Abstract:
Disability, a motif in African fiction, is used as a trope of postcolonial disillusionment and empowerment. Existing studies on disability in African fiction have concentrated mostly on its literal interpretations, with scant emphasis on disability as a trope of the disabled African continent. This study was, therefore, designed to analyse the representations of disability in selected postcolonial African novels, with a view to determining how disabled characters are utilised as metaphors for neocolonial experiences in African nations.
Hippolyte Taine’ Sociological Approach to Literature and Lennard Davis’ Social Model of Disability Theory were adopted as the framework, while the interpretive design was used. Ten African novels were purposively selected because of their deep engagement with the trope of postcolonial Africa as a disabled continent. The novels were J. M. Coetzee’s Foe, In the Heart of the Country (IHC) and Waiting for the Barbarians (WB), Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn (TS), The Virtuous Woman (TVW) and The Descendants (TD), Aminata Sow Fall’s The Beggars’ Strike (TBS), Ben Okri’s The Famished Road (TFR), Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Petals of Blood (POB) and Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley (MA). The texts were subjected to literary analysis.
The most persistent concern is the portrayal of disability generated by instances of neocolonial disillusionment through tyrannical governance, unemployment, spervading gender dissonance. Disability is inscribed through tyrannical rule of postindependence African leaders (Foe, IHC, WB, POB and MA). Inability to hold on to family land generates unemployment (WB and TFR). The unending quests for power, position and wealth by post independence African leaders are portrayed as restricting and results to outright exploitation of the masses (POB, TFR, WB and MA). Ghettos and alleys are creation of neocolonial neglect. These are depicted as incapacitating environments (TFR, POB and MA). A similar structure of neocolonial misrule forces young women into prostitution (POB, TFR and MA). Female characters are exploited and become victims of double standard, a corollary of gender dissonance, observed in African society which allows men to be labelled as non-disabled and women as disabled (TS, TVW, TD and TBS). Neocolonial abuse of fundamental rights of lower class citizens and their incapacity to challenge this abuse is depicted as disabling (TFR, POB, MA, Foe, WB, IHC and TVW). Most of the characters that are depicted as disabled share a similar experience of having non-congenital disability which is imposed on them by neocolonial misgovernance and frustrating social environment.
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African novels depict disabled characters as a microcosm of marginalisation of neocolonial African society from decision-making, social life and economic development. Therefore, post independence Africa manifests a continuous struggle for freedom from colonisation, oppression and disablement through the trope of disability.
