Abstract:
This study aims at demonstrating how a close analysis of linguistics features
in some African literary texts can contribute to the comprehension of power
relations and ideological expressions in discourse as depicted by the African
novelists: Chinua Achebe, Tayeb Salih and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The analysis
concentrates on the use of pronouns, speech acts, requests, models,
metaphors and diverse lexical choices. These linguistic aspects have been
chosen as primary tools for the analysis due to the fact that they are closely
related to the three types of constraints such as constraint on content or what
is said, relations, the social relations people enter into in discourse and
subjects or the subject positions people can occupy. The Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) has been adopted in response to such problems. It is the
main concern of (CDA) to study the minute details of linguistic structures in
light of social and historical situations of literary texts, to display to
consciousness the beliefs and values which are embedded in the language.
The study also adopted the content analysis as a method for collecting data
from the narratives; two instruments have been designed, one for
colonialism and decolonization processes and the other for the expression of
ideology in the works of African novelists mentioned earlier. The findings
revealed that 70% of linguistic expressions used by the colonial
administrator are in favour of the colonial power while 30% of linguistic
expressions used by Obierika are in favour of decolonization process.
However, in the second half of encounter, Obierika has used 66% of
linguistic expressions, which were in favour of the decolonization process.
This clearly signals the shift of power to Obierika groups; it is the power of
the African traditional beliefs.
