Coming Back!

Three rich literary texts have given us the chance to observe another topic: the dilemma between preserving our roots or becoming a global citizen. The Return by Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Another fools' day touches down: shush and These too are our elders by Jack Mapanje.

In The Return, the sensation that everything changes is vivid when we see the main character coming back after a five-year absence. He, attached to his roots, expected everything remains the same but, to his surprise, nothing was the same in his hometown. Human beings change everyday and nobody can stop that. That is why, it seems absurd to see people who are stubborn and pretend nothing changes around them. These people are condemned to failure. In the poem, Another fool's day touches down, the return of one person is portrayed and this return is also marked by changes. But in this case, the person that is coming back is the one who has changed, we are talking of an individual whose distance has affected his point of view, his values, his beliefs, his customs and habits. He has adopted exotic ways and people from his own group react against these changes. It is again this fight against what is ours and what is external; and this person, has become an external element of this community. In the poem These too are our elders, this confrontation between the original roots and the external factors is presented, between the traditional and the new, between the parochial and the global is presented.

It is interesting that the setting of the three literary texts are presumably Africa in relative recent times. However, the ideas presented in the three texts may be seen in any other part of the world since no people of the world escapes today from these conflicts.

Coming to Terms with Heritage and Self.

Postcolonial literature is an important part of contemporary literature. A great diversity of colonized peoples accounts for differences in their nature and in their traditions. Their individual and cultural identities are still being developed. Having a mixture of customs, languages and other cultural aspects from the colonizing and the colonized, their culture is considered Hybrid. Their literature conveys their search towards understanding their cultural and self identity.

The literary works that were to be discussed this week in our seminar address issues related to cultural hybridity. Jack Mapanje's poems are true examples of this feature. In Another Fools's Day touches down: shush , the speaker returns from from graduate school to his village, noticing the changes he has gone through. He acknowledges the cultural differences that now exist between his people and himself. Moving on to the next poem, in These Too Are Our Elders, the speaker seems to be haunted by an ancestral spirit who questions his hybrid cultural practice, as the speaker, most likely male, now works in a position once owned by the White, and which originally would have been the function of the elder; the guidance of his people. The speaker's schooling, along with other alien ways is criticized by the haunting spirit. The latter, could be said to symbolize the speaker's own conscience, influenced by his people's cultural heritage, which makes him ponder about his deeds in relation to his people's beliefs. In a similar line of thought, The Return, by Ngugi Wa' Thiong'o, narrates the story of a boy who had become a political prisoner and returned to his village, now as a man, only to find out that his wife had left him and that he was not even expected back. Life, customs, and even the location of the village had changed while he had been away. The idea of dynamic cultural development is suggested in this, as well as the previous texts.

In the literary works that are considered postcolonial, the individual judges society and its beliefs, and at the same time society judges the individual in relation to his or her commitment to cultural traditions. Changes from what these Peoples were, what they became and what they are now will surely be present in most of these works. The difficulties that arise for both society and the individual in a climate of cultural hybridity make up an important part of the issues addressed by postcolonial literature.

BeInG a WoMaN

What does being a woman mean? Why so much noise? A woman is, just like any other living entity. Why are women special?
Womanhood is definitely one of the contemporary topics. There are historical, social and cultural reasons for it to be a still ongoing topic. The explanation of those reasons would take too long so we will focus directly on what we have. Three literary texts, one point in common. Phenomenal Woman, Sex without Love and Burn Sugar. In these three texts, the authors developed the idea of portraying a woman as she is, looking at essence rather than appearance. What is a woman made of?. Phenomenal Woman is a poem that shows a powerful and attractive woman, not because she fits in the stereotyping image of a woman (body without brain) but because she is worthy in herself. In Sex without Love, the author criticizes people (men and women) who use their body as an instrument of pleasure for the sake of pleasure, not for the sake of love. In the short story Burn Sugar the essence is revealed. How women's traditions pass from one generation to the next one. Things, that seem meaningless, are valuable in a woman's heart. For some women, the kitchen becomes a school of life.
We may conclude of the three literary texts that there is at least one clear message: Being a woman goes beyond physical appearance and superficialities, it is rather what we have in essence.

Proud of Who We Are, Indeed!

We should always be proud of being a woman. Although some men think, we cannot be considered as equals, we should prove them wrong. Sorry! we can´t say, we should prove them wrong, because we have already proven them who we really are. No matter where we are, no matter where we come from, we will always be "phenomenal woman" In her poem Maya Angelou´s speaker talks about the beauty she has. Although she is not beautiful on the outside, she says men, actually, swarn around her, a hive of honey bees, she says. She broadly expresses that sometimes men wonder what they see in her, but one thing is for sure they won´t get to her inner mystery. That is what makes a woman PHENOMENAL, her inner side. Angela Angelou Marlene Noubese Philip and Sharon Olds are contemporary writers trying to express,through their literary texts, the beauty, the free female sexuality and the struggle of a phenomenal woman. So, we, women, must be proud of ourselves indeed!