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Papers by Mawuloe Koffi Kodah

Religious Studies and Theology, May 6, 2020

Revue de l'Université de Moncton, Jan 15, 2014

IOSR journal of humanities and social science, 2012

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, May 31, 2018

Corruption is particularly associated with multiparty democratic governance practices in Africa. ... more Corruption is particularly associated with multiparty democratic governance practices in Africa. Although the phenomenon of corruption can be traced to every human society, irrespective of race or colour, it appears more pronounced in Africa than elsewhere. Africa's underdevelopment is largely attributable to the impact of corruption in the public sphere. The President of the Republic of Ghana in a recent speech described corruption as " Mass murder ". It is significant to note that all the military interventions which truncated democratic governance from the 24 th February, 1966 Coup d'Etat which overthrew Ghana's first Republican Constitution under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to the 31 st December one that ended the reign of Dr. Hilla Liman, were justified attempts to fight the cancer of corruption. The competitive nature of multiparty democracy and the so-called 'winner-take-all' syndrome, coupled with the fervent desire of individuals or groups of people to capture and control the public sphere and resources of their countries, provide the driving motivation for corruption. This paper examines the various parameters of corruption and democratic politics in Amu Djoleto's Money Galore and Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People so as to lay bare the intricacies of the existing relationship between the two phenomena, and how difficult it is to eradicate the former without annihilating the latter. It points out the fact that corruption is an integral component of democratic governance practices. Any successful fight against it can only be predicated on a drastic socio-cultural transformation driven by a concerted education towards this end. The study is posited in the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) of Van Dijk (2000).

University of Cape Coast, 2015

Asemka: A Bi-Lingual Literary Journal of University of Cape Coast, 2020

This paper examines the reactions of women to gender conflict in Calixthe Beyala‟s C’est le solei... more This paper examines the reactions of women to gender conflict in Calixthe Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga. Driven by the impulse of feminism, Beyala brings to the fore the age-old conflict between man and woman as fuelled by traditional values which serve as ideological grounding for manipulation and oppressive exploitation of women by their male counterparts. This antithetical situation resulting from biological differences between the two sexes is the source of perpetual conflict which serves as raw material for these two Beyala‟s narrative texts. The study seeks to critically reflect on the various ways women in Beyala‟s C’est le soleil qui m’a brulée and Tu t’appelleras Tanga react to oppression and exploitation resulting from patriarchal domination. It therefore examines the sources, nature of this conflict, and how women react to it in the two novels. Besides, it critically examines the extent to which these reactions are justified. The study ...

Ghana Journal of Linguistics, Dec 12, 2017

Religious Studies and Theology, 2020

Asemka: A Bi-Lingual Literary Journal of University of Cape Coast, 2020

La conception et création du monde sont attribuées à un créateur divin, invisible, omniprésent et... more La conception et création du monde sont attribuées à un créateur divin, invisible, omniprésent et omnipotent généralement dénommé Dieu, et celui-ci protège, nourrit et pourvoit les besoins de ses créatures. L‟homme, nommé contremaitre de la création par Dieu lui-même, est doué d‟une cognition supérieure qui l‟aide à se munir, se protéger et préserver son environnement. En dépit de son aptitude innée, l‟homme persévère de charger Dieu de sa survie sur la terre, épargnant ses propres compétences. Dans son roman Gouverneurs de la rosée, Jacques Roumain (1946) met en jeu la résignation de l‟homme devant les défis de la nature, de ses propres actions et inactions, et conséquemment sa dépendance excessive vis-à-vis de Dieu dans la résolution d‟un désastre environnemental. Affligé par la désertification, suite au déboisement et d‟autres activités destructrices de la production agricole, le peuple de Fonds-Rouge d‟Haïti se réfugie dans des rituels, s‟abandonnant ainsi à la grâce de Dieu et ...

IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 2013

Religious Studies and Theology, May 6, 2020

Revue de l'Université de Moncton, Jan 15, 2014

IOSR journal of humanities and social science, 2012

European Scientific Journal, ESJ, May 31, 2018

University of Cape Coast, 2015

Asemka: A Bi-Lingual Literary Journal of University of Cape Coast, 2020

Ghana Journal of Linguistics, Dec 12, 2017

Religious Studies and Theology, 2020

Asemka: A Bi-Lingual Literary Journal of University of Cape Coast, 2020

IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 2013

WIIRE, Revue de Langues, Lettres, Arts Sciences humaines et sociales., 2019

Prostitution which is frowned upon in all human societies in general, appears strongly in the te... more Prostitution which is frowned upon in all human societies in general,
appears strongly in the texts of Beyala and Tansi as an expression of social revolt. The present study examines it in C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée and La Vie et Demie as an ideological statement aimed at challenging patriarchal domination and social injustice against women in African societies. It would be an apology for achieving Goals 5 and 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is based on a qualitative analysis of textual data collected from both texts, inspired by Fairclough's (1994) and Van Dijk's (2003) theory of critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Achebe's narrative text, A Man of The People (1966), is a political satire in which he exposes th... more Achebe's narrative text, A Man of The People (1966), is a political satire in which he exposes the intricacies of democratic politics in a Nigerian setting. At the heart of this narrative is a clear denunciation of a bastardized political system in a perverse socio-cultural and economic environment similar to what pertains in Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968), Ahmadou Kourouma's The Suns of Independence (1970) and Amu Djoleto's Money Galore (1975), among many others. Despite the fact that A Man of The people was published many years ago, its central theme, that is politics, corruption and underdevelopment in Africa, is still relevant to contemporary socio-cultural, economic and political context in Africa. No doubt the novel is classified among African classics in literary studies. This study seeks to critically examine the nature of linguistic tools and stylistic detours that define the satiric outlooks of this narrative text of Achebe as a denunciative discourse and its impact on the effective transmission of the message of socio-cultural and attitudinal transformation for sustainable socioeconomic and political development. Considering the nature of literature as a social discourse, in the words of Roger Fowler (1981), the study will be posited in the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis CDA (van Dijk, 1993b). Critical discourse analysis is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequalities are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context (van Dijk, 2001).

Quête identitaire au coeur de la bâtardise: le dilemme de Fama dans Les Soleils des Indépendances... more Quête identitaire au coeur de la bâtardise: le dilemme de Fama dans Les Soleils des Indépendances d'Ahmadou Kourouma Résumé Des indépendances à ce jour, les pays africains sont toujours à la recherche de politiques de développement viables sans succès. Les régimes civils issus des élections multipartites au lendemain des indépendances politiques ont rapidement fait place à des régimes parti-uniques peu après. Ceux-ci ont à leur tour été successivement remplacés par des régimes militaires à caractère dictatorial. Par conséquent, la quête de l'identité perdue sous le joug colonial reste une marche interminable pour le continent noir. Tantôt c'est le capitalisme, tantôt c'est le socialisme, tantôt, c'est la démocratie-socialiste ou capitaliste, ou quelque chose d'autre. L'Afrique est-elle vraiment indépendante ? Comment s'identifie-t-elle au sein de la communauté des nations ? Peut-elle retourner dans son passé lointain révolu pour se redécouvrir ? Le devenir du continent noir est-il intrinsèquement lié au recouvrement d'un passé peu glorieux tel que revendiqué par Fama ? Telles devraient être les questions que se pose Kourouma à travers l'évolution de Fama, son protagoniste dans Les Soleils des Indépendances. Fama attire à la fois la pitié et la condamnation. Né prince, Fama assiste lamentablement au déclin du pouvoir aristocratique des Doumbouya dont il est le dernier descendant, le vrai prince héritier. Il est tracté entre deux mondes qui s'excluent mutuellement sous les soleils 'des indépendances maléfiques'– l'aristocratie traditionnelle d'un côté, et la république moderne de l'autre. Imbu d'une insolence princière et d'une mégalomanie aveuglante, Fama engage une lutte acharnée contre la nouvelle ère qui lui ôte son identité princière sous les soleils des indépendances. Cette étude examine la nature désillusionnée et désorientée de ce personnage de Kourouma comme un reflet de l'image de l'Afrique postcoloniale en quête perpétuelle de ses repères identitaires pour sortir des bourbes de l'exploitation et de l'avilissement néocolonialistes contemporains. L'étude porte fondamentalement sur l'analyse de données textuelles recueillies du tout premier texte romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma qui se voudrait un diagnostic des indépendances africaines. Elle s'inspire d'une combinaison des approches d'analyse critique du discours et sociologique. Le but de cette étude est de formuler des réflexions critiques conduisant au développement socio-économique et humain durable en provocant de nouveaux débats sur les choix de politiques qui s'imposent pour le devenir de l'Afrique.

This study critically reflects on Kourouma's use of linguistic expressivity to generate or induce... more This study critically reflects on Kourouma's use of linguistic expressivity to generate or induce laughter, meant to expose socioeconomic and political ills which threaten sustainable human development in post-independence African states. Tragic as these ills are, they require serious reflections and drastic attentions. Kourouma however chooses humour and laughter as an appropriate vehicle through which he draws attention to the need for Africans to reexamine their situations in a more sober manner in order to unearth the real causes of their developmental challenges so as to proffer the requisite solutions to them. The study therefore examines the various stylistic techniques Kourouma deploys in two of his award winning novels, Les Soleils des Indépendances and Allah n'est pas obligé to achieve these objectives. It is based mainly on textual data gathered from these two novels and analyzed in the conceptual framework thematic discourse analysis. It concludes that Kourouma's language in the two literary texts is effectively expressive through the imagery it evokes. These imagery result from Kourouma's successful combination of various literary techniques such as incongruous comparisons and proverbs, semantic deformations, lexical accumulations and acrimonious repetitions, ungrammatical syntactic structures, intrusion of vulgar Malinke lexical items and scatological expressions to provoke laughter and critical reflections.

Cet article examine le thème du pessimisme comme une perspective dominante dans Les Soleils des I... more Cet article examine le thème du pessimisme comme une perspective dominante dans Les Soleils des Indépendances d'Ahmadou Kourouma. Il retrace le pessimisme à travers le jeu des personnages et les indices spatio-temporelles tels que Kourouma les déploie dans ce texte. À cet égard, l'article y examine certains des personnages clés dans le cadre spatio-temporel dans lequel ils évoluent. L'examen de ces phénomènes révèle la réalité de l'idée de l'Afro-pessimisme. L'indépendance de l'Afrique telle que perçue à travers ces trois phénomènes littéraires que sont les personnages, la spatialité et la temporalité, est un échec total sur tous les fronts, un concept vide de substance. Par conséquent, l'étude conclut que la mort tragique de Fama, le protagoniste du texte, dans sa tentative de reconstruction de sa dignité et humanité perdues sous « les soleils des indépendances » est une évidente manifestation et concrétisation du pessimisme dans ce texte romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma. Abstract This paper examines the theme of pessimism as a dominant view in Ahmadou Kourouma's novel, Les Soleils des Indépendances (The Suns of Independence).

One major characteristic of the artistry of Ahmadou Kourouma as a renowned African novelist is hi... more One major characteristic of the artistry of Ahmadou Kourouma as a renowned African novelist is his linguistic dexterity. In an attempt to realise the didactic function of literary works, Kourouma creates rare harmony between fiction and reality through a language that is generally representative of the socio-cultural background of the characters and the thematic orientation of his novels. Kourouma's characters are therefore always equipped with a language that reflects the socio-cultural and historical realities of the setting in which they evolve in the novels. This study focuses on Birahima, the twelve years old child-soldier, narrator of the story of Allah n'est pas obligé, the last novel of Kourouma published in his life time in 2000, barely three years before his death in Lyon (France) in December 2003. Through a combination of the theories of utilitarianism, superiority and realism, the study critically examines the language of this child-soldier narrator in relation to the historical realities which inform the background of the story in the novel. The study reveals that the choice of the child-soldier helps the novelist to expose the crude reality of a senseless fratricidal war in Liberian. That is, defying all diplomacy, all social taboos, all linguistic norms, Kourouma's child-soldier-narrator lays bare the unbridled truth of the atrocities and carnage that characterized the Liberian civil war and thus puts to shame the perpetrators. Combining subtle naivety with humour and sarcasm, Kourouma employs the child-soldier-narrator's language to satirize the architects of civil strife and armed conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Key words: theory of superiority – realism – utilitarianism-child-soldier – naivety – humour – sarcasm – satire

This paper examines the character of Fama, the protagonist in The Suns of Independence of Ahmadou... more This paper examines the character of Fama, the protagonist in The Suns of Independence of Ahmadou Kourouma, as an exact replica of a foot-soldier in contemporary Ghanaian socioeconomic and political development. In this regard, it draws a parallelism between the character of Fama and a foot-soldier and makes recommendations for the way forward in order to sustain socioeconomic and democratic development. Consequently, the study draws attention to issues relating to political fanaticism and their accompanying tragic disenchantment for unsuspecting self-seeking citizens in emerging multiparty democratic states in developing countries such as Ghana. In the light of the inherent dangers in self-seeking political activism as seen in the character of Fama, for that matter, in that of foot-soldiers, the study recommends steps that will help sanitize political activities and democratic practice in Ghana, and Africa as a whole. Keywords: Foot-soldier democratic development political activism Africanized French language linguistic hybridity characterisation language and style stigma of illiteracy-disenchantment

New Perspective on African Childhood : Constructions, Histories, Representations and Understanding, 2019

The authorial voice of child-narrators has often been used by novelists as a mark of objectivity ... more The authorial voice of child-narrators has often been used by novelists as a mark of objectivity and value judgment in fiction. Camara Laye and Ahmadou Kourouma are no exceptions in this respect. Many a time, the voice of a child-narrator is believed to be a voice of nothing but the truth, considering the naivety, innocence and mere ignorance narrative stance of a child. Moreover, that the authorial narrative is an eye-witness account of events akin to the lived-experiences of the narrator, it is difficult for anyone to contest the credibility of such an account to a large extent. The paper explores the impact of the interplay of African and Western child-socialization and de-socialization at work in Camara Laye’s L’Enfant noir (1954) translated into English as The African Child and The Dark Child , Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah n’est pas obligé, translated as Allah Is Not Obliged (2006). The paper seeks to establish the significance of African child-socialization in a harmonious African communal social setting in the former text, vis-à-vis that of African child de-socialization in a dysfunctional African individualistic social setting akin to the latter, in view of mending the broken value-fences around the African child. It critically examines the upbringing, roles and character of the two authorial child-narrators in the two narrative texts within the framework of socio-critique theory.