Abstract
Until recently, Eurocentricism has turned its attention to the gathering storm surging in the identify politics, gender debates and cultural reassertions. The ensuing polemics trace identify and cultural discourse to the emergence of radical discourse, in the third word, with the decline of colonial powers in the middle decades of the twentieth century. The new discourses, in their various colourations, according to liberal scholars, seek to challenge the very basis of western dominance through especially its totalising and absolutist epistemologies and schemata. However, this paper seeks to revisit both the literary and philosophical concerns of the new discourses. The idea is to constitute a theoretical framework upon which Ben Okri's novel, The Famished Road is glimpsed. This is of course informed by some critics' bid to lump Okri within postcolonial discourse.1 What then is postcolonial discourse?
Introduction
Stephen Howe, 2 in an article titled: "Postcolonialism: Empire
writes Back", asserts that "issues of race, ethnicity and gender have
become the central preoccupations of debate, to a considerable degree displacing preoccupation with class and economics"2. Whether this
assertion is true or not is subject to serious ideological pollemics. To substantiate his claims however, Howe explores the ideas of some thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean - Francois Lyotard, Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. These scholars are widely considered by Howe as the proponents of radical ideas rooted in poststructuralist, post-marxist and postmodernist theories. Similarly, Howe also believes that identify and gender questions have contributed significantly to the contemporary upsurge in feminist and multicultural discourses. These ideas and discourses, according to him, constitute the bedrock of post-colonial reality. Therefore, to understand the concept of postcolonialism it is necessary to look into the ideas of Derrida Lyotard, Foucault, and Said.
writes Back", asserts that "issues of race, ethnicity and gender have
become the central preoccupations of debate, to a considerable degree displacing preoccupation with class and economics"2. Whether this
assertion is true or not is subject to serious ideological pollemics. To substantiate his claims however, Howe explores the ideas of some thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean - Francois Lyotard, Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. These scholars are widely considered by Howe as the proponents of radical ideas rooted in poststructuralist, post-marxist and postmodernist theories. Similarly, Howe also believes that identify and gender questions have contributed significantly to the contemporary upsurge in feminist and multicultural discourses. These ideas and discourses, according to him, constitute the bedrock of post-colonial reality. Therefore, to understand the concept of postcolonialism it is necessary to look into the ideas of Derrida Lyotard, Foucault, and Said.
Content
Jean Francois Lyotard, for instance, is especially noted for his
critique of modern progress in his book: The Postmodern Condition:
A Report on Knowledge. According to an analyst of Lyotard's work,
Pervez Manzoor, the problems posed by scientific culture in the
twentieth century such as environmental and nuclear threat are
brought about by what Lyotard calls "the crisis of knowledge and
legitimation".4 Furthermore, Manzoor locates the significance of
Lyotard's work specifically within the purview of scientific culture.
He stressed Lyotard's emphasis on the fact that the crises he identifies
in the scientific culture is responsible for the so-called "transition of
high modernism to postmodernism".5 Lyotard employs two distinctive categories in his analysis of twentieth century crises. He divides the world cultures into narrative and scientific cultures. The former describes non-western cultures, values and knowledge prevalent especially before the advent of technological civilization. Narrative knowledge is distinguished from scientific knowledge on the basis of some features characterizing each category. Here also, Manzoor captures vividly the Lyotard's description of the narrative:
The narrative allows a society not only to define its criteria of competence but also to evaluate according to those criteria what is performed or can be performed within it. The knowledge transmitted by narration is not limited to enunciations: it determines in a single stroke what one must say in order to be heard, what one must listen in order to speak, and what role one must play to be the object of a
narrative.
dity of the narrative knowledge. Scientific procedures reject narrative knowledge on the basis of the fact that it is never subject to explanation, analysis, argument or proof. Similarly, Michel Foucault employs the term discourse to show how knowledge is manipulated by power. His studies centred on the problems of discourse as both the cognitive and articulative method within the matrix of the dominant western world view. Foucault defines discourse as "a densely woven network of ways of thinking and writing that imposes strict limits on what can be thought and said".7 In the process, he questions the rules and limits entrapping discourses. In what he refers to as "discourse of discourses", he sets out to examine the discourses of other disciplines like medicine, legal, religious, sex and politics.
critique of modern progress in his book: The Postmodern Condition:
A Report on Knowledge. According to an analyst of Lyotard's work,
Pervez Manzoor, the problems posed by scientific culture in the
twentieth century such as environmental and nuclear threat are
brought about by what Lyotard calls "the crisis of knowledge and
legitimation".4 Furthermore, Manzoor locates the significance of
Lyotard's work specifically within the purview of scientific culture.
He stressed Lyotard's emphasis on the fact that the crises he identifies
in the scientific culture is responsible for the so-called "transition of
high modernism to postmodernism".5 Lyotard employs two distinctive categories in his analysis of twentieth century crises. He divides the world cultures into narrative and scientific cultures. The former describes non-western cultures, values and knowledge prevalent especially before the advent of technological civilization. Narrative knowledge is distinguished from scientific knowledge on the basis of some features characterizing each category. Here also, Manzoor captures vividly the Lyotard's description of the narrative:
The narrative allows a society not only to define its criteria of competence but also to evaluate according to those criteria what is performed or can be performed within it. The knowledge transmitted by narration is not limited to enunciations: it determines in a single stroke what one must say in order to be heard, what one must listen in order to speak, and what role one must play to be the object of a
narrative.
dity of the narrative knowledge. Scientific procedures reject narrative knowledge on the basis of the fact that it is never subject to explanation, analysis, argument or proof. Similarly, Michel Foucault employs the term discourse to show how knowledge is manipulated by power. His studies centred on the problems of discourse as both the cognitive and articulative method within the matrix of the dominant western world view. Foucault defines discourse as "a densely woven network of ways of thinking and writing that imposes strict limits on what can be thought and said".7 In the process, he questions the rules and limits entrapping discourses. In what he refers to as "discourse of discourses", he sets out to examine the discourses of other disciplines like medicine, legal, religious, sex and politics.
Conclusion
Pico Iyer's classification of a postcolonial writer and even its protean definition in The Empire Writes Back does not sufficiently qualify any contemporary literature in Africa as postcolonial. In fact, the country of residence of a writer does not matter much to the type of experiences he is representing in his works. The historical experiences Okri is bothered with are typically Nigerian and African. This can be understood even from Okri's preceeding novels, Flowers and Shadows and The Landscape Within. Moreover, it is the earnest view of this paper that creative writers in Africa should endeavour to transcent Okri's type of uncertainty in their bid, through the might and power of pen, to steer the continent away from the edge of the precipice occasioned by the designs of global capitalism through its neo-colonial agency.
This is to be achieved through a coherent articulation of a revolutionary discourse in the form and content of literary practices in Africa. We are referring to a new revolutionary discourse that will go along way in demonstrating a thorough understanding of not only the social and economic problems, as it is often the case, but also the psychic and spiritual injuries inflicted upon Africa by the forces of imperialism via neo-colonialism. This is with the hope that, inevitably, Africa will graduate from the present condition of exploitation and oppression into a truly postcolonial entity, defined and determined by Africans.
This is to be achieved through a coherent articulation of a revolutionary discourse in the form and content of literary practices in Africa. We are referring to a new revolutionary discourse that will go along way in demonstrating a thorough understanding of not only the social and economic problems, as it is often the case, but also the psychic and spiritual injuries inflicted upon Africa by the forces of imperialism via neo-colonialism. This is with the hope that, inevitably, Africa will graduate from the present condition of exploitation and oppression into a truly postcolonial entity, defined and determined by Africans.
References
Pico Iyer, "The Empire Writes Back" in Time International Magazine, February 8, 1993, P.46 2. Stephen Howe, "Postcolonialism: Empire Strikes Back" in Weekend Triumph, Saturday April 17, 1993, P.6. The article is culled from London based "The Independence”, no date is stated. 3. Howe, Ibid., P.6 4. Pervez Manzoor, "Progress: A Fetish On Trial", in Afkar Inquiry, a magazine of Events and Ideas, published by Tropvale Limited, London, January, 1988, P.44. 5. Manzoor, Ibid., P.45 6. Manzoor, Ibid., P.45 7. Stephen Howe, Op. cit, P.6. 8. Allan Sheridan, Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth, Tavistock Publications, London, 1980, Р.121. 9. Vincent Leitch, Deconstructive Criticism: An Advanced Introduction, Columbia University Press, London, 1983, P.145. 10. John Fekete, a french scholar. He is the author of Reconstructive Encounter With The New French Though, University of Minnesota, Minneapolist, 1984. 11. Fekete, Ibid., P.XV 12. Christopher Norris, Deconstruction Theory And Practice, Routledge, London, 1991, Р.31. 13. Norris, Ibid, P.136.
Jonathan Haynes, "African Literature Compared With American Literature", a Seminar Papre presented in the Department of English, A.B.U Zaria, October, 1992, Р.6. 15. Stephen Howe, Op.cit., P.6 16. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 17. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 18. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 19. Firinne Ni Chreachain "Postcolonialism or the Second Independence?", ALA Bulletin, Vol.17, No.3, 1991 P.5. 20. Anwa Ankpa, "Europe In Its Other Word: Marginality, Cultures And Postcolonial Discourses In African Drama", Paper presented at a Seminar In the Centre for the Study of Languages and Cultural Theory, University of Southampton, Britain, 22, February 1993, P.8. 21. Bill Ashcrat, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice In Postcolonial Literatures, Routledge, New York, 1989, P.2. 22. Niyi Osundare, African Literature and the Crisis of Poststructuralist Theorising, Dialogue In African Philosophy Monograph Series (2), Options Books Press, 1993, P.19. 23. Pico Iyer, Op.Cit, P.46. 24. Ibid., P.48. 25. Ibid., Р.48. 26. Ibid., P.49. 27. Olu Oguibe, "The Famished Road by Ben Okri", Africa Events Magazine, January 1992, Р.35. 28. Ake Amosu, "Prize Writers", Focus On Africa Magazine, Vol.3, No.1, January - March, 1992, P.81.
Pico lyer, Op.Cit., P.50 30. Olu Oguibe, Op.Cit., P.35. 31. Harry Garuba, "Ben Okri: Animist realism and the Famished genre", in The Guardian, Saturday, March 13, 1993, P.23. 32. Olu Oguibe, Op.Cit, P.35. 33. Ben Okri, The Famished Road, Spectrum Books, Ibadan, 1992. All references to the text are in this edition.
Jonathan Haynes, "African Literature Compared With American Literature", a Seminar Papre presented in the Department of English, A.B.U Zaria, October, 1992, Р.6. 15. Stephen Howe, Op.cit., P.6 16. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 17. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 18. Stephen Howe, Ibid., P.6 19. Firinne Ni Chreachain "Postcolonialism or the Second Independence?", ALA Bulletin, Vol.17, No.3, 1991 P.5. 20. Anwa Ankpa, "Europe In Its Other Word: Marginality, Cultures And Postcolonial Discourses In African Drama", Paper presented at a Seminar In the Centre for the Study of Languages and Cultural Theory, University of Southampton, Britain, 22, February 1993, P.8. 21. Bill Ashcrat, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice In Postcolonial Literatures, Routledge, New York, 1989, P.2. 22. Niyi Osundare, African Literature and the Crisis of Poststructuralist Theorising, Dialogue In African Philosophy Monograph Series (2), Options Books Press, 1993, P.19. 23. Pico Iyer, Op.Cit, P.46. 24. Ibid., P.48. 25. Ibid., Р.48. 26. Ibid., P.49. 27. Olu Oguibe, "The Famished Road by Ben Okri", Africa Events Magazine, January 1992, Р.35. 28. Ake Amosu, "Prize Writers", Focus On Africa Magazine, Vol.3, No.1, January - March, 1992, P.81.
Pico lyer, Op.Cit., P.50 30. Olu Oguibe, Op.Cit., P.35. 31. Harry Garuba, "Ben Okri: Animist realism and the Famished genre", in The Guardian, Saturday, March 13, 1993, P.23. 32. Olu Oguibe, Op.Cit, P.35. 33. Ben Okri, The Famished Road, Spectrum Books, Ibadan, 1992. All references to the text are in this edition.