Thematizing Postcolonialism: Paul T. Zeleza's Smouldering Charcoal, Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place and Cheikh H. Kane's Ambiguous Adventure

Abstract

Using Paul T. Zeleza's Smouldering Charcoal, Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place and Cheikh H. Kane's Ambiguous Adventure, this paper examines the specific ways that postcolonialism is viewed from outside the Western world. The authors present three distinct approaches. In Zeleza's text, the focus is corruption, political oppression, and rural and urban poverty, with the question of the democratization of Africa at its core. Kincaid's non fictional goes beyond a critique of the socio-political and economic life of Antigua to explore the effects of colonialism and post-slavery on the island nation. Kane's critically examines the spiritual and intellectual development of a Muslim child in two environments: the Muslim Diallobé environment and the Western society. While the first two belong to those collections of works that incontrovertibly represent the disillusionment of independence and question the integrity, vision, and practices of the post-independence states, the third one is more concerned with what seems to be an antagonism of two worlds and how they conflict.