The colonial cultural legacy and the postcolonial African novel : a plea for an afrocentric approach in the contemporary African educational system

الملخص EN

We contend that while Ayi Kwei Armah and Ngugi wa Thiong’o differ significantly from each other in terms of political conviction, they have both attempted to recapture a local national culture based on a constructed pre- colonial past, expressing an ever- increasing disillusionment with current political realities in their countries.

We maintain that both writers have diagnosed the ills of Africa and have prescribed the self-same cure.

The eurocentrism of Africa’s westernized elite is the colonial illness par excellence.

The cure is the re-Africanization and the rediscovery and expression of African values as an indispensable part of the decolonization process.

They suggest a reformed educational system and a revision of the teaching of humanities that centres on Africa in its form and content.