophone Caribbean include CLR. James, Gordon Rohlehr, Edward Brathwaite, V.S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Naipaul, Derek Walcott, George Laming, Kenneth Ramchand and Paul Gilroy. Likewise from the Francophone nations please look up the works of Aim\u00e9 C\u00e9saire, \u00c9douard Glissant and Frantz Fanon.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    In the subsequent modules we will look up the works of CLR. James and Kenneth Ramchand, and Gordon Rohlehr and Paul Gilroy in some detail.<\/p>\n

    Module III: Introduction to Chinua Achebe\u2019s essay<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Chinua Achebe, besides being rated the best African novelist, is also one of the most highly regarded literary critics of the twentieth century. In a career spanning over five decades, Achebe authored several essays which touched upon various pertinent issues. These essays, besides throwing light on the chequered history of Africa, explain the effects that dynamics\u00a0 of race, class and religion have had within several nations of Africa. As we have read earlier, Achebe is a prolific writer and has written extensively on diverse issues. However, for the sake of representation we have chosen the anthology Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987. Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965-1987 <\/em>published in 1988, is one of the best works to have come out of Africa.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Through these essays, Achebe argues against generalizing Africans into a monolithic culture. For Achebe, Africa is not to be used as a simple metaphor. In the opening essay of the anthology which is the widely acclaimed \u201cAn Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness\u2019, <\/em>Achebe critiques both Josef Conrad and his western reader. Till the middle of the twentieth century Josef Conrad\u2019s novel Heart of Darkness <\/em>was regarded as a masterpiece and Conrad was considered to have been sympathetic to the African cause. Achebe demonstrates Conrad\u2019s builds on the imperialists\u2019 vision of Africa and creates a \u2018xenophobic\u2019 image of Africa. Achebe also discusses several notable authors and shares his opinion on the role of writers and writing in cultures. In a contemporary review, Chris Dunton argued: “The essays in … [this] book remind us … how tough-minded, how properly insistent, [Achebe] can be in exposing false and demeaning ideas about Africa and its culture.” Through the fifteen essays included in the anthology, Achebe discusses several causes including the problems that come up as the North and South engage (“Impediments to Dialogue Between North and South”) and the role of novelists in the third world in the essays such as \u201c”The Novelist as Teacher” and “The Writer and His Community”.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The essay \u201cThe Novelist as Teacher\u201d consists of two parts. In the first part, Achebe argues that the work of art exists in relation to its readers. Drawing on his personal experience, Achebe lists out the functions of author in society. Achebe states that unlike the European authors African writers need to write for African readership and argue that they need to be organic and also function as a guide and teacher to their readers.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Achebe also throws light on the culture of Africa and contextualized contemporary writing emerging from the continent. Through articles such as the \u201cThe Igbo World and its Art\u201d, \u201cThoughts on the African Novel\u201d Achebe brings to foregrounds the fact that art of Igbo\u00a0population closely reflects the lives and beliefs of the people. Since the Igbo population and its culture are \u2018non-permanent\u2019 and are always in motion, the art reflects the same. He transcribes Igbo words.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    In \u201cColonialist Criticism\u201d, Achebe argues that African authors write the novels which are published and analysed by Europeans. He states that these novels are \u201cjudged from European perspective\u201d and hence is evaluated outside its context. Thus African tests never get the correct evaluation and \u201cthe essence of the text is killed\u201d. He successfully demonstrates that what appears to be \u2018Universalism\u2019 is in its essence \u2018parochialism\u2019 of Europe. Hence, Achebe explains that European analysts deem that African novels are not universal.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The theme of \u2018universalism versus parochialism\u2019 is a recurrent theme in most of Achebe\u2019s writing. For instance in the essay \u201cThoughts on the African Novel\u201d Achebe argues against the idea that that the \u201cAfrican novel has to be about Africa\u201d. He says that such an assumption imposes a \u201cpretty severe restriction\u201d on the author and the reader. For Achebe Africa does not exist as never a \u2018geographical expression\u2019 alone, but also a \u2018metaphysical landscape\u2019. Based on its complex history, Achebe argues that that African literature can represent the \u201cview of the world\u201d and perceives the whole world from its particular perspective.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Through other essays such as “Work and Play in Tutuola\u2019s The Palm-Wine Drinkard<\/em>“, “Kofi Awoonor as Novelist” and “Don\u2019t Let Him Die: A Tribute to Christopher Okigbo” Achebe contextualizes the works of contemporary African writers. Achebe\u2019s writings profoundly impacted the lives and works of several contemporary writers, activists, authors, and theoreticians. Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o whose work we are going to discuss in the next module was largely influenced by the ideas of Achebe.<\/p>\n

    Module IV: Introduction to Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o emerged as one of the most influential postcolonial voices from Africa. Like Achebe, Wa Thiong\u2019o is a public intellectual and his works dealt with diverse issues. We will discuss Wa Thiong\u2019o\u2019s Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature <\/em>in this lesson. Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature <\/em>is a collection of non-fiction essays which discuss issues such as language, ideology, national culture, history and identity and its publication established Wa Thiong\u2019o as one of the most prominent theorist on issues such as language debates. The book is a collection of four essays, each of which was inspired by his lectures. The four essays are “The Language of African Literature,” “The Language of African Theatre,” “The Language of African Fiction,” and “The Quest for Relevance.” Ngugi describes his personal engagement with the politics of language. Ngugi begins his essay by informing the reader about his life growing up in Kenya.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ngugi melds autobiography, post-colonial theory, pedagogy, African history, and literary criticism to effectively articulate his ideas on language, culture, memory and politics. Ng\u0169g\u0129 dedicates \u201cDecolonising the Mind\u201d to those who write in the African languages (and vernacular languages across) and to those who over the years have maintained the dignity of the literature, culture, philosophy, and other treasures carried by African languages.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    For Ngugi, the role of language goes beyond communicating thought. It is the essence of human being and acts as the repository of thought and history. It is the \u201cthe medium of [African] memories\u201d and provides the \u201clink between space and time\u201d and is the \u201cbasis of [African] dreams\u201d. Ngugi was vocal against the imposition of European languages and as a protest began writing in the vernacular. His mode was not a reaction against Anglicisation; but was aimed at resurrecting the African soul from centuries of slavery and colonialism. He believed that Africa\u2019s encounter with the west left it spiritually and economically exploited.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ngugi believes that erasing people\u2019s language means deleting their memory. People without memories are rudderless and lack of language ensures that they mimic the colonizer and unsuccessfully appropriate their culture. Since he began writing in the 1960s, Ngugi has resisted colonial labels. He disowned his Christian past and changed his name from James Ngugi to Ngugi wa Thiong\u2019o in 1976. Incidentally Decolonising the Mind<\/em>, published in 1981 was his last work in English.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    For Ngugi colonialism resulted in the linguicide of Africa. This killing of the language resulted in Africans attempting to adopt foreign languages and this resulted in its population incapable of accessing their cultures and memories. Ngugi calls this phenomenon a \u201cdeath wish\u201d that occurs in societies which have never fully acknowledged their loss\u2014like a trauma victim who resorts to drugs to kill the pain.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Besides due to the linguicide, post-colonial Africa is incapable of decolonizing itself. This has resulted in African population incapable of shaking away the effects of slavery and colonialism. This has resulted in the alienation of African bourgeois and elite from the local population. They end up writing their stories in foreign languages, adding to the vast pool of literature written in English and French, rather than contributing to the growth of literature in African languages.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    It should not be thought that Ngugi is for the exclusive promotion of the vernacular languages. He is a votary of multilingual societies and believes that they are better placed to deal with the complexities of this world. He urges that parents, schools and societies need to encourage the use of vernacular languages among the younger generation, even as they are exposed to the foreign languages.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ngugi\u2019s work is very relevant today and he has influenced a generation of postcolonial thinkers. His work has ramifications across several spheres besides literature and theory. His work is extensively used by political activists and artists to create inclusive, pluralistic and tolerant cultures.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I would suggest that you look up the works of Kenya born writer Simon Gikandi too. Gikandi worked on the literary production in Africa (Reading the African Novel, <\/em>1987) lives and works of Chinua Achebe (Reading Chinua Achebe, <\/em>1991) and Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o (Ngugi Wa Thiong\u2019o<\/em>, 2000). A colleague and a co-worker of Achebe and Thiong\u2019o, Gikandi was one of the first African scholars to engage with Caribbean literature (Writing in Limbo: Modernism and Caribbean Literature<\/em>, 1992). In this seminal piece Gikandi engaged with the works of several Caribbean writers including CLR James, Samuel Selvon and Kamau Brathwaite amongst others. He highlights the historical anxiety and ambivalence that several of Caribbean authors and poets grapple with as they express themselves. In the next two\u00a0modules let us examine how the Caribbean writers engaged with these issues of anxiety and ambivalence.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Module V: Introduction to the ideas of CLR James and Kenneth Ramchand<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    In this module we examine the writing of CLR. James and Kenneth Ramchand. Cyril Lionel Robert James (1901-1989), popularly called CLR James, was the first noted essayist in English to have emerged from the Caribbean region. CLR. James, a leading theorist of decolonization in the twentieth century, in many ways is the precursor of some of Caribbean\u2019s best known litterateurs including Aim\u00e9 Fernand David C\u00e9saire, Frantz Fanon and \u00c9douard Glissant. However, C\u00e9saire, Glissant and Fanon (all of them were born in Martinique a French speaking colony), wrote in French. Though James, a first rate writer, has authored texts on diverse issues ranging from history of islands (Black Jacobins), <\/em>cricket (the acclaimed Beyond a Boundary), <\/em>governance (Every Cook Can Govern) <\/em>and several treatises on Marxism and decolonization. I suggest that you read Fanon\u2019s influential works such as Black Skins and White Masks, A Dying Colonialism <\/em>and The Wretched of the Earth. <\/em>The ideas that Fanon propounded in these works resonate across the world.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    In this module we briefly discuss James\u2019 essay \u201cDiscovering Literature in Trinidad: Two Experiences\u201d. The essay, often anthologised, is very succinct, provocative and provides us an idea of the tradition of literature in the Caribbean world. James states that writers of his generation including George Padmore and Aime C\u00e9saire\u2019 and himself were all schooled in and were influenced by western European philosophy, history and idea of literature. He says \u201call of us had this literary tradition; all of us had the European training; all of us wrote in the definite tradition of English literature. For us in the thirties there was no literature otherwise\u201d.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    James states that till the 1930s the literature produced in the West Indies mirrored that which was produced elsewhere. He also states that the careers of the writers were largely affected by the dynamics of race and class. James wrote this essay in 1969 and very briefly comments on the works of Earl Lovelace and Michael Anthony who he deems are a \u2018new type of West Indian writer\u2019. Lovelace and Anthony, James states are \u201cnot writing with all the echoes and traditions of English literature in their minds. As I see them\u2026 they are mature writers in the sense that their prose and the things that they are dealing with spring from below\u201d. These writers, James argues do not see life through a \u2018European-educated literary sieve\u2019.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Trinidad born novelist Kenneth Ramchand, who came a generation later than James, is perhaps the first celebrated literary chronicler to have emerged out of the postcolonial Caribbean islands. He is the author of the widely read The West Indian Novel and Its Background <\/em>(1972). Juxtaposing the writings of the second generation West Indian writers including John Hearne and Roger Mais with their predecessors, Kenneth Ramchand makes the following points. He argues that the earliest of West Indian writers sought European precedents which were not always appropriate to the Caribbean context. Hence the West Indian intellectual, artist or academic, is so unsure of relevant values.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Kenneth Ramchand argued that the second generation Caribbean novelists deliberately experiment with the form (including the plot and characters) of the novel. This\u00a0experimentation makes most of the Caribbean writers adopt modernist outlook. However, these authors do not experiment for the sake of experimentation but to reflect the Caribbean reality including its ambivalent relationship with the metropolis and the historical anxiety. Ramchand analysis of the characters in the West Indian novel buttresses this claim. Most of the characters in a West Indian novel are largely formless. The authors make their characters deliberately formless, not because they are incapable of fleshing out well rounded or developed characters, as they want these characters to reflect the formlessness of the West Indian society. He argues that \u201cthe existential position of the individual\u201d in the society is such that a pattern does not seem relevant or comes \u2018spontaneously to the writer from the West Indies\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Ramchand also goes on to argue that it is not productive to compare Caribbean writers with European (English) authors. He points out that \u201cthe similarity between the intellectual and cultural states of the labouring classes in nineteenth century England, and the liberated slaves in the West Indies is misleading\u201d. He successfully argues that the a cultured, reading class existed in England from the fourteenth century onwards which helped the English novel gradually find its form. He reminds us that the novel became an accessible text for the working class only towards the nineteenth century. The \u2018liberated slave\u2019 in the Caribbean, Ramachand points out, is a \u2018cultural void\u2019 and he does not have a precursor in the history.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Most West Indian writers (of the nineteenth and twentieth century) sought to address this cultural void by deeming Europe their home. Ramchand also points out that for second generation Caribbean writers, unlike their European counterparts; social consciousness is not class consciousness. Instead the West Indian writers produce literature based on the larger Caribbean society.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Ramchand\u2019s work inspired several of his contemporaries examine the literary production in the Caribbean region. Gordon Rohlehr, a colleague of Ramchand, analysed the oral culture in the Caribbean (Calypsos) and argued that they should be placed alongside novels and poems coming out of the Caribbean. In the next module we will briefly deal with the works of Paul Gilroy and Gordon Rohlehr.<\/p>\n

    Module VI: Introduction to Paul Gilroy, Gordon Rohlehr<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Gordon Rohlehr, Guyanese born writer, is one of the first Caribbean academics to have theorised oral literature from the West Indies. Abandoning the apologist stance that first generation Caribbean writers exhibited vis-\u00e0-vis popular culture, Rohlehr dedicated most of his career in theorizing the popular texts including the calypso music (including individual calypsos), cricket literature, short stories and oral stories.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Some of his best known essays are written around the calypso\u2014an art form which originated in Trinidad and Tobago and soon became an integral component of pan-Caribbean culture. The Calypso can be traced to Western Africa music traditions and over the centuries was influenced by French beats and Caribbean creole. A typical calypso is a beat poem which is sung to a tune. As Rohlehr demonstrates, Calypsos were useful as a tool for political mobilization during the anticolonial struggles, acted as carriers of nationalism and functioned\u00a0as sources of collective memory in the islands. Calypsos were used by the West Indians to valorise their fellowmen, document everyday life and commemorate special occasions. I suggest you checkout the essays \u201cCarnival Cannibalised or Cannibal Carnivalised: Contextualising the \u2018Cannibal Joke\u2019 in Calypso and Literature\u2019 and \u2018Calypso, Literature and West Indies Cricket\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    Rohlehr contextualises the Caribbean cultural production with the political transformations as the backdrop. Rohlehr also theorised the lives and works of his worthy predecessors and luminous contemporaries including CLR. James, Wilson Harris, V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming and Kamau Brathwaite. His criticism of James and Naipaul in the essay \u2018Intersecting Q.R.C. Lives: James, Williams and Naipaul\u2019 is very original. Reading the works of Naipaul and CLR. James, both of whom were graduates of the imperial Queen\u2019s Royal College (QRC); Rohlehr demonstrates that James, who was educated during the high-noon of British imperialism, was burdened by his duty to function as the Ariel [whose job is to make sense of the Calibans (his fellowmen) and educate them]. However, the subsequent Caribbean writers, such as Naipaul, who wrote in a postcolonial milieu were relieved of adhering to the European aesthetic and could express themselves easily.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Paul Gilroy (born in London to Guyanese parents) in his works introduced the theme of \u2018Afro-centricism\u2019. Through his works There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack <\/em>(1987), Small Acts <\/em>(1993), The Black Atlantic <\/em>(1993), Between Camps <\/em>(2000; Gilroy has demonstrated that Caribbean intellectuals need to re-examine the new world\u2019s relationship with Africa. We will be discussing Gilroy\u2019s idea of the \u2018double consciousnesses as demonstrated in The Black Atlantic <\/em>in the subsequent module. Double Consciousness was first proposed by W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk. <\/em>Du Bois used the term to describe the Afro-American\u2019s experience of “always looking at one’s self through the eyes” of a racist white society. The black community which is disadvantaged, strives to “measure\u201d itself through by the measures of \u201cnation that looked back in contempt” at it. Gilroy’s work The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness <\/em>(1993) is an important contribution to the study of African diaspora. Gilroy deems the Black Atlantic as a \u2018transnational cultural construction\u2019 which is an inclusive space and argues that populations that suffered from the slave trade across the Atlantic constitute a diaspora. His efforts have resulted in widening the idea of diaspora which until 2000 was comprehended as people who are separated by a communal source or origin. Drawing on Du Bois\u2019 work Gilroy’s theme of \u2018Double Consciousness\u2019 demonstrates how the constituents of the Black Atlantic are coerced to be both European and Black simultaneously.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Gilroy does not read black writers (including African, Caribbean and Afro-American writers) within national or provincial contexts. He reads them with the trans-Atlantic context as the backdrop. It would be very productive to read the Black Atlantic <\/em>to comprehend the role that trans-Atlantic movement of bodies shaped the literary production not just in Africa and the Caribbean region but also in the Metropolitan centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    you can view video on African and Caribbean Prose – An Overview<\/strong><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
    1. Brathwaite, Edward. \u201cGordon Rohlehr’s ‘Sparrow and the Language of the Calypso’ \u2013 CAM Comment\u2013.\u201d Caribbean Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 14, no. 1\/2, 1968, pp. 91\u201396. JSTOR<\/em>, www.jstor.org\/stable\/40653060.<\/li>\n
    2. WILLIAMS, PATRICIA. \u201cCaribbean Quarterly.\u201d Caribbean Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 16, no. 4, 1970, pp. 80\u201382. JSTOR<\/em>, www.jstor.org\/stable\/40653186.<\/li>\n
    3. Kenneth Ramchand (1939-). The West Indian Novel and its background<\/em>. Faber 1970; Heinemann, 1993. Revised edition published by Ian Randle Publishers, 2004.<\/li>\n
    4. James, C. L. R. Michael Anthony.\u201d Discovering Literature in Trinidad: Two Experiences \u201cThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature <\/em>Vol 4, Issue 1, pp. 73 – 87<\/li>\n
    5. Ng\u0169g\u0129, wa T. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature<\/em>. London: J. Currey, 1986. Print.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["dr-alice-samson"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[61],"license":[],"class_list":["post-74","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-dr-alice-samson"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/74\/revisions\/331"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/74\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp06\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}