In the novels The Concubine and The Great Ponds, Elechi Amadi, through the magical realist tradition, revisits the precolonial past of the Ikwerre (Nigeria) to showcase the cultural and intellectual sophistication of this society. As represented in Amadi’s writing, this was a well-structured society with its own credible social and cultural values that defined and explained their worldview, with nothing to envy in the West. In The Concubine, for example, the fates of the men (Emenike, Madume, and Ekwueme) who intend to marry Ihuoma can be explained naturally as well as supernaturally. In The Great Ponds, the novelist employs African mythology to critique the Western arrogance and egocentricity that plunged the world in the purposeless and wasteful war of 1914–18, as well as complicating character and meaning in this novel through the supernatural. Through the war over fishing rights in the Wagaba pond between Chiolu and Aliakoro, Amadi transposes some of the consequences of the First World War, such as the death and suffering that involved the Central and Allied Powers, into his narrative. Amadi’s magical realist fiction is a celebration of indigenous beliefs and culture, as well as a tool to explore character and history.

In The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon re-imagines the challenges of the West Indians who emigrated to England in the 1950s primarily because of economic hardship. Most of the immigrants believed that, as citizens of the British Empire, they would be treated decently given their war service to Britain in World War II. In matters of employment and housing, the West Indians were often given menial jobs and restricted to the squalid neighbourhoods of London. In addition to the cultural challenges they experienced in their host country, they were perpetually discriminated against in their attempts to integrate into the segregated London society. Selvon's satirical portrait of the British Empire comes across mainly in the Calypso and Creole spoken by his characters.

AbstractIn The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon re-imagines the challenges of the West Indians who emigrated to England in the 1950s primarily because of economic hardship. Most of the immigrants believed that, as citizens of the British Empire, they would be treated decently given their war service to Britain in World War II. In matters of employment and housing, the West Indians were often given menial jobs and restricted to the squalid neighbourhoods of London. In addition to the cultural challenges they experienced in their host country, they were perpetually discriminated against in their attempts to integrate into the segregated London society. Selvon’s satirical portrait of the British Empire comes across mainly in the Calypso and Creole spoken by his characters.

Using Afrocentric and Western rhetorical typologies, this essay explores the discourse of Achamba and Abaago, two leading characters in Shadrach Ambanasom's Son of the Native Soil. On the one hand, Achamba is discussed as a rhetorician whose ethos, logos, and pathos enable him to admirably anchor his message of unity and development for Dudum among his compatriots. On the other, Abaago is perceived as a man lacking in dialectical argumentation. Because of this shortcoming, he embraces violence in an attempt to realize his vision of making Akan the administrative centre of Dudum. While the one is showcased as an exemplar of effective rhetoric, the other symbolizes lack of rhetorical savoir-faire. Through these two protagonists, Ambanasom gives a synoptic view of rhetorical practices of not only Dudum (Ngie) people, but also of contemporary Cameroon. At the same time, Ambanasom seems to problematize, in the rhetoric of his characters, issues of minority rights, governance, democracy, and dictatorship in Cameroon or even, on a grander scale, Africa.

Using Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa I Will Many When I Want as its focus, this essay critiques black governance in Kenya. It is argued that most of the evils of colonialism such as oppression, exploitation, favouritism and others are perpetuated not only in contemporary Kenya but also across most of Africa. Minority rule appears to have supplanted majority rule as typified by Ndugire and Ikuua wa Ndikita, on the one hand, and Kiguunda and Wangcci, on the other. In other words, rapacious governments in most of Africa feed fat on the hardworking and underprivileged masses. Faced with the moral bankruptcy of the ruling class, the Ngugis endorse force, on the part of the oppressed, as a way of overcoming the bane of exploitation and other injustices instituted by corrupt leadership. According to the dramatists, it is only when the population can directly influence governance that people can enjoy the fruits of independence.

Written at the time when many newly independent African countries were struggling to assert their autonomy from former European colonial powers such as France, Britain, and Spain, Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino appeared to have encouraged the idea of independence, especially its literary freedom from Europe. Informed by the assumption of Chinweizu et al. that traditional African poetry and its criticism have been little studied and granted that eurocentric critics of African literature often seek Western parallels in this literature, it follows that its fair appreciation must be guided by an awareness of the history and culture behind its creation. This investigation is an attempt to show that the Song of Lawino is written against the backdrop of Acholi history, language, and cultural practices. Lawino comes down to us as an advocate of African cultural values, insisting that these need not emulate European standards in order to be recognized.

Short story about the repercussions of the death of the a former villager.