Riffing on Resistance: Music in Chris Abani's Graceland
2008; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 39; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1920-1222
Autores Tópico(s)Literary Theory and Cultural Hermeneutics
ResumoI am black: I am incarnation of a complete fusion with world, an intuitive understanding of earth, an abandonment of my ego in heart of cosmos, and no white man, no matter how intelligent he may be, can ever understand Louis Armstrong and of Congo. (Fanon Black Skin, White Masks 45) That is what road did--ate away at edges of your resolve until you were nothing but frayed soul fabric. From then on there was only music--and sacrifices it demanded of you. (Abani Graceland 275) I. Introduction: Music is Weapon of Future While addressing issue of cultural violence against African nations in The Wretched of Earth, colonized subject-turned-First-World academic Frantz Fanon argues that for Black nationalist, it is not enough to get back to people in that past out of which they have already emerged; rather we must join them in that fluctuating movement which they are just giving a shape to, and which, as soon as it has started, will be signal for everything to be called into question. (227) Fanon advocates that African nationalists understand their respective nations' preceding cultural and political activity to engage in current struggles against colonial oppression. Nigerian musician-turned-political leader Fela Anikulapo Kuti extends Fanon's argument with his statement, music is weapon of future (Music is Weapon). The afrobeat revolutionary's vision of Nigeria's cultural prospects, and Fanon's insistence on momentary action through a knowledge of nation's artistic history, bear similarity to ideas that author Chris Abani riffs on in his Hemingway/Pen Award-winning 2004 novel, Graceland. Chris Abani's Graceland belongs to the of Nigerian authors, also termed the children of postcolony (Waberi 8),(1) whose writing has recently exploded in United States and United Kingdom publishing marketplace. (2) Novels such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl, Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come, Unoma Azuah's Sky-High Flames, Helon Habila's Waiting for An Angel or Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation, as well as Abani's Graceland and Becoming Abigail, all interpolate Western and Nigerian themes to convey their perspective on Nigerian culture in context of neocolonialism, multiculturalism and globalization. All of these novels integrate intercultural themes in a form of ethno-cultural hybridity that [incarnates] a complete fusion with world as Fanon suggests (Black Skin 45). In Graceland, Abani offers a complex, multidimensional perspective on Nigeria, which is similarly reflected in other third-generation texts set in Nigeria (such as Adichie, Atta, Azuah or Habila). Graceland juxtaposes Lagos of early 1980s, a place so ugly and violent yet beautiful at same time (7), with his quiet hometown of Afikpo. Yet, traditional maternal culture represented by Afikpo, mothers' cryptic recipes and Igbo proverbs, is fluidly fused with Lagos buka food, Nigerian juju and American pop culture by teenage protagonist Elvis, an Elvis impersonator and avid Western movie fan. Just as Abani smoothly moves through English, Nigerian pidgin, Scottish dialect or cowboy lingo in his text, Elvis effortlessly navigates from Moroko slums to highlife clubs, or reads Rilke, Ellison or Koran just as readily as Onitsha Market pamphlets. Throughout novel, however, Elvis must contend with global concerns, such as poverty, prostitution and human trafficking. The plot follows Elvis on his quest to escape Lagos as a dancer. His widowed, alcoholic father Sunday, a military colonel who dabbles in narcotics and organ harvesting, further complicates Elvis's flight. Encouraging Elvis to pursue his dream and escape neocolonial oppression are his friend, Redemption, and his mentor, King of Beggars. …
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