| dc.description.abstract | In the recent past, scholars have delved into the
challenges African countries face in establishing Western-style
democracy, often overlooking the insights provided by literary
works. Most political and social science writers attribute these
challenges to corruption, ethnic mobilization, and illiteracy
(Forson et al. 2016). However, little attention has been given
to the similarities between colonial structures and post-independent
African autocracies as delineated in literary works.
The pioneer modern states in Africa emerged during colonialism
and were inherently authoritarian, with aims inconsistent
with democratic principles. While early Black thinkers highlight
colonial violence as a key aspect to mimic for Africa’s
liberation, contemporary scholarship has paid little attention
to imitation of other colonial elements such as negative ethnicity,
autocracy, corruption, political assassinations, and murders
in literary works. This study examines the nexus between
poor governance and colonial heritage as represented in Ayi
Kwei Armah’s The Beautiful One Are Not Yet Born (1968),
Brian Chikwava’s Harare North (2009), and David Mulwa’s
Inheritance (2005). This analytical study was carried out on
the three African works of fiction and drama to interrogate the
impact of colonial heritage on the sparse democratic gains and
poor governance in sub-Saharan Africa today. The primary texts
were purposively sampled because of the prevalence of the subject.
Using qualitative inquiry, I deploy narrative research to
analyze data from primary and secondary texts. The study was
anchored in Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial concept of mimicry as a
theoretical base for interpretation. | en_US |
