Houseboy Within the novel Houseboy, a young African boy, Toundi Ondoua, forced, as well as having an option to flee away from home due to his father’s excessive brutality, fled into the arms of a priest, Father Gilbert. Ondoua who served white colonizers in the Cameroons under Father Gilbert, portrays the plight of severe brutality and subjugation under the control of colonial authority. During these early times, colonial ruling played an important role in the African community. Disobeying his father, superiority showed the desire of Ondoua to “follow the white man”, even though he was from the African descendent. Ondoua is trying to cope with adolescent struggles with his father at home as well as trying to figure himself out as he transfers …show more content…
Christian paternalism is a view of the way that Christianity was brought about to the Africans. Through treats, such as the sugar lumps, and with threats of eternal damnation, made them become more involved with the religion which made them stay. Also, if a Christian decides to misbehave, not merely but somewhat consequential, the Europeans would beat them. Religion played a huge part of the death of Gilbert which made people classify him as a martyr, only because his death occurred in Africa. Preceding in the death of Father Gilbert, Ondoua’s life begin to rapidly change before him, and the destruction of Ondoua’s innoncence died along with Father Gilbert. This makes Ondoua more aware of the hypocritical things the French colonists are performing. After Ondoua was transferred to the Commandant, he noticed that he was uncircumcised, which did not go along with the Christian religion, as well as the Cameroonian tradition of becoming a man. After going through his second death, due to the embarrassment he felt for his master along with the other white men of the land, Ondoua overcame the prior sense of fear from the Commandant and others that he had. The Commandant would sometimes portray the act of racism and classism, while the colonial masters threw off a sense of childish, selfish ways towards Ondoua and other
When the western missionaries first arrived in his Motherland, he was against their religion and presence in the clan, but his son, Nwoye, decided to ap...
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
Contrary to his own experiences with the French Jesuit missionaries’ educational methods, Malidoma invokes his audience in the first part of his story through an innocence in tone and a profoundness in concept. This statement also parallels the plight of African indigenous culture in the presence of the white man. To be more specific, Malidoma explained that the Western world seemed to attack the traditions of Africa or several countries, which the white man did not understand. Although they feared much of the white man’s culture, Africans tended to accept the non-threatening aspects of other cultures as different and even tried to incorporate ideas into their own lives. Malidoma himself went even further in this approach by being educated in both societies. In his life, he has tried to understand the motives and values of both cultures, point out the differences, and even draw out some parallels in the two. Malidoma recognizes the equality of importance of both cultures. Of Water and Spirit seems to be his way of trying to instill this same recognition to other...
History shows that both Africans and African Americans alike faced unique problems prior to and during the 1800's, particularly prior to 1865. One such problem is the issue of Diaspora and how culture and slavery has affected the choice of religion. It is the purpose of this paper to expose comparatively the extent to which individuals have been influenced by these issues. One such individual is Olaudah Equiano. By following and analyzing some of the key moments of faith in his life, this paper seeks to expose the extent to which the series of controversial dialectical incidents that happen throughout his early life, i.e., his cultural African religious traditions (thesis), and Christianity as taught by his slave masters (antithesis), had a direct influence in developing his own understanding of religion (synthesis). Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate Olaudah Equiano's decision was based on the impact of both the influences of culture and slavery, and a personal experience based on his perspective of divine intervention.
Although, the Civil war brought about change for Africans, along with this change it brought heart ache, despair and restriction of worship to the African...
He makes connections between himself and an African woman carrying a vase on her head when he performs a similar action, “My only option was to carry mattress on my head, like an African woman gracefully walking with a vase of water balanced on her head…” This isn’t the only time he makes a reference to African culture: he points out the difficult to pronounce African name of one of the neighbor’s sons and goes on to identify him by said description. When he is shunned, he draws a parallel to American explorers on foreign land, emphasising how much of an outsider he feels himself to be, as quoted above. He even calls himself “pale”, as if his light skin is a negative, unsightly
The Olaundah Equiano narrative is a view of servitude from a former captive himself. He begins his story in Africa from the land of Esska, his native homeland. He describes his tribe and all the many traditions they practiced as a way of living. Equiano was not originally born into servitude but a free male, son of a chief. Equiano’s life in Africa was common among the many members of his tribe. He was strongly attached to his mother and clenched to her as much as possible. His father obtained many slaves himself, but treated them like an equal part of the family. Equiano lived a common life in African society, until one day his destiny took an unexpected turn for the worst and life would never be the same.
Olaudah Equiano in his Interesting Narrative is taken from his African home and thrown into a Western world completely foreign to him. Equiano is a slave for a total of ten years and endeavors to take on certain traits and customs of Western thinking. He takes great pains to improve himself, learn religion, and adopt Western mercantilism. However, Equiano holds on to a great deal of his African heritage. Throughout the narrative, the author keeps his African innocence and purity of intent; two qualities he finds sorely lacking in the Europeans. This compromise leaves him in a volatile middle ground between his adapted West and his native Africa. Olaudah Equiano takes on Western ideals while keeping several of his African values; this makes him a man associated with two cultures but a member of neither.
In L'aventure ambiguë, the colonization of Senegal by the French have led to different and often conflicting views from different characters, clashes of different cultures and practices of religion, as well as the education that was provided by the Diallobé and from the new foreign schools. These few examples are useful in explaining the term victim', i.e. what he is a victim of, and later on how these forces may have influenced him over the course of the story. To simplify this essay, my essay will be focused mainly on Westernisation' and 'Africanism', as I believe that all these factors come under those headings.
Richard Wright’s “Big Boy Leaves Home” addresses several issues through its main character and eventual (though reluctant) hero Big Boy. Through allusions to survival and primal instincts, Wright confronts everything from escaping racism and the transportation (both literal and figurative) Big Boy needs to do so, as well as the multiple sacrifices of Bobo. Big Boy’s escape symbolizes both his departure from his home life and his childhood. Big Boy, unlike his friends, does not have a true name. This namelessness drives his journey, and Big Boy is constantly singled out in one way or another. The moniker ‘Big Boy’ is a contradiction—is he a large boy or is he a grown man?—and drives all of Big Boy’s actions. Throughout the story he hinges between childhood and adulthood, and his actions vary depending on which side he falls on at that exact moment.
In The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates several factors contributing to an individual’s life, such as the struggle faced by settling immigrant families and their growing second-generation children. Lahiri develops the fundamental idea that the absence of strong roots heavily affects an individual’s identity. This is clearly depicted through Gogol and the conflict he faces with his identity, the central theme and the symbolism found in Gogol’s names.
History has been told through various forms for decades. In the past, history was more commonly expressed through word of mouth, but more recently in the past century, through written text. While textbooks and articles give formal information with little to no bias, novels give a completely new perspective from the people who experienced it themselves. The Novels, God’s Bits of Wood, written by Sembene Ousmane, and No Longer at Ease, by Chinua Achebe give a more personal account of the effects of colonization. These two novels tackle the British and French method of colonization. God’s Bits of Wood takes place in the late 1940s and sheds light on the story of the railroad strike in colonial Senegal. The book deals with different ways that the Senegalese and Malians respond to colonialism during that time. No Longer at Ease is set in the 1950s and tells the early story of British colonialism and how the Nigerians responded to colonization. Comparing the two novels, there are obvious similarities and differences in the British and French ways of rule. African authors are able to write these novels in a way that gives a voice to the people that are most commonly silenced during colonialism. This perspective allows readers to understand the negative ways that colonization affects the colonized. Historical fiction like God’s Bits of Wood and No Longer at Ease are good educational tools to shed light on the history and effects of colonization, but they do not provide a completely reliable source for completely factual information.
Also, as many of the natives ran to the new Christian faith, many family bonds were broken. Before colonialism took place, family was an important thing in the Igbo society. It was not often that a man would give his son away for any reason, but because of the English coming in and teaching a new faith, many families were forced to give up their sons, daughters, and even some men were forced to give up their wives. The new religion also affected the way certain customs took place in the Igbo society. An example would be when one of the newly converted Christians killed the highly honored snake.
In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe we are given insight into what life was like before and during the European, imperialist land grab of africa. In this essay I will discuss how the christian missionaries tried to convert the native African population to christianity and what made some of the villagers join the christian missionaries in converting their fellow clansmen. We will also examine how Europeans used a combination of fear and cooperation to successfully convert the native population to christianity.
Houseboy a novel written by Ferdinand Oyono is an anti-colonial novel. This novel is written in a diary form from the view of Toundi. Toundi is the main character and through his life experiences Oyono reveals the truth about the colonialists which were the French. The novel starts with Toundi on his deathbed and then he later recalls the events that caused him to be there. The aim of this essay to answer the question to what extent is Houseboy a critic of the colonial legacy in Africa.