Language, Dialogue and Identity in African Literature: Postcolonial Inflections

This book explores the contributions of language, dialogue and identity in African literature and how they shape critical perception of African literary politics. It reads from the selected writings of Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Efua Sutherland, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ola Rotimi, Ngugiwa Thiong’o, Nadine Gordimer and Kwakuvi Azasu, Irene Isoken Salami Ogunloye, and Frank Ogodo Ogbeche, Tess Onwueme, Gabriel Okara, J. P. Clark and Lueen Conning to bring out a sense of critical understanding that seeks to reposition Africa and its writings in the mainframe of cultural dialogue. The study advocates among other claims the necessity to remap African literary and cultural spaces to empower African languages in contemporary schools, the redirection of cultural dialogue that gives respect to African voices and bridges scholarship to make Africa more visible. African history, read from within, should bring scholars to revalue African new orientations that construct new identities and change critical perception about Africa, its languages, literatures and global politics. The postcolonial inflections advocated here mean to put African present and future challenges in resilience perspectives: erase past stereotypes and construct respectful images that bring the continent to constructive dialogue with world cultures.