The Postcolonial Child: Colonial History AND THE SHAPING OF THE IMAGE OF THE CHILD IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICAN FICTION

Bin Felicia Izong
Department of African Literature and Civilization, Faculty of Arts,
Letters and Human Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon
Corresponding author email: [fbin@asddouala.com]

Abstract
This article looks at how writers from West and Central Africa have shown the life of the child in their stories. It argues that the idea of childhood in Africa was first shaped by colonial rule, and that African writers have since worked hard to change this picture. Colonial writers and colonial officers saw the African child as a small, backward person who needed to be trained and civilized by Europeans. African writers reject this view. In their novels, the child is not a quiet, empty person waiting to be filled with European ideas. The child sees, feels, speaks, and acts. The child can suffer war, poverty, and abuse, but the child can also resist, question, and choose a different path. This article uses ideas from postcolonial theory, especially the work of Fanon, Said, Spivak, and Bhabha, to explain these stories. It studies a selection of novels and memoirs by Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ahmadou Kourouma, Ishmael Beah, Margaret Afuh, John Nkengasong, Onyi Nwabineli and other West and Central African writers. The article shows seven main themes: colonial ideas about the child, language and schooling, war and trauma, child labour, gender, family and community, and religion. It ends by arguing that African literature is building a new, decolonized idea of childhood, one that respects African children as full human beings with their own voice and their own history.

Keywords: postcolonial theory, African childhood, African fiction, child soldier, decolonization, and gender

Article Type: Open Access

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