LE3 .A278 2010

2010

Vincent, Kerry

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

English

English & Theatre Studies

This thesis explores Western representations of Africa, and the extent to which these representations continue to perpetuate notions of Western authority. Elleke Boehmer’s recent novel, Nile Baby, allows a narrowed investigation of this extensive topic with its adaptation of the traditional West African figure of the ogbanje. The ogbanje is a repeater child who exists on the threshold between the human and spirit worlds, resulting in a continuous cycle of death and rebirth to the same mother. Although rooted in West African oral tradition, this figure, as a literary trope, has been adapted into written dialogue to inform broader social and political issues that govern the colonial and postcolonial world. Entering into this dialogue is non- West African postcolonial theorist and fiction writer, Elleke Boehmer, whose critical work illustrates a consciousness of Western assumed cultural centrality. This awareness elicits the question: what is Boehmer’s purpose in adapting the traditional West African figure of the ogbanje, and is she able to avoid its misappropriation? I argue that Boehmer’s ogbanje acts as a vehicle to inform issues of liminality and diaspora in a postcolonial Britain. Postcolonial theory from Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, as well as Boehmer’s own scholarly work are applied to investigate these issues. As the ogbanje moves through the narrative, it connects Boehmer’s diverse characters and uncovers a long embedded history of Africa in England. This intercultural connected history exposes the fallacy of Britain as a homogenous nation–– a notion that dominates the European literary canon. In revealing this fallacy, Boehmer successfully undercuts assumed Western centrality. Consequently, her appropriation of the West African literary trope of the ogbanje connects rather than distances the Third world to the First, and thus, evades misappropriation.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:696