The Postcolonial African Novel as a Metanarrative of the Myth of the Nation- State: The Case of James Ng’ombe’s Novels

Abstract

The paper argues that through their novels, postcolonial African writers attempt to reconstruct the myths of their nations by metho-poetically interpreting the nations’ origins, experiences and aspirations or destiny. Using the case of the Malawian novelist, James Ng’ombe, the paper observes that collectively, Sugarcane with Salt, Madala’s Children and Madala’s Grandchildren form a sequel which forges a particular national consciousness expressed as a product of political, cultural and historical experiences. In Ng’ombe’s novels, incidents convey little meaning by themselves but are purposefully punctuated by the oral tradition to re-enact mythic situations through which contemporary socio-political problems facing the African country are explored and social reality is interrogated. The novels ‘mythologize’ some historical phenomena by dramatizing significant socio-political events through folklore. By so doing, the writer recapitulates mythic events that link Malawi’s past with the present and project the future. In some cases, myth is ‘historicized’ to serve the purpose of demonstrating how the contemporary Malawian society is an adaptation and a degeneration of its traditional past. Through this kind of writing, the novelist is able to re-construct the myth of Malawi and articulate the social ideals, bemoan lack of meaningful development and provide the necessary counter-discourse to the long standing political rhetoric regarding the country’s economic and social development.

Keywords: metanarrative, myth of nation-state, the oral tradition, national consciousness, motif, narrativization