E-shifting African-Americans’ perception of Africa: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Abstract

During the seventeenth century, many people including “unwilling immigrants” migrated to the “New World”. Most of them were taken from Africa and
delivered to slave markets in America by force. Their unspeakable experience of slavery indelibly shaped their perception of Africa including their awkward stand regarding their physical and psychological connection with the continent. After Walker moves the setting of The Color Purple to Africa, Nettie, Celie and
other characters in the novel changed their perceptions about Africa. Through the lenses of Afrocentricity theory, this paper examines Walker’s shifting of the
erroneous perceptions that most African Americans hold about Africa, arguing that this novelist advocates for a positive appreciation of Africa’s beauty, history, and cultures.

Keywords: Afrocentricity, Africa, re-shifting, slavery, perception