{"id":72160,"date":"2016-06-26T22:47:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T20:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/literature-by-africans-in-the-diaspora-can-help-create-alternative-narratives-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2016-06-26T22:47:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T20:47:43","slug":"literature-by-africans-in-the-diaspora-can-help-create-alternative-narratives-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/literature-by-africans-in-the-diaspora-can-help-create-alternative-narratives-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Literature by Africans in the diaspora can help create alternative narratives | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Literature by Africans in the diaspora can help create alternative narratives<\/a>: <\/p>\n

<\/span> Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celebrated Ghanaian writer and academic Ama Ata Aidoo has no time for \u201cAfropolitans\u201d. This is a notion popularised by the self-described \u201cmulti-local\u201d author Taiye Selasi. Afropolitans are a current, cosmopolitan generation of \u201cAfricans of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Aidoo believes that Afropolitanism is \u201cevidence of self-hatred\u201d. Its proponents, she charges, use it as a \u201cfancy moniker\u201d that tries \u201cto mask the terror associated with Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her objections speak to widespread, global calls for the decolonisation of institutionalised cultures. This is of particular interest to university communities at large right now. In South Africa, one crucial and complex aspect of this process is a call to Africanise university curricula. This is certainly necessary. But, as ongoing debates around African literature reveal, it must be done cautiously.<\/p>\n

One element of this \u201cAfricanisation\u201d debate involes assessing the value of contemporary literature written by Africans who live in the diaspora. Its critics complain that current Afrodiasporic literature is not in tune with everyday life on the continent. They see its versions of Africa as sanitised and Westernised.<\/p>\n

I disagree. These works take students beyond their national and personal borders. This is crucial in these times of global cultural flux.<\/p>\n

Beyond national and personal borders<\/h2>\n

The notion that contemporary Afrodiasporic fiction is socially and culturally inapplicable is typically couched in racialised and nativist interpretations about what is or who isn\u2019t African. This highlights the ideologically safe and unimaginative spaces that many still occupy. It also reveals something about how deeply ingrained colonising structures are.<\/p>\n

The question of who writes, and what is written, about Africa is both pre- and over-determined. The emphasis on ethnic and cultural distinctiveness risks reestablishing exclusionary inter- and intra-racial hierarchies.<\/p>\n

Contemporary black African writers in the diaspora are contesting precisely this imposition of culturally representative literature. Some examples include Maaza Mengiste\u2019s cynical article \u201cWhat makes a \u2018real African\u2019?\u201d and Binyavanga Wainaina\u2019s sarcastic instructions on \u201cHow to write about Africa\u201d. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie\u2019s novel, \u201cAmericanah\u201d, is a fictive caution about an issue she first raised in her 2009 TED Talk, \u201cThe Danger of a Single Story\u201d.<\/p>\n

As novels such as Selasi\u2019s \u201cGhana Must Go\u201d reveal, contemporary Afrodiasporic writing expresses less explicitly politicised, ambiguous versions and visions of Africa and the African diaspora. In doing so, it transgresses what Helon Habila describes as \u201cpass-laws\u201d that seek to restrict where \u201cAfrican literature can go\u201d.<\/p>\n

No need to reinvent the wheel<\/h2>\n

Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, recently organised a conference at which concerned scholars gathered to reexamine established ideas about African literature and philosophy.<\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t trying to reinvent the wheel. This issue is not new, after all. The first African Writers\u2019 Conference was held at Uganda\u2019s Makerere University in 1962. There, scholars debated the significance and place of African literature written in English for nation states on the cusp of independence. More than five decades on, the conference offers valuable lessons to universities trying to critically reconceptualise educational curricula for post-colonial subjects.<\/p>\n

But the wheel must be modified. It needs to reflect and engage South Africa\u2019s own post-traumatic, post-apartheid landscape. In this respect, two recurring challenges emerge: first, what exactly is (black) Africa(n) in this fragile, shifting global village? Second, how does a university \u201cAfricanise\u201d its curricula in the face of different ideologies and realities?<\/p>\n

Global cultural flux<\/h2>\n

I teach contemporary Afrodiasporic literature to undergraduate students. In my experience, these works speak to their encounters with subjectivities beyond their national and personal borders. We exist in a time of profound global cultural flux. Against this backdrop, inflexible and insular readings of both Africa and Africans do not adequately interpret the diversity and complexity of their own subjective realities.<\/p>\n

Contemporary Afrodiasporic literature\u2019s worldly reinterpretation of Africa and Africans presents imaginatively inclusive visions. In its responsiveness to ever-shifting contexts and realities, it is committed to revealing what author Ben Okri calls the \u201cstrange corners of what it means to be human\u201d.<\/p>\n

Universities envisaging getting closer to what writer Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong’o called \u201cdecolonising the mind\u201d could stand to take current Afrodiasporic literature seriously. These works can help in the push to realise genuinely transformed, revitalised and reflective, alternative narratives of Africa.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

I have previously received funding from the Mellon and Rhodes Foundations for my academic research. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
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Literature by Africans in the diaspora can help create alternative narratives: Shutterstock Celebrated Ghanaian writer and academic Ama Ata Aidoo has no time for \u201cAfropolitans\u201d. This is a notion popularised by the self-described \u201cmulti-local\u201d author Taiye Selasi. Afropolitans are a current, cosmopolitan generation of \u201cAfricans of the world\u201d. But Aidoo believes that Afropolitanism is \u201cevidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4728,2221,8890,5300,13404,6223,14749,12314],"class_list":{"0":"post-72160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africans","8":"tag-alternative","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-create","11":"tag-diaspora","12":"tag-help","13":"tag-literature","14":"tag-narratives","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}