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The Anglophone Literary-Linguistic Continuum: English and Indigenous Languages in African Literary Discourse by Michael Andindilile

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The Anglophone Literary-Linguistic Continuum: English and Indigenous Languages in African Literary Discourse by Michael Andindilile The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse by Michael Andindilile TERMS of USE The African Humanities Program has made this electronic version of the book available on the NISC website for free download to use in research or private study. It may not be re- posted on book or other digital repositories that allow systematic sharing or download. For any commercial or other uses please contact the publishers, NISC (Pty) Ltd. Print copies of this book and other titles in the African Humanities Series are available through the African Books Collective. © African Humanities Program Dedication For my beloved parents: Mzee Andindilile Silisyene Mwalonde and Bibi Maria Nyala Jengela And my beloved family: My wife, Frida Mwakyambiki, daughters, Nelusigwe and Maria, and son, Bryan Andindilile About the Series The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality. Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript. The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world. The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa. AHP Editorial Board Members as at July 2017 AHP Series Editors: Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Consultant: Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology) Board Members: 1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa) 2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program) 3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies) 4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies) 5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory) 6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy) 7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History) 8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies) 9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology) 10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics) 11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology) Published in this series Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema, 2014 Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014 Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English, 2014 Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe, 2016 Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2017 THE ANGLOPHONE LITERARY- LINGUISTIC CONTINUUM: English and Indigenous Languages in African Literary Discourse MICHAEL ANDINDILILE Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za First edition, first impression 2018 Publication © African Humanities Program 2018 Text © Michael Andindilile 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-920033-23-1 (print) ISBN: 978-1-920033-24-8 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1 920033-25-5 (ePub) Manuscript mentor: Leonie Viljoen Project manager: Peter Lague Cover design: Advanced Design Group Cover photographs: Chinua Achebe (top left) ©ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo; Nadine Gordimer (top right) ©Motlhalefi Mahlabe / South Photographs / Africa Media Online; Nuruddin Farah (bottom left) © dpa picture alliance archive / Alamy Stock Photo; Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (bottom right) ©Agence Opale / Alamy Stock Photo Printed in South Africa by Digital Action The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition. Contents Acknowledgements ix Foreword xi Preface xiii CHAPTER 1 The case for an Anglophone African literary-linguistic continuum 1 Introduction 1 Historical roots of the African novel in Anglophone Africa 5 TheTower of Babel and the intricate African linguistic landscape 8 Africa and the compound, complex literary-linguistic situation 12 English as a vehicular language 14 Plurality in modern African literatures 17 Conclusion 23 CHAPTER 2 Achebe and Anglophone African literary discourse 25 Introduction 25 Traditional literary elements and Achebe’s aesthetics 28 Duality of purpose in Achebe’s literary-linguistic project 31 Beyond stereotyping: The implication of Achebe’s aesthetics 38 Conclusion 44 Notes 45 CHAPTER 3 Ngũgĩ, nativism, English and translingualism 47 Introduction 47 The original Anglophone project 52 Novels in transition: On the threshold to nativism 56 The Gikuyu project and translation 61 Conclusion 66 Note 67 vii CHAPTER 4 Gordimer, English, race and cross-cultural translation 68 Introduction 68 They ‘Spoke and Shouted in a Language [She] Didn’t Understand’ 71 ‘In the Safety of Their Own Language’ 76 ‘Speaking an African Language was Simply a Qualification’ 80 Conclusion 88 Note 89 CHAPTER 5 Farah, English and cosmopolitanism 90 Introduction 90 Farah’s literary-linguistic project 96 Intricacies of re-imagining the nation in a former colonial language 98 Cultural identification beyond linguistic expression 100 National mosaic 102 Language of violence and nationalistic discourse 104 Conclusion 108 Note 109 CHAPTER 6 Anglophonism, the novel and the African literary-linguistic continuum 110 Introduction 110 The African novel and the English ‘home’ in Africa 113 Bickerton’s theory and the African literary-linguistic continuum 117 Literary-linguistic continuum as a trajectory in modern African literatures 120 Conclusion 131 BIBLIOGRAPHY 133 INDEX 146 viii Acknowledgements The manuscript for this publication was prepared with the support of the African Humanities Fellowship Program established by the American Council of Learned Societies with a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This work is a culmination of the many efforts and contributions of numerous people and institutions. As an African Humanities Program (AHP) postdoctoral fellow, I took up residence at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University, Uganda, which enabled me to carry out additional research to update my readings for my monograph project that prepared ground for the development of this book. In this regard, I thank MISR for accommodating me at the Institute under the leadership of Mahmood Mamdani, its Executive Director. While there, I had access to resources and a stimulating intellectual environment that enriched my study. Furthermore, I am forever thankful to Leonie Viljoen, my manuscript mentor, who worked tirelessly with me to bring various strands of materials into a coherent book. She ensured that I remained on track whenever I was side-tracked. I also sincerely thank the AHP publication team for their invaluable support in the manuscript development process. However, although developed with the support of the African Humanities Fellowship Program, this book is a spin-off of my dissertation entitled ‘Reimagining African Communities: Achebe, Ngũgĩ, Gordimer,
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