Post-Postcolonialism As De-Neocolonialism In Chinua Achebe’s Anthills Of The Savannah And Jack Mapanje’s And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night

In this paper, I present post-postcolonial practices as de-neocolonialism as represented in Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and Jack Mapanje’s And Crocodiles Are Hungry at Night. Post-postcolonialism is a critical gesture that emphasises agency in Otherness, especially seen within the context of Africa’s postcolonial alterity in relation to the West. The post-postcolonial argument is that African leadership has assumed selfhood and therefore can no longer be described as neo-colonial, as such assignation retains colonial agency which is assumed to have waned with the emergence of the post-postcolonial realities in Africa. Thus, de-neocolonialism refers to the act of riding Africa’s post/postcolonial discourses of most of its neo-colonial arguments in the wake of the realisation that most African leaders have appropriated the neocolonial excuse to escape responsibility and accountability for the current socio-political maladies ravaging the continent. The analysis of the primary texts reveals that both Achebe and Mapanje have subtly infused these postpostcolonial viewpoints in their works, namely the idea that it is unrealistic to continue to hold the West responsible for most of the crises in Africa, and that until African leadership is made to accept a fair share of the blame, it will be difficult for Africa to move forward. The paper submits that part of the ongoing project at decolonising Africa should include a thought on de-neocolonisation, the gradual or total effacement of the neocolonial argument in Africa’s postcolonial discourse.

Keywords: Post-Postcolonialism De-Neocolonialism African Leadership Chinua Achebe Jack Mapanje

Author

• Eyoh Etim
  Department of English,
  Akwa Ibom State University, Nigeria
  eyohetim29@gmail.com