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West African Authors and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

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West African Authors and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Breaking the Silence: West African Authors and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Georgia Axiotou Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh September 2008 C o n t e n t s Acknowledgements v Abstract ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 15 The Return of the Footnoted: Diasporic Hauntings in Syl Cheney Coker’s The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar Chapter 2 57 Towards a “Theatre of Impossible Forgiveness”: Ama Ata Aidoo and The Dilemma of Slavery Chapter 3 95 Remember to Remember by Negation: Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments Chapter 4 149 The Bodies of Slavery in Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave Girl Afterword 197 Bibliography 201 v A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s These acknowledgements should be read as traces that reveal both presences, these overwhelming presences that undo the myth of a Ph.D as a lonely road, but also absences, my multiple absences from a number of sites, events, and roles. Needless to mention that this thesis wouldn’t have been completed if the presences hadn’t endured and forgiven my absences. This project became possible thanks to a studentship by the College of Literatures, Languages and Cultures of Edinburgh University. There, in the English Department, I had the “fortune” to be under the supervision of Michelle Keown; if it was not for her constant encouragement, endless reservoir of faith and unswerving belief in my potential this thesis would never have been completed. Her meticulous editing of drafts after drafts, under the tightest possible deadlines, with care and patience; her genuine interest in this thesis; and her acts of “mothering”—in the most political and radical sense of this term—can not be properly acknowledged here. I also owe much to Simon Malpas, my second supervisor, for challenging me during my first year to make my language and arguments available to the average reader; for never losing his sense of humour; and, for sustaining my love for theory. I wish to express my warmest thanks for his comments on parts of this thesis, and his valuable support and encouragement on a number of occasions. Two generous research grants from Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities and Small Project Grants of Edinburgh University made possible my 2 month research trip to the University of Ghana. I am thankful to the “anonymous” members of both committees for deeming my project worthy of support. While in Ghana George Edisson, of the International Office, proved to be an amazing host, for he had the courage to introduce me to the “unhomely” sites of Accra. Equally, I am indebted to the staff of Padmore Library in Accra for easing, with their assistance, expertise and kindness, my research. Of course, I am really indebted to Dr. Yaw Asante for embracing me, and introducing me to Ama Ata Aidoo. I can’t do justice in these acknowledgements to the amount of generosity, insight and inspiration our meetings brought to this thesis; I just hope I have done, at least, justice to her text. vi Sections of this study have appeared, or are about to appear, in (M)Othering the Nation: Constructing and Resisting National Allegories through the Maternal Body (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008), and in Synthesis (October 2008). I am grateful to editors and all the reviewers for their generous comments. Many thanks, too, to the Post- graduate office for funding my participation to a number of conferences, and to Ms. Kate Marshall for being patient and understanding. Anne Masson and Catherine Williamson, of the undergraduate office, have achieved the impossible: to bring sun-shine in Edinburgh, in winter, and during periods of essay marking, and this invaluable. While working at the Main Library, my colleagues have been helpful and obliging on a number of occasions. I would like to express my gratitude to Kate Macgregor for being flexible when I had to be absent due to overload of work; Duncan Macguer and Robin Oliver Campbell have done their best to do shelving in the morning a fun experience; Marjorie has been extremely helpful and willing to bend the rules at moments of crisis, and Allan has been caring and considerate like a father figure. I would like to identify all the wonderful students I have worked with over the last three years, and have offered me on a number of occasions “ways out” of this thesis, but there are really too many. Still Claire Roberts, Anna Halliday, Brendan Perring, Jennie Smith and Heloise Allan, my “first born” children as I call them, have contributed “unknowingly” to the writing of this thesis; I would like to thank them all warmly for asking the “how is the thesis going” taboo-question every time we meet; for disagreeing and challenging me inside, and outside, the classroom; and for showing me that there are people who don’t have to be introduced to French philosophers to start “re-thinking the thinking”. In addition, if it was not for their demanding presences that forced me to stretch my teaching techniques to the limits, I would never had come with the proposal that granted me the Aluka Award for Innovative Teaching. Of course, this thesis wouldn’t have been completed if I was not surrounded by a group of wonderful people, who have been bringing magic to my life the last years. Life in the flat wouldn’t have been the same without the “elfish” presence of Caitlin; I can’t thank her enough for making the sur-real quotidian and for assisting me thoroughly the last crazy months of this thesis. Many thanks to Tony for always “theorizing”; paradoxically enough, his love for Deleuze has made me appreciate more and more vii Derrida, but this keeps the discussion/debate going, no? Life in Edinburgh would have been nothing but another mere life if it was not for Nikos, the most wonderfully ex- centric person, who never forgets to smile, and who lives through “giving”. My sweetest possible thanks to Penny for all the surprises she has brought, and brings, into my life; for all the amazing dinners in her flat; and for escorting me in numerous day-dreamings. To Stella, a dear friend and flatmate, thanks for all the sharing, thanks for reading many parts of this thesis and always encouraging me, and, most importantly, thanks for the rare “gift” of a true friendship, without shadows. To Vangelis thanks for the endless discussions on modernism and post-modernism, for all the music, and for being there last summer, when the city was empty. To Maria (the neighbour), Vangelis (the neighbour) and Elpida thanks for all the cheerful and uplifting moments and for dragging me out of my theoretical mantras. To Raj and Sasha I am indebted for being always there to support and encourage me when my confidence was below zero and for being best companions in celebrations. To Antonis many thanks for reminding me that simple things like whistling, singing, and funny e-mails can bring happiness. To Stefanos, apart from tons of apologies for all the waiting(s), I owe my gratitude for making me feel this that cannot be spent; (not in the negative, but only and always in the affirmative): with you everything. Not least, I want to express my profound gratitude to Assimina Karavanta, a mentor and friend, for all the “gifts” she has brought in my life through her teaching, writings and conversations. Her passion for “the pursue of the political” has shaped my thinking, reading and writing, and her “care and responsibility” has haunted my life in the most positive way. Finally, this thesis would never have been taken up if I hadn’t grown up in an environment where the “other” could dwell. My parents, Matina and Manolis, and my brother, Stelios are everywhere in this thesis, and particularly, whenever concepts such as “mothering” and “forgiveness” are mentioned, for I would never have believed in these concepts’ political power and gravity if I hadn’t been “mothered” and “forgiven” by these people. I owe them much more than this, and I will always be in debt. ix A b s t r a c t This thesis explores how Syl Cheney Coker’s The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990), Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1964), Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments (1970), and Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave Girl (1979) respond to the need to revisit and re-think the history of transatlantic slavery. The texts of these four contemporary West African authors provide symptomatic instantiations of the problematic of writing silence, and narrating a history whose archives are impossible to fully retrieve. By attending to the violence and silencing committed on the history of slavery, as well as the difficulty of writing, and narrating, history from the perspective of silence all the texts considered in this study perform acts of resistance against the forgetting enacted in and among their communities, and the silencing of colonial modernity, which has turned the history of transatlantic trade into a footnote. Although, all four authors come from different historical specificities and localities, and, thus, the ways they stage slavery in their narratives are informed by the local/historical urgencies they encounter in each contemporary political context, each, within their respective domain, provides powerful and influential examples of undoing historical silences and absences, not by imposing voices or presences, but by tracing the voids/gaps in the historical representation of slavery. The silent, but not silenced stories of the slave trade that these authors narrate in their attempts to speak to the history of slavery bring dis/order to the national and communal milieu, by unsettling a number of myths such as this of ethnic purity (Coker); of ideal “homes” for the diaspora (Aidoo); of national revolutions that putatively disrupt the colonial past (Armah); and of communal/national discourses that include the gendered racialised subaltern (Emecheta).
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