GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURAL DECOLONIZATION IN RECENT AFRICAN NOVELS - A STUDY OF WIZARD OF THE CROW, HALF OF A YELLOW SUN, THE DANCING MASQUERADE AND KMT: IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE.

Abstract

This study is a critical exploration of the theme of cultural decolonization and the concomitant impact of globalization in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong‟o‟s Wizard of the Crow, (2006) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s Half of a Yellow Sun, (2006) Fémi Abódúnrìn‟s The Dancing Masquerade (2003) and Ayi Kwei Armah‟s KMT: In the House of Life (2002). With a view to analysing the authors‟ preoccupation with the question of ambivalence in postcolonial African literature, the study focuses on the authors‟ perception of and responses to the impact of globalization in African societies. The study also examines the interconnections between individual authors‟ societies and the global community, and how cultural theory can help explain our situatedness so that we are able to understand each other not simply as different but as bearers of a common humanity. In arguing that it is increasingly becoming difficult to reconstruct Africa‟s life-sustaining social values, beliefs and customs without irony, this study highlights the importance of globalization in shaping the ever-changing identities of African societies.In order to trace and evaluate the transformative role of cultural decolonization fully and tease out the different ways in which globalization is played out on African societies I have employed postcolonial cultural theory. This theory not only focuses on the postcolonial conditions but also on the larger-scale cycle of cultural fragmentation often suspected in all the societies of the world. Furthermore, in an attempt to deal with the colonial context of the selected novels, I have employed postcolonial perspectives drawn from Homi Bhabha and Frantz Fanon. Overall, this study adds depth to the decolonization project as something that borders more on positive change that societies ought to take within the “rhetoric of newness” that in/form the postcolony. It is through such a programme that the twenty-first century finds its freedom of choice and association.