Post-Colonialism as a tool for cultural assertion and language identity: A study of Ifeoma Chinwuba’s merchants of flesh

Abstract

Africa’s contact with colonialism has brought about effects that are grievous in themselves. These effects have affected the socio-political and cultural life of the African people, to an extent that the true culture and identity of Africans have been thrown to the mongrels, if not gone into a total extinction. On the strength of the above premise, African writers, particularly African post-colonial writers, have been looking for ways to curb the effects of colonialism on the continent of Africa. One of such ways is a process of using post-colonialism as a tool for the investigation and the emancipation of the cultural traits of the African people from complete colonial gridlock, even though colonialism has come and gone. Post-colonialism therefore, gives voice to the once colonised people and also helps for a better appreciation of the cultures and identities of Africa by both the colonised and the coloniser. In discussing Ifeoma Chinwuba’s Merchants of Flesh from a post-colonial standpoint, the paper uses the postcolonial parameters of appropriation, abrogation, hybridity untranslated words and affiliation as the basis for analysis. The paper therefore, concludes that before Africa’s contact with colonialism, it has had its well-established ways of conducting its affairs for the benefit of its people, and that their cultures and identities that make them distinct from other people of the world, be respected and be allowed to flourish ad infinitum.

Key words: Post-Colonialism, Cultural Assertion, Language, Language Identity