Arnold Tumasang - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Arnold Tumasang
This study examines the concepts of time and space in selected works of Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kin... more This study examines the concepts of time and space in selected works of Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid. It stems from the observation that many critics discussing the works of African and Caribbean writers do not perceive time as a continuum where past and present merge but they consider the Eurocentric perception that delimits time into the past, the present and the future. Besides, according to African philosophy, time and space are intrinsically linked. This creates the necessity for postcolonial scholars to incorporate time in the examination of space. This research is therefore predicated upon the hypothesis that Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid in similar ways use the African perception of time in the construction of future hybrid spaces in their novels. This claim has been supported with evidence from four texts— two from each author, and critical material from other postcolonial critics. This study has adopted New Historicism and the concepts of time and space from an African ph...
This paper examines the conflict between Western and African religious practices and the strategi... more This paper examines the conflict between Western and African religious practices and the strategies employed by Francis Ateh to resolve the oppositional trends in a post-colonial Anglophone Cameroonian countryside represented in Seat of Thorns. The problem underlying this research is that the rejection of the culture of the indigenes has led to conflict and cultural inertia. The religious practices of the indigenous people in the novel are continuously described as savage and pagan by the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church because of the inability of the latter to consider the positive aspects of indigenous culture. This paper is therefore predicated on the idea that the enculturation of certain African religious practices in church rituals in Seat of Thorns is a potent means to ameliorate upon the worship of God and develop the zeal for adherence to Christianity in the indigenes of the Cameroonian society. This paper highlights the various measures employed by the author to d...
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper examines conflict and the establishment of hybrid identities in Zakes Mda's The Heart ... more This paper examines conflict and the establishment of hybrid identities in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. The study stems from the premise that colonialist ideologies and discourses have adversely affected relationships between the north and the south. From a colonialist perspective, the multicultural configuration of the world skews the Eurocentric move towards the establishment of Western enlightenment in colonial and post-colonial societies. As seen in the novels, the colonial setting becomes a conflict space because colonialism is simultaneously accompanied by psychological or coercive resistance. The colonized resists the discourses that described them as inferior and they also rejected their dehumanization and exploitation by the colonizers. Discourses about the inferiority of colonized people are continuously resisted because the colonized also have a culture which they consider superior to the cultures of the colonizers. These oppositional views create conflict. However, there is the need to gaze into the idyllic precolonial societies free from all abhorrent colonialist ideologies and practices. Thus, the realization that cultural tolerance and adaptation are ideal in the face of discrimination and xenophobia reshaped the manner in which African literary writers and critics perceived and conceived their relationship with their 'former' colonial masters. This paper probes into the discursive ways in which Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid deconstruct the obnoxious inter-human relationships in their societies. The analyses demonstrate that Kincaid and Mda have consistently shifted to the past in order to make positive reflections that can heal their societies of their various predicaments. They have created a composite culture that fuses past indigenous culture with contemporary Western culture.
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper examines Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga in the light of postcolonial concep... more This paper examines Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga in the light of postcolonial concepts of essentialism and time. This study is motivated by the observation that relationships between the former colonialists and colonized as represented in contemporary diasporic literature are still characterized by rivalry, racism and ideologies about the backwardness of Africans, Caribbeans and Asians. The creation of the Commonwealth of Nations has not served as a platform to eradicate the inauspicious binary matrices that existed in the days of the British Empire. African migrants in England are unable to effectively integrate themselves in the socioeconomic sphere since their 'Otherness' remains a consideration for rejection. Oppression and marginalization are therefore presented as traits in Western culture whereas the spirit of community, attachment to cultural values and the desire to foster the ideals of the past characterize Ugandan indigenous attitudes as presented in Manchester Happened. From this problematic stance, the following research questions were derived: How is home constructed in Manchester? What is the significance of making journeys back to the homeland? This study is therefore predicated upon the claim that Ugandans in Manchester exhibit trends of their indigenous culture as they seek to assert their cultural identity in the diaspora and back home in Uganda. Globalization and modernity affect some characters that are enamored by Western attitudes. However, Nansubuga presents Ugandans who embody native customs which they practice daily in Manchester, and besides, they regularly travel to Uganda for other communal rites. In these instances, value is ascribed to native customs and the heritage from their ancestral past.
This study examines the concepts of time and space in selected works of Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kin... more This study examines the concepts of time and space in selected works of Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid. It stems from the observation that many critics discussing the works of African and Caribbean writers do not perceive time as a continuum where past and present merge but they consider the Eurocentric perception that delimits time into the past, the present and the future. Besides, according to African philosophy, time and space are intrinsically linked. This creates the necessity for postcolonial scholars to incorporate time in the examination of space. This research is therefore predicated upon the hypothesis that Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid in similar ways use the African perception of time in the construction of future hybrid spaces in their novels. This claim has been supported with evidence from four texts— two from each author, and critical material from other postcolonial critics. This study has adopted New Historicism and the concepts of time and space from an African ph...
This paper examines the conflict between Western and African religious practices and the strategi... more This paper examines the conflict between Western and African religious practices and the strategies employed by Francis Ateh to resolve the oppositional trends in a post-colonial Anglophone Cameroonian countryside represented in Seat of Thorns. The problem underlying this research is that the rejection of the culture of the indigenes has led to conflict and cultural inertia. The religious practices of the indigenous people in the novel are continuously described as savage and pagan by the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church because of the inability of the latter to consider the positive aspects of indigenous culture. This paper is therefore predicated on the idea that the enculturation of certain African religious practices in church rituals in Seat of Thorns is a potent means to ameliorate upon the worship of God and develop the zeal for adherence to Christianity in the indigenes of the Cameroonian society. This paper highlights the various measures employed by the author to d...
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper examines conflict and the establishment of hybrid identities in Zakes Mda's The Heart ... more This paper examines conflict and the establishment of hybrid identities in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. The study stems from the premise that colonialist ideologies and discourses have adversely affected relationships between the north and the south. From a colonialist perspective, the multicultural configuration of the world skews the Eurocentric move towards the establishment of Western enlightenment in colonial and post-colonial societies. As seen in the novels, the colonial setting becomes a conflict space because colonialism is simultaneously accompanied by psychological or coercive resistance. The colonized resists the discourses that described them as inferior and they also rejected their dehumanization and exploitation by the colonizers. Discourses about the inferiority of colonized people are continuously resisted because the colonized also have a culture which they consider superior to the cultures of the colonizers. These oppositional views create conflict. However, there is the need to gaze into the idyllic precolonial societies free from all abhorrent colonialist ideologies and practices. Thus, the realization that cultural tolerance and adaptation are ideal in the face of discrimination and xenophobia reshaped the manner in which African literary writers and critics perceived and conceived their relationship with their 'former' colonial masters. This paper probes into the discursive ways in which Zakes Mda and Jamaica Kincaid deconstruct the obnoxious inter-human relationships in their societies. The analyses demonstrate that Kincaid and Mda have consistently shifted to the past in order to make positive reflections that can heal their societies of their various predicaments. They have created a composite culture that fuses past indigenous culture with contemporary Western culture.
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2020
This paper examines Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga in the light of postcolonial concep... more This paper examines Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga in the light of postcolonial concepts of essentialism and time. This study is motivated by the observation that relationships between the former colonialists and colonized as represented in contemporary diasporic literature are still characterized by rivalry, racism and ideologies about the backwardness of Africans, Caribbeans and Asians. The creation of the Commonwealth of Nations has not served as a platform to eradicate the inauspicious binary matrices that existed in the days of the British Empire. African migrants in England are unable to effectively integrate themselves in the socioeconomic sphere since their 'Otherness' remains a consideration for rejection. Oppression and marginalization are therefore presented as traits in Western culture whereas the spirit of community, attachment to cultural values and the desire to foster the ideals of the past characterize Ugandan indigenous attitudes as presented in Manchester Happened. From this problematic stance, the following research questions were derived: How is home constructed in Manchester? What is the significance of making journeys back to the homeland? This study is therefore predicated upon the claim that Ugandans in Manchester exhibit trends of their indigenous culture as they seek to assert their cultural identity in the diaspora and back home in Uganda. Globalization and modernity affect some characters that are enamored by Western attitudes. However, Nansubuga presents Ugandans who embody native customs which they practice daily in Manchester, and besides, they regularly travel to Uganda for other communal rites. In these instances, value is ascribed to native customs and the heritage from their ancestral past.