EXPLORING SOME DAMAGING ASPECTS OF SLAVERY AND COLONIZATION IN AMERICAN AND AFRICAN NOVELS: A READING OF NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH AND THINGS FALL APART

Author: Dr. Zakaria Coulibaly

ABSTRACT

This article is based on exploring some damages caused by the institution of slavery and colonization to Africans and black America’s black slaves through the Narrative of Sojourner Truth and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In effect, the era of European institution of slavery as well as their colonization of Africa had been tragic and traumatic to people of African origins in Africa and in Western nations, particularly America. In the area of research, the comparison of the era of slavery and colonialism at the same time is unusual. Thus, the objective of this research study is to show side by side how the institution of slavery and the colonialism had been tragic for Africans as well as America’s black slaves. Methodologically, a pure qualitative method is used in the collection of the study’s data. Postcolonialism is equally employed in the analysis and interpretation of the data of the investigation. As for the results of the study, the survey has clearly shown that the institution of slavery had driven some enslaved Blacks into total alienation and self-negation. In that, it has been shown that because of the mental alienation of the bondage, some slaves strongly believed in the godliness of the white enslavers. Hence, some slave women could let their own children starve just to show their faithfulness to their masters. In the same way, some were also very happy to beget many children just to participate in the enrichment of their masters. On the other hand, the study has demonstrated that the colonization of Africa has also alienated a number of natives. In this regard, it has been evinced that the Europeans came to Africa pretending to be in a religious mission. Once fully settled, they devised ways to disintegrate African families by converting a lot of local Africans and opposing them to their communities. As a result, the African societies lost a lot of aspects of their cultures, traditionas or founding principles of their land.

Keywords: alienation colonialism, dehumanization, postcolonialism, slavery

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Achebe, Chinua. (1959). Things Fall Apart. USA: Fawcett World Library 67 West 44th Street, New York, N. Y. 10036
  • Azasu, Kwakuvi. (2004). The Slave Raiders. Accra: Yamens Press Ltd.
  • Coulibaly. A.S; Coulibaly. Z. (2019).  “Precolonial African Society and Slavery in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavo Vassa, The African”. Revue Baobab: Revue des sciences de l’imaginaire, arts, lettres et sciences humaines de l’Université Félix Houphouët- Boigny et de l’Université Alassane Ouattara. Numéro: 26, deuxième semèstre.
  • Douglass, Frederick. (1845). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, N°.25 Cornhill.
  • Equiano, Olaudah.(1996).The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African.(Ed) Paul Edwards. London: Heinemann.
  • Hooks, b. (1992). Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press.
  • J.Kim, S. (2012). Introduction: Decolonizing Narrative Theory. Journal of Narrative Theory, 42(3), 233-247.
  • Truth, Sojourner.(2006).Narrative of Sojourner Truth.(written by Olive Gilbert based on the information given by Truth).USA: Pennsylvania State University.
  • Walz, Terence; Kenneth, Cano. (2010). Race and Slavery in the Middle East: Histories of Trans-Saharan Africans in the Nineteenth-century Egypt, Sudan, and the Ottoman Mediterranean. Cairo: University of Cairo Press.
  • Washington, Booker T. (1928). Up from Slavery, “an Autobiography”.  Massachusetts: Riverside Press.