Abstract
The paper extends beyond the portrayal of Chukwuemeka Ike's The Bottle Leopard as the postcolonial text which describes the colonialised African socicty and Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus as feminist text. It interrogates the stronghold of colonial mentality and disillusionment that characterises the Modern African child in the quest for self-assertion and search for identity. Due to the colonial encounter, the indigenous identity of the African child has suffered disapproving retrogression, resulting into lack of confidence in African values. This paper, therefore, argues that the Modern African child today is still a victim of colonialism and remains at a crossroad in the unending search for selfdiscovery. It submits that the African child has been neglected and foregrounds Ike's stance that Western education, as well as Adichie's reflections on effects of Western religion, though part of the development phases of Modern African child, cannot continue to inhibit indigenous African ways of life.
Introduction
The study of child characters in novels has underscored great significance across literatures from different cultures. From the perspective of first-person narrative technique, the child character has been known to generate convincing ambience of innocence, credibility and transparency in any given story. Also, the stylistic import of bildungsroman, whereby the story requires both physical and psychological growth on the part of the protagonist, would have been impossible without the child character. Hence, whether as a narrative technique or style, the use of child character has no doubt added legendary flavour to the literary expression of creative writers across the world.
Content
However, the literary import of the African child goes beyond the abovementioned categories. African writers have spawned out accurate reflections of African experiences as a result of colonisation. Ben Okri's Famished Road is a quintessential specimen. Through the naive eyes of the young Ozoro, the novel presents a broad view about the socio-cultural, political and thematic preoccupations, prevalent in post-colonial Nigeria. It captures the historical moments, economic and political situation of the country. The narration continues with imageries of destruction, poverty, pain, sorrow, sickness, struggles, uncertainty, unemployment, worries, and finally, death.
Before Okri's novel, there are other examples of novels across the world that portray child character for varied reasons. Examples include Camara Laye's The African Child, Alex Haley's Roots and in fact Charles Dicken's renowned eponymous fiction, Oliver Twist. These novels' successes today stem from the creative enterprise of the child character. Beyond style and technique, the child character is indeed "a powerful agent through which salient themes, such as poverty, brutality, alienation, religion and politics are surveyed"(John Mugubi, 2012). This research, therefore, interrogates the disillusionment that characterizes the Modern African child in the unending quest for self-assertion and search for identity as a result of the overbearing influence of the colonial encounter. Through critical analysis, it engages two renowned texts, Chukwuemeka Ike's The Bottle Leopard and Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus in portraying the need for continuous process of decolonisation through the eyes of the novels' protagonists.
Before Okri's novel, there are other examples of novels across the world that portray child character for varied reasons. Examples include Camara Laye's The African Child, Alex Haley's Roots and in fact Charles Dicken's renowned eponymous fiction, Oliver Twist. These novels' successes today stem from the creative enterprise of the child character. Beyond style and technique, the child character is indeed "a powerful agent through which salient themes, such as poverty, brutality, alienation, religion and politics are surveyed"(John Mugubi, 2012). This research, therefore, interrogates the disillusionment that characterizes the Modern African child in the unending quest for self-assertion and search for identity as a result of the overbearing influence of the colonial encounter. Through critical analysis, it engages two renowned texts, Chukwuemeka Ike's The Bottle Leopard and Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus in portraying the need for continuous process of decolonisation through the eyes of the novels' protagonists.
Conclusion
The Modern African child today is still much of a victim of colonialism and remains at a crossroad in the unending search for self-discovery. This assertion remains the thrust in this paper, as the two colonial victims, Ugochukwu Amobi and Jaja, struggle to discern, comprehend and control themselves in a complex world that keeps them perpetually confused about truth and reality. The novel in a way pontificates at the overbearing influence of Western empiricism over sacrosanct phases of African philosophy. As exemplified in Amobi, many African children today not only disregard their native culture, but also lack enough capacity to understand their roots, given the complexities that besiege the Modern African societies. This paper submits that an insurrection of African values must serve as necessary extension to Western education. It is only then that Modern African Child can fully understand as well as retain the African identity in the face of globalisation.
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Culture. London: Methuen, 1992. Print
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 1989. The Empire Writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature. New York: Routledge.
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995. Print
Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors. New York: Oxford, 1995. Print
Du Bios, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folks: Chicago. A. C.
McClurg, 1903. Print
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1983. Print
Fanon, Frantz. Dying colonialism. New York: Grove Press. 1967. Print
Gikandi, Simon, "African Literature and the Colonial Factor". African Literature:
An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Ed. Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato
Quayson, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Limited. 2007. Print.
Haley, Alex. Roots. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company Inc, 1976. Print
Ike, Chukwuemeka. The Bottled Leopard. Ibadan: University Press Plc, 1985.
Kehinde, Ayo. Indigenous Traditions and Modern African Writers. In: S.
Ademola Ajayi (ed.) African Culture and Civilisation. Ibadan: Atlantis
Books/Ibadan Cultural Studies Group. 2005. 301-324. Print
Mugubi, John, G.O. The child character in adult literature: a study of six selected
Caribbean novels. Kenyatta University Institutional Repository. 2021.
Web. 29 October, 2018.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-friendly Guide. New York & Long:
Garland Publishing, 1999. Print
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1994. Print
Viswanathan, Gauri. The beginnings of English literary study in British India.
Oxford Literary Review 1987: 9. 1 & 2. Print