Speaking in Song: Power, Subversion and the Postcolonial Text
2011; Canadian Comparative Literature Association; Volume: 32; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1913-9659
Autores Tópico(s)Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
ResumoBecause song is one of the most pervasive oral forms in Africa, it is possible that postcolonial writers' frequent recourse to this genre constitutes a mode of re-placement, as referred in the opening quotation. Re-placement is deemed to mean idiomatic relocation signifying (re)placement. This article explores the interface between song and Anglophone postcolonial written texts. My exploration is prompted by the prevalence of song in all genres of African postcolonial texts. Even a casual glance at titles across regions and across generations of African writers will note the pervasiveness of the concept of song in the African writer's agenda. Poets, fiction writers, and playwrights have woven a web of song-conscious texts across the continent. Nigeria's literary tradition offers John Pepper Clark's Song of a Goat (1961), Ojaide Tanure's The 'Endless Song (1989), and Niyi Osundare's song-texts, including Moonsongs (1988), Songs of the Marketplace (1983), and Songs of the Season (1990). Zimbabwe's Sekai Nzenza-Shand offers Songs to an African Sunset (1997) while Ghana's Kofi Anyidoho textualizes song inPraise Song for The Land (200O). The famous songs of Okot p'Bitek (1966-73), Byron Kawadwa's Oluyimba Liva Wankoko [Song of the Cock] (1972), and Okello Oculi's Song for the Sun in Us (2001) are testimony to the enchanted landscape of the song tradition in Uganda. Finally, Kenya's Ngugi wa Thion'go's Mother Sing for Me (1982),
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