Aspects of Neo-colonialism in NgugiwaThiong’o’sPetals of Blood (1977) and Sembene Ousmane’s Xala (1975)

Abstract

This dissertation entitled ‘Aspects of Neo-Colonialism in NgugiwaThiong’o’sPetals ofBlood (1977) and SembeneOusmane’sXala (1975)’, investigated aspects of neo-colonialism, a new exploitative system that has marked Africa as a whole after the 1960’s. More precisely, this research is limited to the study of the issues of corruption and religious hypocrisy in the first chapter, the quest for national identity in the second and reverse racism in the third chapter . The theoretical ground is borrowed from Frantz Fanon’s ‘On National Culture’ in his The Wretched of The Earth, and HomiBhabha’s concept of ‘Hybridity’. The basic findings of our investigation are: first native governments’ renewal of exploitation and corruption after independence. Second native populations’ struggle to cut their bounds with the ex-colonizer. Third, the commitment of novelists and filmmakers to the denunciation of their post independent states’ plight with neo-colonialism and their quest for their natives’ traditional values.