African identities in The Book of Not
Main Article Content
Abstract
The source of this article is from a thesis by Ms Scholastika Namutenya Negongo and supervised by Dr Max Mhene. The thesis was a qualitative study which addressed the concept of entwined identities as a comparative study of fictional characters in three novels while employing the Postcolonial Hybridity Theory. This article is centred on the analysis and findings of one of the novels analysed in the thesis which is The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga. The article demonstrates how the African identity in the 21st century is not simply a product of the colonial process but a varied and intricate set of identities that are shaped by experiences of displacement and separation. In the 21st century, Africanism is a fluid identity concept of reconstruction through the influence of global movement or contention, which is the push and pull between the local and global cultures. This article contextualises the identity of the Black African man as a complex and dynamic construct evolving, mutating, and in transit as transcultural, transnational, or diasporic cultures. The selected character analysis in the narrative has a significant impact on the arguments as evidence of the study's claim.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
References
Achebe, C. (1992). Interview. In: A.K. Appiah, ed. In my father’s house: Africa in the philosophy of culture. Oxford University Press.
Acheraïou, A. (2011). Questioning hybridity, postcolonialism and globalization. Questioning hybridity, postcolonialism and globalization. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230305243
Ackermann, A. (2012). Cultural hybridity: Between metaphor and empiricism. In M. Herren-Oesch, A. Michaels, & R. G. Wagner (Eds.), Transcultural research-Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context Series Editors (pp. 5–25). Springer. http://www.springer.com/series/8753
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2013). Post-colonial studies: The key concepts. Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts, 1–355. https://doi.org/10.4324/978023777855
Baharvand, P. A., & Zarrinjooee, B. (2012). The formation of a hybrid identity in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions. African Journal of History and Culture, 4(3), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajhc12.001
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination (translated by C. Emerson & M. Holquist).
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture (Routledge Classics). The location of culture. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203820551
Bhabha, H. K. (2000). Nation and Narration. Routledge.
Bhabha, H. K. (2012). The Location of Culture. The location of culture. Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/download/58982683/The_Location_of_Culture-_Homi_K._Bhabha20190421-112561-185e3z7.pdf
Bhandari, N. (2020). Negotiating cultural identities in diaspora: A conceptual review of third space. Curriculum Development Journal, (42), 78–89. https://doi.org/10.3126/cdj.v0i42.33215
Chiang, C.-Y. (2010). Diasporic theorizing paradigm on cultural identity. International of Communication Studies, XIX(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2016.08.002
Coulmas, F. (2019). Identity: A very short introduction (593rd ed.). USA Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com.na/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U5ygDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Identity:+A+Very+Short+Introduction&ots=CNFdpfc_3o&sig=pOmURcyiqJeMdwH76SXiu6mo-o0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Identity%3A A Very Short Introduction&f=false
Cooper, F., & Brubaker, R. (2000). Beyond ‘identity.’ Theory and Society, 29(1), 1–47.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2006). Social class and stratification: Classic statements and theoretical debates - Google Books (Vol. 203). https://books.google.com.na/books?hl=en&lr=&id=h5kKMnESLXQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA208&dq=Du+bois+on+double+consciousness&ots=6lPTaiONP0&sig=c1DHtNSDaMmMul_g4brpKIU8SoU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Du bois on double consciousness&f=false
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2007). Black folk then and now: An essay in the history and sociology of the Negro (Vol. 7). Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com.na/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LchMAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=W.+E.+B.+Du+Bois,+The+Atlantic&ots=MFvb-MY17n&sig=Sj6GNY5udIcL8PXrdbnn7_FH08g&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=W. E. B. Du Bois%2C The Atlantic&f=false
Eze, M. O., & van der Wal, K. (2020). Beyond sovereign reason: Issues and contestations in contemporary African identity. Journal of Common Market Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12979
Falola, T., & Essien, K. (2013). Pan-Africanism, and the politics of African citizenship and identity. Pan-Africanism, and the Politics of African Citizenship and Identity. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203725030
Fanon, F. (1989). Black skin, white masks. Grove press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429202490-4
Francisco, J. M. (2018). Hybridity in Asian Christian Discourse: Critical issues from Asian Christian experience article. International Journal of Asian Christianity. https://doi.org/10.1163/25424246-00102005
Gandana, I. S. S. (2008). Exploring third spaces. The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations: Annual Review, 7(6), 143–150. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9532/cgp/v07i06/58032
Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Antlantic: Modernity and Doube consciousness.Verso.
Gulfusarak, D. J. (2014). Orientalism and children’s literature: An analysis of adult-children relations in a picture book entitled “Bad Bunny Trouble” Written by Hans Wilhelm. Passage, 2(2), 12–26.
Gunaratnam, Y. (2014). Rethinking hybridity: Interrogating mixedness. Subjectivity, 7(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2013.16
Hall, S. (1994a). Cultural identity and diaspora. Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: A Reader, 222–237.
Hall, S. (1994b). Cultural Identity and Diaspora. In P. Williams & L. Chrisman (Eds.), Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory (1st ed., pp. 222–237). Colombia UP: Routledge. https://sites.middlebury.edu/nydiasporaworkshop/files/2011/04/D-OA-HallStuart-CulturalIdentityandDiaspora.pdf
Hall, S (1991). Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities. In A. D. King (Ed.), Culture, globalization, and the world system: Contemporary conditions for the representation of identity. University of Minnesota Press.
Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (Eds.). (1996). Questions of cultural identity. Sage Publications Limited. https://doi.org/10.2307/591920
Hamdi, T. K. (2013). Edward Said and Recent Orientalist Critiques. Arab Studies Quarterly, 35(2), 130–148. https://doi.org/10.13169/arabstudquar.35.2.0130
Huang, Y. P., & Carspecken, P. (2013). Human identity, self-narrative, and negation. Counterpoints, 354, 263–303.
Idang, G. E. (2015). The dilemma of male child preference vis-à-vis the role of women in the Yoruba Traditional Religion and Society, 16(2), 97–111.
Jablonski, N. G. (2021). Skin color and race. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175(2), 437–447. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24200
Kanu, I. A. (2013). Trends in African philosophy: A case for eclectism. Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religion, 2(1), 275–288.
Kesbi, A. (2017). From Orientalism to Occidentalism: The rise of Westophobiai. Revue Interdisciplinaire, 1, 1–10.
Lary, D. (2007). Edward Said: Orientalism and occidentalism. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 17(2), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.7202/016587ar
Lassiter, J. E. (2000). African culture and personality: Bad social science, effective social activism, or a call to reinvent ethnology. African Studies Quarterly, 3(3), 1–20. http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/v3/v3i3a1.pdf
Lee, P. T. (2020). Toward a third space of cultures : Hybridity and multiethnic leadership in christian mission.
Loomba, A. (2015). Colonialism/ Postcolonialism (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Mabovula, N. (2011). The erosion of African communal values: a reappraisal of the African Ubuntu philosophy. Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(1), 38–47. https://doi.org/10.4314/ijhss.v3i1.69506
Melin, R. (1998). Persons: Their Identity and Individuation. Umeå University.
Moosavinia, S. R., Niazi, N., & Ghaforian, A. (2011). Edward Said’s Orientalism and the study of the self and the other in orwell’s Burmese Days. Studies in Literature and Language, 2(1), 103–113. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/862344988?accountid=14771
Mugumbate, J., & Nyanguru, A. (2013). Exploring African philosophy: The value of ubuntu in social work. African Journal of Social Work, 3(1), 82–100.
Oguejiofor, J., & Ezenwa-Ohaeto, N. (2015). Contemporary African philosophy, identity, and the question of African languages. OGIRISI: A New Journal of African Studies, 11(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.4314/og.v11i1.1
Ratsika, N. (2012). Between tradition and modernity, The occupational choices of young people in rural Crete.
Said, E. W. (1978a). Orientalism. Penguin Classics.
Said, E. W. (1978b). Orientalism. Penguin. www.penguin.com
Said, E. W. (1985). Orientalism reconsidered. Race & Class, 27(2), 1–15. http://kdevries.net/teaching/teaching/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/said2.pdf
Said, E. W. (1993). Culture and imperialism. Vintage. https://doi.org/10.2307/40150113
Said, E. W. (2003). Said, Edward (1977) Orientalism. Penguin Group. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910802195745
Shah, M. (2016). Cultural hybridity: A postcolonial concept. International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities, 4(12), 80–86. Retrieved from www.ijellh.com
Smith, K. E. I., & Leavy, P. (2008). Hybrid identities: Theoretical examinations (Vol. 12).
Spivak, G. C. (1994). Can the Subaltern speak? In P. Williams & L. Chrisman (Eds.), Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader (1st ed., pp. 66–111). London: Routledge.
Wagner, C. (2016). Migration and the creation of hybrid identity: Chances and challenges. The Phenomenon of Migration Proceedings of Harvard Square Symposium, 2, 237–255.
Wytzzen, J. (2015). Making Morocco: Colonial intervention and the politics of identity. Cornell University Press.
Young, R. J. C. (2005). Colonial desire: Hybridity in theory, culture, and race. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.2307/2170185
Zonggui, L. (2015). Between Tradition and Modernity: Philosophical Reflections on the modernisation of Chinese culture. Chartridge Books Oxford. https://books.google.com.na/books?hl=en&lr=&id=b8YMCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=Between+tradition+and+modernity&ots=odKdo9ov63&sig=Zcvb3EPInf54faavnmC8nQ62ciU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Between%20tradition%20and%20modernity&f=false