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Igbo Identity Disrupted: The Exponential Effects of Colonialism on Igbo People in Achebe’s African Trilogy
Litchfield-Tshabalala, Temashengu N.
Litchfield-Tshabalala, Temashengu N.
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Abstract
This thesis looks at the intersection of narrative and archiving in Chinua Achebe’s African Trilogy. Primarily detailing how the novels are archives of colonial history in Igboland from the late 19th century to the late 1950’s. Through textual analysis, the research highlights how colonialism affects psycho-social, cultural, linguistic, and identity politics for the Igbo. Drawing from post-colonial theory, historic records of British colonialism in Igboland and Nigeria, and linguistic theory, the paper illustrates how Achebe covertly and overtly alludes to the destruction of Igbo society’s socio-cultural construction, gender relations, philosophy, theology, linguistics, and epistemology. The Trilogy will be placed in conversation with wa Thiongo’s Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Achebe’s The Education of a British-Protected Child in order to contextualise the novels as not only post-colonial literature but also quasi-theoretical in how the narrative points to an analytical study of colonialism’s impact. Thus, positing that while the novels are works of fiction, their subject matter points towards cultural studies. Therefore, making them cardinal texts both in African literature and in decolonial studies.
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Thesis (B.A. in English Literature, Minor in Creative Writing & Communications)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.
Date
2025
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Keywords
Igbo (African people), Chinua Achebe
Citation
Litchfield-Tshabalala, Temashengu N. "Igbo Identity Disrupted: The Exponential Effects of Colonialism on Igbo People in Achebe’s African Trilogy". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.