"While history went on mocking the victims of branding irons and sugar-plantations that made Jane Austen's people wealthy beyond compare," the people that Felix Mnthali love are being suppressed because nobody will hear the outcry of someone of a different tongue. Felix genuinely believes that his people have a story to tell that is beyond what the history books are telling. Their cry is suppressed by the Stranglehold of English Literature that says how a person may speak, and what language is acceptable. This leads to a bottleneck of knowledge to where only the knowledge, morals, and laws of the oppressors is allowed to continue. Felix knows that the values of his people are in jeopardy of extinction because of this bottleneck. The true shame is that the people he is defending have a little voice that only those interested will hear, and though Felix may be shouting his voice may not be enough.
If it is my opinion that you are seeking on the matter I will post that history will prove that very often the voices of the conquered are never heard because it is those who win the battle that write the history books. So, is it a shame? My reply would be yes, I love the culture and life that Africans lead, and I believe they have more to offer us then we may have to offer them. Do I agree with the writer? Yes I do. Felix calls it as he sees it when he says that English Lit. was at the very heart of the conquest because we control the knowledge and controlling the education of those who are so lucky as to receive the educations that we have to offer the knowledge we give them is biased towards our own morals,and laws.
In the end of this little journal, all I can say is I am sorry that we are a part of this system that strangles independence of morals, beliefs, and laws.
It is true that history is written by the winners, but we are lucky in the 21st century that there are so many more ways to communicate that the winners are becoming only one voice among many. I like your point about how you quote Mnthali saying that literature is the heart of conquest. This is a powerful observation because it is a subtle conquest. You make an interesting point about being sorry that you are part of the imperial system. There is a famous French author, Hessel, who says to take that sorrow and do something with it to fix what we regret. So, here you are, reading African literature and learning to value more than just Jane Austen, as it were. The other thing you can do is go an learn another language so you can open up the expanse of people you can talk with.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you Dr. Bernander, it means a lot that you would find my writing interesting. Hopefully, I can continue to arouse your interest in future blogs.
ReplyDeleteI could not tell if I was supposed to blog about Girls at War by Chinua Achebe, but I will anyway. On an honest level my heart breaks to read this story even though it is obviously not true. The fact is that in any country at war there is starvation, depression and desperation, but I have an overwhelming feeling on compassion when I read that this fictional girl Glady's would suffer.
ReplyDeleteThere is a simple fact and it is this war is Hell. I am ashamed to know that people suffer, and that it may sometimes seem that our only option is war because a war is not just between men, but the women and children. War does not have to take a physical toll, but it can take a: mental, emotional, and spiritual toll as well. As a man I will admit that I grew up fantasizing about being a soldier and being a hero, but one thing I am coming to realize is that war is not what the T.V. screen portrays.
The main reason I posted this is not because of the war scenes in it; it was the fact that the innocent girl that Achebe created called Glady's went from an inspiration to a women that my heart breaks for. It may seem unpopular in society today to say, but my inner man just wants to protect that girl that Glady's represents. I want her to be protected from such atrocities. Does that make me Archaic, or oppressive to woman's rights? If it is may I forever be known as it because I don't care if you are a man, woman, child, or elder I do not want anyone to suffer and have to make choices that in a woman's point of view would "tumble into bed for an American dollar." It saddens me to hear this, I do not just woman's suffering to be eased, but everyone's. Instead, most of us will marry, get a house, have kids, and live lives of self-indulgence, and never pick that stranger up that is walking down the street.