Aspects of Shakespeare in Post-Colonial Africa

These two contrasting views tap into deep structure of ideological conflict in which post-colonial Africa is embroiled. The opposition is far from absolute: there is very little evidence that post-colonial Africa has abandoned Shakespeare as an inappropriate relic of imperialism or a symptom of neocolonialism. Rather, demand has been to place African literature and culture at centre of attention, with metropolitan literature, including Shakespeare, relegated to margins and playing a more subservient role. Nevertheless, remarkable extent to which Shakespeare has survived is a cultural fact which invites interpretation and it may prove useful to suggest that controversies impinging on acceptance of Shakespeare generally reflect two contrasting ideological paradigms, or, alternatively, two different but related versions of African cultural nationalism. The twin germs of these two contrasting emphases in African cultural nationalism can be identified early and clearly in writings of Edward Blyden, the towering African intellectual of nineteenth century.] Blyden's ideas contributed greatly to historical roots of African Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Negritude, cause of West African unity (as championed by, among others, J.E. Casely Hayford) and 'back-to-Africa' movement, through Blyden's disciple Marcus Garvey. Never a political leader himself, he influenced many who were, including Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obefemi Owolowo of Nigeria. On one hand, Blyden's insistence on African education being grounded in Graeco-Roman heritage as common fount of modem world and his certainty that this education would minister to, and not overwhelm, genuinely African modes of creativity and inventiveness, provides a matrix for 'open' or liberal version of cultural nationalism. On other, his rejection for educational purposes of modern (post-medieval) western civilisation on grounds of its exploitation of black man, coupled with his vigorous resistance to contamination by European racial theories and a deep faith in African perceptions and creativity, make him a progenitor of 'closed', 'oppositional' or radical version of African cultural , I' 4 naliona tsm.