Browsing by Author "Njoya, Wandia Mwende"

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    Curriculum Reforms in Kenya
    (eScholarship, 2018) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
    The government seeks to replace the current system, in which children spend 8 years in primary school, 4 years in secondary school, and 4 years in university, with a new system in which chil dren spend 6 years in primary school, 3 years in junior secondary, 3 years in senior secondary and 3 years at university. So the gov ernment is misleading people by calling this a curriculum reform, when it is a much bigger and more radical change going on
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    In search of El Dorado? The experience of migration to France in contemporary African novels
    (CreateSpace Independent, 2007-05) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
    Literary criticism of recent novels about the theme of migration to France often fails to take into account both the reality and experiences of migrants. Worse, critics tend to minimize both the role of French imperialism and the strength of African cultures as they read these works. Their analyses raise the broad question of just how African migration literature can be interpreted to reflect the social realities which frame the action of the protagonists who are most vulnerable to France's contradictory immigration policies. Drawing on the concept of tragedy as both a genre and as a philosophical framework, I analyze four novels that convey the stories of francophone African immigrants to Europe. These are Fatou Diome’s Le Ventre de l’Atlantique, Alain Mabanckou’s Bleu Blanc Rouge, Bessora’s 53 cm and Nathalie Etoké’s Un amour sans papiers. The study reveals that the novels’ characters, style and narrative progression indicate the authors’ attempt to simultaneously articulate the suffering of poorer African migrants and appeal to the Republic to redress it. The search for a middle ground between Africa and France minimizes the Republic’s pursuit of power at the cost of African lives. This result contradicts the tragic imperative that the powerful actors receive blame for the suffering of the most vulnerable members of society. The unsuccessful attempt at neutrality also reflects the paradoxical situation of Africans who use the French language to articulate the dilemmas in which the Republic is heavily implicated. This study thus proposes a model of criticism that acknowledges the role of migrant experiences, African traditions and critics’ personal inclinations in the experience of and narratives about migration to France. It complements works by Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon and Lewis Gordon that call on intellectuals to accept their implication in pressing social issues and to situate events on a global stage. The study also emphasizes the need to include a range of social, historical and environmental factors in determining the causes of injustice. Above all, it presents reality based criticism as an alternative to literary criticism dominated by theoretical concerns that often minimize the challenges of every day life.
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    Interview: Curriculum Reforms in Kenya
    (Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 2018) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
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    On Mariama Bâ's novels, stereotypes, and silence
    (Duke University Press, 2007) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
    The title of this article is borrowed from Trudier Harris’s essay that analyzes the reception of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Harris argues that Walker had been chosen by the one-track-minded American media, which, “by its very racist nature, seems able to focus on only one black writer at a time.” The publicity had in turn created “a cadre of spectator readers . . . who do not identify with the characters and who do not feel the intensity of their pain, [but] stand back and view the events of the novel as a circus of black human interactions.” Harris suggests that the acclaim Walker’s novel received had discouraged critics from writing critical reviews, even though the characters appeared implausible against the historical background and experience of black Americans. I raise similar concerns about the increasing critical focus on Mariama Bâ’s novels, particularly Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter). Bâ’s fi rst of two novels is currently about the most popular African woman-authored novel in the United States and is featured in reading lists of courses that range from French to African and women’s studies. However, there is little or uneasy acknowledgment that Bâ and her characters represent a small and privileged section of African societies or that her women have condescending views of African traditions consistent with colonial ideologies. The few critics who have been categorical about this reality have been criticized for ignoring the colonial masculine privilege. Between them and those who read Bâ’s work as an expression of a feminist consciousness, the intricacies and the human complexities in the narrative are minimized, while the biases and assumptions behind the popularity of the work remain unquestioned. In this article, I argue that the popularity of Bâ’s novel rides on stereotypes of African cultures as inimical to love, individual fulfillment, and monogamy. I trace these images to the imperial framework and locate them in the criticism of her work.
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    Postcolonial Francophone Autobiographies: From Africa to the Antilles
    (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2012) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
    One of the postcolonial issues that cannot be skirted is that of the readership of writings by Africans in colonial languages. Ngugi wa Thiong’o famously addressed this issue in 1987, after which he shifted to writing in Gikuyu. Ngugi’s view on language created discomfort among many writers and critics and attracted accusations of isolationism. However, others have since adopted his view; for example, Boubacar Boris Diop turned to writing in Wolof. Edgar Sankara plunges into these choppy linguistic waters with his analysis of autobiographies written in French after the 1960s by writers from Africa and the Antilles. His book exhibits a transnational and transcontinental character in that it studies an impressive and diverse array of writers including Hampâté Bâ, the Malian who spent the latter part of his life in Côte d’Ivoire; Valentin Mudimbé, a Congolese professor resident in the United States; Kesso Barry, a woman born in Guinea Conakry and residing in France; the Martinicans Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant; and, lastly, Maryse Condé, the female Guadeloupian novelist now residing in the United States.
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    The Nobel Prizes, Racism and the Economy of Prestige
    (Codesria Bulletin, 2020) Njoya, Wandia Mwende