Colonialism and The Loss of African Identity as Portrayed in Some Selected African Novels

Abstract

The African literature represents the writings of African national livings on African soil reflecting the African native issues related to culture and identity. This study aims at investigating the impact of Colonialism on the African culture, traditions and writings, developing EFL Learners’ critical understanding of the African literary texts, investigating the sociocultural and political themes in Things fall, promoting awareness of differences in identity as African citizens to focus on their separate identity and motivating EFL learners through reading the African literature. The study adopts the descriptive and analytical method. The data for the study were collected by through critical analysis of some samples in African literature of Achebe’s text “Things Fall Apart” and Patton’s text “Cry the Beloved Country”. The results indicate that: African literature shows the impact of colonization on the native African people, the African writers use their literary fiction to identify their identity and culture, the Europeans brings a new type of education which related leads to coming of Christianity. Things Fall apart is a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding, Things Fall Apart and Cry the Beloved Country the writers open the world eyes to see the valuable culture of Africa through telling the reality and characteristics of Africa and its people. The language used in The novel Cry the Beloved Country reflects social reality. The recommends: EFL learners should gain cultural background about the African literature. English language learners should have a thorough knowledge about impact of European colonization on the African societies. African literature should be taught in EFL settings . EFL learners should be encouraged to develop cross cultural understanding through reading African literature, English language students should be motivated through literary texts, Activities of literary analysis should be practiced in EFL classes. Literary texts should be interpreted with a critical eye so as to gain a deep knowledge about African culture and traditions.