Power Corruption in Es’kia Mphahlele’s Chirundu (1979)

Abstract

African politicians and writers were together in the fight for the sovereignty of their countries but soon after the independences, they parted. The point is that African politicians, who took over from the colonizers, disappointed their people by their governing system which was characterized by power abuse, corruption, dictatorship, ignorance of their populations’ expectations, injustice and immorality among other vices. Instead of really serving the masses, the new rulers were serving themselves. Thus, many novels appeared in the sixties and the seventies in which African writers criticized the disappointing behaviour of postcolonial African political leaders. One of these novels is Es’kia Mphahlele’s Chirundu (1979) where the author also denounces colonial rule. From a postcolonialist perspective, the paper explores power corruption in Mphahlele’s Chirundu. Based on postcolonialism, racism, sociology and culture as theories, the study will analyze on the one hand the denunciation of colonial rule and on the other hand the disappointing behaviour of African postcolonial rulers and its causes.