Fictional Images of Power, Marginalization and Resistance

Abstract

The paper argues that Peter Palangyo’s Dying in the Sun and Ahmadou Kourouma’s Les Soleils des indépendances / The Suns of Independences, two novels first published in 1968 with the word “sun” in their titles, lend themselves to a comparative analysis of power relations, marginalization and assertiveness in post- Independence Africa. The various denotative and connotative meanings that the major characters give to the sun confer on it many attributes that are not only used to challenge colonial and neocolonial
ideologies but also to translate failure or success of survival strategies.