CONTESTED MEMORY AND WHITE MYTH IN ABDULRAZAK GURNAH’S ADMIRING SILENCE

History has often been shaped by popular narratives that aid to justify or reinforce the power structures of the time. Britishers established a dominant historical colonial narrative that portraits them as benevolent masters, who aimed to make the rest of the world civilized. However, with the advent of the "memory boom," writers from the Global South began to challenge these dominant narratives, bringing to light the experiences and perspectives of the colonized, which led to the emergence of counter-narratives. While South Africa has produced many notable writers addressing these themes, East African voices have been comparatively underrepresented. One such prominent voice is Abdulrazak Gurnah, the 2021 Nobel Prize winner. He is known for his acute explorations of African colonialism and its enduring legacies in contemporary times. In simple words, his writings feature the white ‘myth’ in ongoing postcolonial discourse. Hence, central to this inquiry is Gurnah’s Admiring Silence, this paper will explore the construction of the colonial myth and how it has become a permanent part of colonial collective memory. Additionally, this study will highlight the difference between the dominant narrative and the lived experiences of the colonized. Methodologically, this research draws on Roland Barthes' concept of myth as a socially constructed system of meaning and conduct a close literary analysis of the selected through memory perspective. Myths, in Barthes' percept, serve as tools of ideological control, presenting specific historical and cultural constructs as universal truths.