The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel: Quests for Meaningfulness, by Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba

Abstract

Two key events of a highly destructive nature that continue to instruct the literary imagination in postcolonial Africa are the civil war that occurred between the government of Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra (1966–1970) and the Rwandan genocide (1990–1994). In literary works and other artistic enterprises, such as films, these events continue to animate responses that are aimed at reconstruction projects and guided by visions of reconciliation. The problem is that the aftermath of mass atrocities is also a site logged with the complications of representational practice. This is the crucial task Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba takes on in The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel. There are politics, biases, and ideologies that evolve from such an embarkation. In order to make genocide thinkable, more limitations arise for us to deal with in the African literary field.