No Longer at Ease An Outpost of Progress Home and Exile

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Final essay for my English class
Since the first contacts between Africans and Europeans, writing has played an important role as a communication tool for Africans. While Africans still speak their native languages, they mostly write in European languages, especially French and English as this were the two major colonizers, while Arabic remains one of the major languages because of the spread of Islam. In seeking to preserve and transmit culture, Africans, mostly write using European languages and reach a bigger audience beyond their communities, and in the process shed light on aspects of their culture and the legacy of colonialism in Africa. Decades after independence from colonialism, African literature was closely linked to political and cultural issues, like the encounter of Africans with Europeans, slavery and the place of culture in these societies.
The dominant writings on Africa have been by the Europeans, and to a smaller extent the Americans, yet they are one-sided accounts that deliberately show that African counter with whites was beneficial. Achebe in Home and Exile (27-29), wrote that the enslavement and expatriation of Africans” seemed to him “a blessing; and not even a blessing in disguise; but a blessing that is recognizable.” This was one of the justifications for enslavement and exploitation of the African continent. There were well-organized communities that were destroyed by slavery and colonialism, but this is overlooked even as the imperial empires acquired vast riches and influenced how societies were organized. The Eurocentric views on Africa ignored that there were thriving communities and lumped people and cultures into big groups.
Literature is a powerful force to highlight the experiences of Africans, but western literature is also biased and misrepresentative. “In the end, I began to understand. There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative” (Home 24). The depiction of Africans as uncultured and uncivilized is a concern since the perspectives and worldviews of Africans are largely ignored. African writers who have lived on the continent and outside Africa are exposed to different cultures and are better placed to highlight aspects of traditional African culture and the influence of Western values in Africa. Even in the stories set in the 19th century and early in the mid 20th century the clash between African and western cultures is a common theme among African writers, but western writers contrast the literature and elevate western texts and ideas about Africa. The clash between traditions and modernity has shaped Africans, and stories by diverse writers emphasize how these experiences differ and are similar.
In the postcolonial fiction on Africa looking at the history of the content helps to understand how the society changed and even retained elements of traditional culture. The presence of colonialists had a profound impact on Africa and influence governance structures, where different communities and people were brought together. Previously, I would have looked at Africa in totality, but now appreciate the need to look more deeply into the influence of Christianity and western education on how the different societies changed. African cultures were and are still an important part of the community. At the same time, the clash between the two cultures are still present in the postcolonial societies, even as this does not receive much coverage in literature, arts, and the media
The social and political significance cannot be ignored as it allows people to understand and evaluate the reality of everyday experiences on the conflict of values. In No Longer At Ease, Obi Okonkwo met Clara Okeke in England, but could not marry her because she was an ‘osu’ or outcast in the Igbo community of Nigeria. “I am an osu,' she wept. Silence. She stopped weeping and quietly disengaged herself from him. Still, he said nothing” (Achebe 71). Despite both Obi and Clara being highly educated when compared to other Igbo people, the two could not be together without conflict related to changes and tradition. On the one hand, there ar...